Q&A: Uniqueness in the Laws of a Jewish Holiday?
Uniqueness in the Laws of a Jewish Holiday?
Question
Hello and blessings, Rabbi Michi, may he live long and well.
I notice, in the passages dealing with the prohibition of labor on a Jewish holiday, and especially in the interpretation and halakhic rulings of the medieval authorities (Rishonim), a certain confusion. It is not really clear what the rules are for determining which labors are forbidden on a Jewish holiday, and whether at the Torah level there is already a distinction between the labors based on the scriptural derivations, or by the law itself. Or perhaps the Sages established it altogether—and if so, was it something that Scripture handed over to the Sages, or a rabbinic enactment?
I have a feeling that in fact the Sages shaped the direction of the laws of a Jewish holiday more than they shaped the Sabbath (perhaps you thought about this while learning tractate Shabbat) and other areas of law.
So my questions are: A. what do you say about this?
B. In any case, do you remember other topics where this is the case (beyond the discussion in places where it is said that Scripture handed it over to the Sages, and they disagreed about its force)?
Thank you very much.
Answer
This is too general a question, and it is very difficult for me to answer it. Do you mean the distinction between labor for food preparation and occupational labor? In principle, the definitions on the Sabbath and on a Jewish holiday are similar. “Scripture handed it over to the Sages” is usually said about the intermediate days of a festival.
Beyond that, what does it mean that the Sages shaped this more or less than elsewhere? All the Jewish law we have was shaped by the Sages. Was the list of labors and their subcategories on the Sabbath not shaped by them? And I don’t mean only that—what about indirect causation, atypical performance, unintentional versus intentional violation, a labor not needed for its own purpose, destructive action, and the like—were these not shaped by the Sages? “Mountains hanging by a hair,” as the Mishnah in Chagigah says.
If you want to discuss it, you need to raise a more concrete question.
Discussion on Answer
So what is the question?
Seven labors were permitted on a Jewish holiday for the sake of food preparation, and they are: a) kneading, b) baking and cooking, c) slaughtering, d) skinning, e) carrying, f) kindling, g) extinguishing. (And the Sages restricted the permission of kindling and extinguishing.)
And there are labors that, so long as they are done in the way people ordinarily do them at home, are permitted; but when they are done in the manner they are done for commercial purposes or for many days, they are forbidden. These are: a) grinding, b) selecting, c) gathering into piles.
And there are labors by which food is prepared that are absolutely forbidden, and these are: a) harvesting, b) threshing (including extracting and squeezing), c) winnowing, d) trapping.
*(Rabbinic prohibitions established as a safeguard around the labors were sometimes permitted for the sake of food preparation.)
What I mean is two difficulties that come up here. One is the force of it: one early authority wrote that it is Torah-level, another that it is rabbinic, others wrote that Scripture handed it over to the Sages, and others mixed these categories together. The second difficulty, which of course depends on the first, is the rules: which labors were permitted? The medieval authorities (Rishonim) struggled with this a great deal.
For example, on the Sabbath it seems that the majority principle is that labor is forbidden, and the discussions are about what is included in the forbidden labors. But what is the rule on a Jewish holiday—labor for food preparation? It is pretty clear that it is not only that. And also, what is included in labor for food preparation?