פירוש על שבת 22:4

לתוך הבור – where there is no water in it.

Introduction The first half of this mishnah deals with preserving the coolness or heat of cooked dishes or water. The second half deals with someone whose clothes got wet and how she may dry them without transgressing the prohibition of squeezing out the water.

שיהא שמור – that it will not smell badly on account of the heat, and this comes to teach us that we don’t worry perhaps that he will make indentations in the bottom of the well in order that it will it will be even to place there the pot.

One may place a cooked dish in a pit for it to be guarded; One can put a cooked dish into the ground in order to protect it from the heat (the ground will keep the dish cool). The Talmud explains that the point of the mishnah is to teach us that we are not concerned lest she come to fill a hole in the ground, an activity which would be prohibited on Shabbat.

ואת המים היפים – that is fit for drinking.

And good water into foul water for it to be cooled; or cold water in the sun for it to be heated. If one has a pitcher of good warm water and a larger container (tub, perhaps) of warm foul water, one may place the pitcher in the tub so that the good water will cool off. It is obvious that this is permitted since this isn’t in any way cooking. The mishnah teaches the first section to introduce the next clause in which we learn that one can place a pitcher of cool water in the sun in order for the water to warm up. Other versions of the mishnah read that one may place a pitcher of cold water into a larger container of hot water. The point of the mishnah is to teach that we are not concerned lest this leads a person to think that it is permitted to cook on Shabbat.

ברעים – within the collection of bad waters which are not fit for drinking, and this is a simple matter, for on account the of the end of the Mishnah, he (i.e., the teacher of the Mishnah) took it, as it is taught in the Mishnah: “and cold water into hot water in order that it should become warm” for you might have thought that we would have made a decree lest we come to hide it in hot ashes; hence it comes to tell you that this is not the case.

One whose clothes fell into water on the road may walk in them without concern. When he reaches the outer courtyard he may spread them out in the sun, but not in sight of the people. If a person’s clothes become wet while walking on the road on Shabbat, she may not just squeeze the water out of them because squeezing water out of something is prohibited on Shabbat. The mishnah teaches that she may continue to wear the clothes and if by walking or sitting she causes the water to be squeezed out then it is a by-product of normal activity and it is not forbidden. Others explain that the mishnah teaches that she need not be concerned lest others think she laundered her clothes on Shabbat. However, once she reaches the outer courtyard of the city, meaning the first courtyard she finds, she should take off her wet clothes (obviously not if this will leave her naked in public) and she may spread them out so that they may dry. She shouldn’t spread them out so that others see what she is doing lest others think that she did her laundry on Shabbat.

מי שנשרו [כליו] – that fell in the water on the Sabbath.

מהלך עמהן ואינו חושש – lest they should suspect hm that he laundered them.

הגיע לחצר החיצונה – that is near the entrance of the sit which is a guarded place.

שוטחן בחמה – to dry them.

אבל לא כנגד העם – for they would suspect him that he laundered them, but this Mishnah is superseded/made inoperative, since the Halakha in our hands is that anything that the Sages forbade because of avoiding the semblance of wrong-doing (i.e., for appearance sake – see Talmud Betzah 9a), even in the strictest privacy, it is forbidden; therefore, it is forbidden to spread them out even not in the view of other people.