Commento su Shabbat 3:1

כירה – a place made on the ground open to two pots and fire passes underneath the two pots.

Introduction Yesterday’s mishnah ended with a halakhah concerning covering hot food before Shabbat so that it would stay hot during Shabbat. Our mishnah continues to discuss halakhot of a similar nature. This mishnah refers to leaving a dish of cooked food on a stove during Shabbat in a case where it was put there before Shabbat. The potential problem here is not the prohibited labor of cooking, since the dish is already cooked. Rather the problem is that he might rake the coals to make them get hotter and raking coals is prohibited because it lights a fire.

בגבבא – thin wood like straw that they gather/rake in from the field.

If a double stove was heated with stubble or straw, they may put a cooked dish on it. If a dish of cooked food was put on a stove before Shabbat it is permitted to leave it on the stove during Shabbat as long as the stove was heated with stubble or straw. Since stubble and straw do not become coals, there is no fear that a person may come to rake coals.

נותנים עליה תבשיל – from the eve of the Sabbath (i.e., Friday) to tarry there on Shabbat.

If it was heated with peat or wood, one may not place [a dish on it] until he sweeps it out or covers it with ashes. If the stove was heated with peat or wood, then the dish may not be left on it during Shabbat. Peat is refuse left over from olive production and it was used in cooking. Both peat and wood turn into coals and therefore if she doesn’t do some sort of preparation to the stove before Shabbat we are concerned lest she come to rake them on Shabbat, a prohibited act. What she needs to do is either remove the coals or cover them with ashes so that they will cool down and she will not come to rake them on Shabbat.

גפת – refuse of olives and sesame (see Talmud Shabbat 47b) after the oil is pressed out.

Bet Shammai says: hot water, but not a dish; And Bet Hillel says: both hot water and a dish. The debates in this section and in the next refer to cases where it is permitted to leave food on the stove. Bet Shammai says it is permitted to leave only hot water but not a dish of cooked food. Bet Shammai holds that since people really want their food to be cooked the halakhah is more stringent for food than it is for water. Bet Hillel says that the halakhah is the same for both food and water.

לא יתן – from the eve of the Sabbath in order to have it tarry there on Shabbat.

Bet Shammai says: one may remove it, but not put it back; But Bet Hillel says: one may even put it back. Bet Shammai says that it is permitted to leave the water on the stove but if she takes it off she may not put it back. Bet Shammai thinks that putting it back on the stove looks too much like cooking. Bet Hillel holds that it is permitted even to put the water or food back.

עד שיגרוף – the coals and remove them from the double oven.

או שיתן האפר – on top of the coals to cover them and cool them off and the reason for the decree is lest he rake the coals under the ashes (Talmud Shabbat 34b) to speed up its cooking. And specifically, for a cooked dish that was not completely cooked, or even if it was completely cooked, and it reduced in size and it is improved by it, for they decreed lest he rake but the a dish that was not properly cooked at all or was completely cooked and which is deteriorated by boiling down (Talmud Shabbat 37b), it is permissible to have it tarry on the double oven even though it was not raked and folded, we don’t fear lest he rake it since he has removed it from his mind and similarly, a dish that was cooked completely and he cast into it a living limb near the slaughter house, everything was made like a dish that had not been cooked at all for he had completely removed it from his mind.

בש"א – they put hot water on top of the double stove after he has raked it for it is not necessary to cook it and there is no need to decree lest he stir it/rake [the coals underneath the ashes].

אבל לא תבשיל – even though he had removed the ashes and coals from the stove for it is impossible to remove all of the ashes/coals until there no longer remains even one spark and one would come to stir the embers after he is pleased with the cooking.

בש"א נוטלים וכו' – even hot foods for we are permitted to have them tarry on top of the double stone that has been cleared of ashes and when he placed the ashes after he removed them, he doesn’t return them/put them back because it appears like cooking on the Sabbath.

וב"ה אומרים – whether hot or cooked, one can put them (i.e., the ashes) back after having removed them, but the School of Hillel did not permit returning them other than while they are still in his hand that he had not placed them on another thing, but after he placed them in the ground or on another thing, it is forbidden to return them, even according to the School of Hillel because it is like hiding something ab initio on Shabbat.