Comentário sobre Shabat 4:3

במה טומנין – A person who comes to remove a pot from on to of a double stove on the Eve of the Sabbath and to cover it (i.e., put dishes in the chafing stove to keep them warm) with another thing, and the Sages said that we don’t cover them with something that adds vapor but rather with a thing that preserves the vapor. What is the thing that adds and is prohibited?

Introduction This brief chapter deals with covering up hot food with something that will preserve its heat. The general rule is that the rabbis allowed storage in something that would preserve the heat but not in something that would increase the heat. The reason is that if this were allowed she might store the food in hot coals and then rake the coals to make them hotter. Raking coals is prohibited. When storage is prohibited it is prohibited even if she stores the dish before Shabbat begins.

לא בגפת – the refuse of olives and sesame when gathered together very hot.

In what things may they cover up [food], and in what things may they not cover it up?
They may not cover up [food] in peat, compost, salt, lime, or sand, whether moist or dry; The material in this section adds heat to the dish whether it is moist or dried out.

לחים – they have a lot of vapor, more than when dry.

Nor in straw, grape-skins, rags or grasses, when they are moist; but they may cover up [food] in them when they are dry. The material in this section adds heat if it is still moist but not when it is dry. Hence it is permitted to cover up food with these things when they are dry.

זגין – grape peels, the pomace/shells of grapes, and seeds of grapes.

They may cover up [food] in garments, produce, doves’ wings, carpenters’ sawdust and thoroughly beaten flax. Rabbi Judah forbids [storing] in fine [flax], but permits [it] in coarse [flax]. The material in this section does not add heat and only preserves it. Hence it is permitted to cover up food with these things. Rabbi Judah holds that fine beaten flax adds heat and it is therefore forbidden to cover up food with it.

מוכין – every soft thing is called מוכין/soft, spongy substance – like wool of a vine, detached pieces of soft wool of an animal and the scrapings-off of outworn garments.

בזמן שהן לחין – all of these refer to straw and pomace of grapes and soft-spongy substance and grasses, and moist things that they mentioned [but] moist on account of themselves, not moist on account of liquids that fell upon them after they had dried and moist soft-spongy substances on account of themselves which we find like wool that is close to the tail or wool that is between the thigh of cattle.

נסורת – the fine saw-dust/chips that the carpenters saw/plane from the tree when they saw it with a saw.

נעורת – very thin, when they thoroughly beat the flax (Talmud Shabbat 49a), and they empty it out.

ר"י אוסר בדקה – thin hatchelled flax, but with fine chips/saw-dust he admits that they permit it whether they are thin or thick, but the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yehuda. For what they (i.e., the Rabbis) prohibited to cover up while it was still day is a something that increases/adds vapor as a decree lest they cover it with hot ashes and he will come to stir the coals when it gets dark, and they forbid to cover it up on the Sabbath with something that does not increase vapor, and even though they do not nullify the decree lest they find his pot that has cooled off and heat it up with fire on the Sabbath. But at twilight [on Friday], it is permissible to cover it up with something that does not increase vapor as we said at the end of the chapter [two of Tractate Shabbat] “במה מדליקין ] – “With what may we kindle the Sabbath lights” for we are not able to make the decree lest he find that his pot has cooled off and he will heat it, for mere pots at twilight are hot. And Maimonides explained that mere pots at twilight are hot, as he explains, that the opinion does not suffer it because of the confusion of textual versions, for the textual versions are opposite each other, for he found in the Gemara that was before him in the chapter במה מדליקין/With what may we kindle the Sabbath candles – that he had the reading – for what reason did they say that we don’t cover it up with a thing that does not increase vapor once it becomes dark, as a decree lest he cover it with hot ashes, and for what reasons did they say that we don’t cover it with something that increases vapor while it is still daylight (on Friday) , decreed lest it becomes hot, and the readings are not such, but rather, for what reason did they say that we don’t cover them with a thing that does not increase vapor once it becomes dark as a decree lest it become hot and we don’t cover it with a thing that adds vapor while it is still daylight, as a decree lest he cover it with hot ashes.

שלחין – hides, it is the Aramaic translation of “he stripped/flayed [skin] and stretched forth.

Introduction The second (and last) mishnah of this brief chapter teaches that sometimes one may use certain material to cover up food to preserve its heat and yet the material is “muktzeh” and hence cannot be handled on Shabbat.

ומטלטלין אותן – whether he covered them or whether he didn’t cover them for it appears like he mixed them – that is to say, to rely upon them.

They may cover up [food] with hides, and they may be handled; Hides only preserve heat and do not add heat and therefore they may be used to cover up food on Shabbat. The hides also can be used as mats for sitting or lying down. Since they can be used on Shabbat they are not muktzeh and they may be handled.

ואין מטלטלין אותן – for they are Muktzeh/forbidden for use and/or handling on the Sabbath to spin or to weave, and even though he covered them for the time, he did not make them ownerless completely, and when he couldn’t designate them out for covering, but designated them for covering from carrying them.

[They may cover up food] with wool shearings, but they may not be handled. Wool shearings may be used for covering up food but they may not be handled. Normally wool shearings are used for spinning wool and making cloth, an activity prohibited on Shabbat. Hence, they are muktzeh.

כיצד יעשה – this one who covered them, how shall he take his pot – since it is prohibited to carry them and it is all covered in them.

What then is done? The lid [of the pot] is lifted, and they [the shearings] fall off of their own accord. The mishnah now addresses the problem of a pot that was covered with wool shearings before Shabbat: how does she get to the pot when it is covered by material which is muktzeh? The answer is that she may simply pick up the lid and allow the wool shearings to fall by the side.

נוטל – the cover of the pot that has the status of a utensil upon it, and even though that they are upon it, and we don’t care that it was not make a base for them, for it was not made other than to cover the pot.

Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah says: the basket [holding the pot] he turns on its side and [the food] is removed, lest one lift [the lid of the pot] and is unable to replace it. But the Sages say: one may take [out the pot] and replace [it]. This section refers to a situation where a person put a pot into a basket. The basket was filled with material (wool shearing in this case) to preserve the heat of the pot. She made space in the shearings so that the pot could fit in. The problem is that if she removes the pot she won’t be able to make space in the basket so that it can be returned. Rabbi Elazar says that she tilts the basket to the side and takes directly from the pot while it is in the basket. She is not allowed to remove the pot lest she move the muktzeh wool shearings in order to return it. The Sages hold that we are not concerned lest there not be space to return the pot and therefore she may take it out. However, if she takes it out and there is no space to return it, she may not move aside the wool shearings in order to return it.

רבי אלעזר אומר קופה מטה על צדה ונוטל – when he comes to take it, he tilts the basket on its side lest he take the pot and the wool-sheerings that from one side and from the other into the hole that is in the pot and if it is required to go back and to cover it, he won’t be able to carry the sheerings from here and there and to make a hole and return them into it.

If he did not cover it [a pot] while it was yet day, it may not be covered after nightfall. If it was covered but became uncovered, it may be recovered. It was permitted to cover up food only before Shabbat began. Once Shabbat has begun covering up is prohibited lest someone find that her food has grown cold and come to actually cook it on Shabbat. However, it is permitted to return food to where it had been covered and therefore if the covering comes off, it is also permitted to return the covering.

וחכ"א נוטל – [The Sages state that he takes] the pot and if the wool- sheerings fell out, and the hole did not become ruined, he returns pot to its place, and they did not prohibit him to take the pot, ab initio, a decreed lest the hole become ruined. But the Sages admit that if the hole did not become ruined, he should not return the objects, and the Halakha is according to the Sages.

One may fill a jug with [cold water] and place it under a pillow or blanket [to keep it cool]. There is no prohibition to cover cold things in order to preserve their coolness on Shabbat. The entire prohibition of “covering up” only referred to hot foods because of the concern that someone might come to cook on Shabbat.

לא יכסנו משתחשך – for it is forbidden to cover it on the Sabbath, whether it is something that adds vapor, whether it is something that does not add vapor in the manner of covering it.

ונותן – on the Sabbath, under the pillow that he places under his head, and even though it is filled with spongy-wool substance or feathers, this is not the manner of covering with it.

כסת – larger than a pillow.