Thursday, November 1, 2012

Shabbat 29b: Rabbi Yossi exempts in all of them except...

The Mishna at the bottom of Shabbat 29b:
מתני' המכבה את הנר מפני שהוא מתירא מפני נכרים ומפני ליסטי' מפני רוח רעה מפני החולה שיישן פטור כחס על הנר כחס על השמן כחס על הפתילה חייב רבי יוסי פוטר בכולן חוץ מן הפתילה מפני שהוא עושה פחם:
MISHNAH. IF ONE EXTINGUISHES THE LAMP BECAUSE HE IS AFRAID OF GENTILES, ROBBERS, OR AN EVIL SPIRIT,34  OR FOR THE SAKE OF AN INVALID, THAT HE SHOULD SLEEP, HE IS NOT CULPABLE.35  IF [BECAUSE] HE WOULD SPARE THE LAMP, THE OIL, OR THE WICK, HE IS CULPABLE. R. JOSE EXEMPTS HIM IN ALL CASES, EXCEPT IN RESPECT OF THE WICK, BECAUSE HE MAKES CHARCOAL.36
The Mishna, as it stands, is difficult to understand, within Rabbi Yossi's position. Perhaps to be discussed when we encounter the gemara on this.

When I was in Dr. Tzvi Hirsch Shteinfeld's class, he pointed out that in Ktav Yad Kaufmann (here for full color), the girsa in the Mishna is slightly different, with a very different implication.


משנה


Budapest, Akademia , Kaufmann A 50
שבת ב ד - שבת ג ו



According to this manuscript, the word מפני is a later insertion. See how it was written into the margins. If so, Rabbi Yossi's position is that he is exempt in all of them, meaning that he exempts in כחס על הנר כחס על השמן כחס על הפתילה. To stress, he even exempts in כחס על הפתילה. He only holds one liable in the case of הפתילה שהוא עושה פחם. That is, the wick that he is trying to light and extinguish, specifically in order to make it into charcoal.

Dr. Shteinfeld then proves that this is indeed the girsa of the Mishna that  the Amoraim had, even if the setama degemara did not have it -- from the diyuk that Rava makes. See the section of the gemara on 31b, starting with "With whom does R. Jose agree? If with R. Judah...".

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