My daughter and son-in-law moved into a new community in Howell, New Jersey, a couple of years ago. There was no eruv, which made it challenging for families with babies and young children. My son-in-law spent months planning and arranging the installation of an eruv, which was finalized last month.
When a Jewish family considers moving to a new community, some priority requirements come to their minds: a yeshiva for their children, a shul, mikveh, eruv, kosher supermarket and…a pizza shop! For most Orthodox Jewish families, these are the essentials. Personally, I grew up in Washington Heights, a part of New York City which did not have an eruv. It was normal for me to not be able to carry in the street on Shabbos. However, for parents with babies and young children, no eruv means no pushing strollers outside on Shabbos. Someone always has to stay home with the kids.
Parshas Vayakhel opens with the mitzvah of Shabbos. There are 39 melachos (prohibited activities) on Shabbos. The 39 melachos are not listed in the Torah. Rather, they are derived from the actions that were performed in the creation of the Mishkan, except for two which are stated in this week’s parsha. The prohibition of kindling a fire is stated clearly in the beginning of the parsha. The prohibition of carrying—transferring an item from one domain to another—is learned, the Gemara says, from Moshe’s instruction to cease performing any more work for the Mishkan on a Shabbos This instruction included a prohibition of carrying any items they wished to donate from their camp to the camp of Moshe on Shabbos.
All 39 melachos share a common theme: All are actions of “creation”—with one exception. Tosfos labels carrying as a “melacha gerua,” an inferior melacha, since carrying an item doesn’t change the item. It’s the same item as before, just moved to a different location. Tosfos explains that it’s for this reason the Gemara searches for a source in the Torah to prohibit carrying on Shabbos because otherwise one might not derive this prohibition from the Mishkan activities.
Rav Shimshon Rafael Hirsch gives a fascinating insight: The prohibition of the 38 melachos of creation is meant for us to refrain from actions that involve “creation.” The carrying prohibition, however, is meant for us to refrain somewhat from interacting with the world. On Friday night during Kiddush, we say that the mitzvah of Shabbos is “zecher lema’aseh bereishis”— to remind us that Hashem created the world, and “zecher liyetzias Mitzrayim”— that Hashem took us out of Mitzrayim. The reason for the prohibition of the 38 melachos of creation is to remind us that Hashem is the ultimate Creator, not us.
On the other hand, the prohibition of carrying is to remind us that Hashem took us out of Mitzrayim, forging a unique bond with us. We refrain from carrying on Shabbos to strengthen this special bond. Not carrying from a reshus hayachid, a private domain, to a reshus harabim, a public domain (e.g., from one’s house to the street), limits one’s interaction with the greater world on Shabbos. This, in turn,helps the Jewish nation to be more insular, especially focusing on our Jewish values on Shabbos, and helps strengthen our uniqueness as Klal Yisrael.
We thus see that there are two ways to view the prohibition to carry on Shabbos. One way is to view it as restricting and inhibiting. Alternatively, we can look at it as setting boundaries to help define our personal space, enabling each one of us to recognize our uniqueness within the Jewish people.
There is a social networking website called “MySpace.” Each culture has its own way of maintaining its personal space. Hashem gifted the Jewish nation with Shabbos. It’s the time of week to cultivate “MySpace”—our own place in the world…our own place as a Jew. With this in mind, we can view not carrying…as truly liberating!
Rabbi Baruch Bodenheim is the Rosh Yeshiva of Passaic Torah Institute (PTI)/Yeshiva Ner Boruch. Rabbi Bodenheim can be reached at [email protected]. For more info about PTI and its Torah classes, visit www.pti.shulcloud.com
