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Shabbos 113b

שבת קי״ג ע״ב

Shabbat 113b

Learn Shabbos 113b step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

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Topic

Honoring שבת in speech, walking and clothing, with aggadic digressions on eating earth, מגילת רות, and the burning of סנחריב's army.

Overview

The גמרא finishes explaining the פסוק in ישעיה about honoring שבת. Speaking about weekday business on שבת is forbidden, though thinking about it is allowed. רבא rejects the first explanation of 'weekday walking', which was jumping over a stream, so the גמרא explains it as taking large strides instead. A second question of רבי, about eating earth, leads to a ruling that it is forbidden every day because it is harmful, and to aggadic sayings about the dead of the מבול buried in בבל. The גמרא then reads נעמי's instruction to רות to 'put on your robes' as referring to שבת clothes. This opens a long series of דרשות of רבי אלעזר on מגילת רות: the wisdom of רות and שמואל, why בועז noticed רות, and hints in his words about בית דוד, מנשה, and the eras of blessing that would come from her. Next, three אמוראים argue about 'ותחת כבודו', the burning of סנחריב's army: did the body burn but not the clothes, did the body itself burn, or did the soul burn while the body stayed whole? The amud ends as a new teaching of רבי יוחנן begins, and it continues on the next amud.

Opening lines

שֶׁלֹּא יְהֵא דִּבּוּרְךָ שֶׁל שַׁבָּת

That your speech of Shabbat should not be

כְּדִבּוּרְךָ שֶׁל חוֹל.

like your speech of the weekday.

דִּבּוּר אָסוּר, הִרְהוּר — מוּתָּר.

Speech is forbidden; thinking is permitted.

בִּשְׁלָמָא כּוּלְּהוּ — לְחַיֵּי,

Granted, all of them are fine,

The steps (38)

  1. StatementShabbat speech must differ from weekday speech
  2. QuestionWhat does 'Shabbat walking unlike weekday walking' mean?
  3. ResponseFirst answer: jumping over a stream
  4. Challengeרבא objects: what else can he do?
  5. ResolutionSecond answer: taking large steps
  6. StatementEyesight restored at Friday-night קידוש
  7. Questionרבי asks: may one eat earth on Shabbat?
  8. ResponseForbidden even on weekdays because it is harmful
  9. Statementרבי אמי: eating the earth of בבל is like eating ancestors
  10. StatementAnother view: like eating creeping creatures
  11. Statementריש לקיש: why בבל is called שנער
  12. Statementרבי יוחנן: why בבל is called מצולה
  13. ChallengeBut those creatures have surely decomposed
  14. Resolutionחכמים decreed because earth is harmful
  15. ProofThe man who died from earth and cress
  16. Statementנעמי's 'robes' are שבת clothes
  17. Statementרות and שמואל are the wise who become wiser
  18. Proofרות changed the order of נעמי's instructions
  19. Proofשמואל left out God's Name until he was sure
  20. Statementרות searched for decent people to walk with
  21. ChallengeWhy would בועז ask about a young woman?
  22. Resolutionבועז saw her wisdom in the הלכות of לקט
  23. ResolutionA ברייתא says בועז saw her modesty
  24. ChallengeWhy would בועז tell her to cling close?
  25. Resolutionרות's loyalty made it proper to cling to her
  26. StatementThe word 'here' hints at the kingship of דוד
  27. StatementVinegar is good in hot weather
  28. StatementVinegar hints at the harsh king מנשה
  29. StatementSitting beside the harvesters hints that דוד's kingdom will split
  30. StatementAte, satisfied, left over: דוד, שלמה, חזקיה
  31. StatementAnother version: the leftovers reach the days of רבי
  32. Proofרבי's stable-keeper was richer than the Persian king
  33. StatementA ברייתא: this world, the days of משיח, and the World to Come
  34. Statement'Under his honor': the body burned, not the clothes
  35. Proofרבי יוחנן follows his own view that clothes are 'honor'
  36. StatementThe body itself was burned
  37. StatementThe soul was burned but the body stayed whole
  38. StatementOpening a new teaching of רבי יוחנן