Parshat Vayakhel

"YOU SHALL NOT BURN FIRE" - DESTRUCTION AND CONSTRUCTION
Shalom Bahbout

"Moshe then convoked the whole Israelite community And said to them: These are the things that the lord has commanded you to do: On six days work may be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord; whoever does any work on it shall be put to death. You shall kindle no fire throughout your settlements on the Sabbath day."

What is the significance of the placement of the prohibition against the lighting of fire before the details of the erection of the Mishkan?

The Talmud and the commentators supplied different explanations. In the Tractate Shabbat (70a) we find two opinions: Rabbi Yossi claims that "haavara l'lav yatzat" - the specific injunction against lighting fire implies exclusion, i.e., the lighting of fire on the Shabbat does not warrant the same severe penalties incurred by other Shabbat violations; it is punishable neither by death nor by karet [extermination by divine force], but is treated as any other violation on the lav level. Rabbi Natan - who employed the rule "anything that was included in a general statement in order to teach something, was singled out not to teach only about itself, but to apply its teaching to the entire generality" - argues that "haavarah l'chalek yatzat" - i.e., to inform us that each and every incidence of work constitutes a separate violation of the Shabbat.

Beyond the two above 'technical' answers, it seems to me that we cannot avoid asking why the lighting of fire in particular was 'singled out'? In what way is it exceptional? Why could not any other of the 39 work categories have been selected to serve as an example for other types of work?

Rashbam contends that the Torah wanted to teach us that food preparation on Shabbat is forbidden, lest we mistakenly assume that - as on Yom Tov - it is permitted ("no work at all shall be done on them; only what every person is to eat, that alone may be prepared for you" - Shemot 12:16). In addition, one might have thought that the lighting of fire, which is ostensibly not a constructive - but rather a destructive - act, might be permissible, in line with the principle that "all destructive acts are post facto exempt from punishment"; therefore the Torah deemed it necessary to explicitly forbid it.

These two preceding answers leave us unsatisfied, because ultimately, they, too, focus on the technical aspect and not on the essence.

The passage under discussion was the focus of a famous controversy between the Rabbis and the Karaites. As is well known, the Karaites objected to the Rabbinically ordained mitzvah of lighting Shabbat candles; they based their arguments on this passage, claiming to have understood it according to its plain meaning [p'shat]. They understood the passage to mean that it is forbidden to leave fire burning throughout Jewish settlements, even if the fire were lit before the Shabbat. The explication of the Karaites, their supporters, and those who depended upon them, explications which negated the Oral Law, presented a serious problem, as Ibn Ezra wrote (in his short commentary): "Therefore, in [understanding] the mitzvoth of the Torah, we are in need of accepted tradition and of the Oral Law."

Rabbi Ovadia of Seforno, the 16th century Italian commentator, writes: "Inasmuch as it [the lighting of fire] is necessary for all works, or for most of them, it is forbidden on the Shabbat." Fire was the main instrument for the advancement of civilization. One result of the prohibition "You shall do no work on the Shabbat" is that man learns to refrain one day a week from control of his external environment; on the other hand, he learns to concentrate on attending to his inner self, and to the soul of all society.

Many have asked - and still ask - have the Halakhic authorities who have functioned since the harness of electricity really understood and explained the essence of electricity by identifying it with fire? Was it impossible to permit the lighting of the electric light on Shabbat? Was it really impossible to find an appropriate definition of the essence of electricity, one which would allow the lighting of a bulb on Shabbat?

Without getting involved in the question of who was right in his definition of electricity , there is no doubt that the poskim could have adapted their decisions regarding the lighting of electric lights on the Shabbat to "the needs of modern man."

When they issued their ruling which forbids putting on the light on Shabbat, they did not do so because the possibilities offered by exegetical methods were unknown to them. They chose the path laid down by those who decided halacha throughout the ages, the path followed by Rambam when he found it necessary to cope with the principle of the preexistence of the universe, an accepted assumption in Aristotle's philosophy, a notion considered by most of Rambam's contemporary scholars to be science, beyond question:

"Our refusal to accept the doctrine of preexistence of the world does not derive from the Torah's statement [Bereishit 1:1] that the world was created ex nihilo, because the texts which indicate creation ex nihilo are no more numerous than those which indicate that God is corporeal, and the methods of explication are not hidden from us and we are not prevented from utilizing them with reference to creation ex nihilo; we could have explained as we did when negating corporeality, and perhaps this would have been a lot easier . . . two reasons led us not to do so and not to believe so . . . and the second reason is that our understanding that God is incorporeal does not contradict in the slightest the foundations of the Torah and does not conflict with the words of any prophet . . . but the doctrine of preexistence as accepted by Aristotle, predicating that nature in no way changes, and nothing veers from its custom, this is a basic contradiction of Torah" (GUIDE OF THE PERPLEXED, Book II, Chapter 25).

But as the poskim were forbidding the creation of electricity on Shabbat, they were developing methods of permitting its use by way of suitable devices. Just as they established the mitzvah of lighting the Shabbat candle, so did they not refrain from utilizing electronic apparatus in order to preserve the joy of Shabbat. The observance of Shabbat is unique in that it contains both the negative precept of "You shall preserve the Shabbat" - demanding abstention from all work - and also fulfillment of the positive precept "You shall remember the Shabbat" - obligating man to organize before Shabbat so that he be able to enjoy the day.

The lighting of the Shabbat candle before Shabbat, like the use of various devices prepared before the Shabbat, comes to emphasize that fire (like electricity) can contain within itself both positive and negative forces. God did not deny man the possibility of exploiting it. On the contrary. The Midrash, in contrast to the Greek Prometheus myth, has God giving man the intellectual power to be able to create fire and to use it properly:

"We have learned: Rabbi Yossi said: [Fire] had been considered for creation on the eve of Shabbat, but it was not created until Motzei Shabbat, and on Motzei Shabbat, The Holy One, Blessed Be He, gave Man wisdom of a divine sort, and he took two stones, and ground them one against the other, and fire came forth" (Pesachim 54a).

In these days, when change occurs at a pace which preceding generations would not recognize, Halakhic rulings require that same balance and that same courage which were always the hallmark of our rabbis, as they knew how to find the way to rule on the problems of the hour. There is always the danger that 'neo-Karaites' will want "to protect" the Torah, forbidding that which may be permitted, permitting that which should not be permitted.

Without doubt, the Jewish people, wherever they be, thirst for leaders who will find the way to make the difficult and essential decisions in the world of Torah, leaders who are needed mostly in the State of Israel, where Jewish life is in a constant state of renewal, in which are needed those sages, people of vision and equilibrium, who can unite all the powers developing midst the people.

Rabbi Shalom Bahbout lectures in physics at the University of Rome, heads the Bet Midrash "Naarei Yeshurun" in Yerushalayim and is Vice President of the Conference of Italian Rabbis.