Sunday, September 18, 2011
Chulin 85a - CARRYING SHOFAR FOR WOMEN
The gemara uses shofar as a pircha to the kal v'chomer of rav yossi. The logic is that shofar is an example of something which doesnt push off shabbos even if it is a definite obligation, yet the safeik mitzvah such as a tumtum who is a safeik woman, can blow on yom tov. The point of the gemara is to show that yom tov is less severe than shabbos. However, the gemara never clarifies what actual prohibition we are speakingmes to shofar on yom tov. Tosafos offers 2 suggestions: 1. The prohibition being discussed is the issur of carrying. Since women aren't obligated in shofar it should be prohibited to carry for them. Yet, a tumtum who may be a man and may be fully obligated, can carry a shofar. 2. The issue being discussed is merely an ussur d'rabonon of carrying on yom tov. According to the first approach, the shares aryeh 106 proves that a shofar cannot be carried to the public domain on yt for the sake of a woman. This is also the.implication of tosafos at the end of the sugya who implies that similar to semicha, only an issur d'rabonon can be done, not carrying which is doraysa. Rav Moshe (oc 3:94) has a very long and complicated teshuva arguing on the shaagas aryeh and proving that a shofar or lulav can even be carried on yt where there is no eiruv to enable a woman to do the mitzvah.
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2 comments:
If women are not obligated how can a man blow on her behalf on Yom Tov. Wouldnt that violate at least an issur d'rabanan?
I should have elaborated. Regarding the issur d'rabonon of חכמה ואינו מלאכה that the gemara mentions in the beginning of the 4th perek of rosh hashana, we consider the fact that women fulfill a mitzvah even though they aren't obligated in it, sufficient grounds to override that issur d'rabonon. Tosafos 85a explains that according to R. Yossi who we follow, semicha is also an issur d'rabonon of avoda b'kodshim, yet the fulfillment of the mitzvah for women pushed it off. Following the same logic, the mitzvah for women is also strong enough to push off the issur d'rabonon of שמא יעבירנו on Yom Tov (according to the first answer of Tosafos 84b that carrying for women is considered שלא לצורך). However, Tosafos seems to clearly hold as the Sha'agas Aryeh understands that we cannot permit an issur d'oraysa such as carrying on Yom Tov. Rav Moshe's basic assumption is that even the נחת רוח that a woman has for fulfilling a mitzvah should be sufficient to regard the carrying of a shofar to be לצורך so that we can apply מתוך שהותרה לצורך אוכל נפש הותרה נמי שלא לצורך. Certainly according to Rabbeinu Tam where women actually make a bracha on shofar, we should regard the carrying of it to be לצורך יום קצת, at least as much as talking a walk with a baby in a stroller. Therefore, the mitzvah may not be strong enough to "push off" an issur d'oraysa of carrying, but it is strong enough to consider the carrying to be לצורך thereby removing the entire issur of carrying. To work out our sugya, R. Moshe points out countless problems and offers a very complicated approach. In my opinion, this is one of R. Moshe's most complicated teshuvos in his sefer. He literally jumps through hoops to explain the logic of R. Yossi's kal v'chomer and the intent of the pircha from shofar. In the course of things he touches on whether a safeik d'oraysa is considered to be like a definite obligation, or remains just a safeik obligation.
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