We have spent several days discussing the laws of Muktzeh – items with no obvious purpose on Shabbat. Consider a pen. We are not allowed to write on Shabbat. Should we handle a pen at all? Can I move a pen from my home office to the living room for use after Shabbat? I will not be writing, just moving it to a more convenient location. I will be staying in my home, so I will not be moving the pen from a private domain to a public domain.

We have been investigating two very different opinions. Rabbi Yehuda took a very broad view of Muktzeh. He believed there was no real reason to use a pen on Shabbat, so I should just leave it. Rabbi Shimon, however, said I could move the pen, as long as I do not do anything prohibited with it. We spent a couple of days detailing how stringent Rabbi Yehuda’s stringent opinion was. Today, we begin exploring the boundaries of Rabbi Shimon’s lenient position.

Rabbi Yehuda held that anything that was Muktzeh at the start of Shabbat remains Muktzeh until the end of Shabbat, even if it is no longer prohibited during Shabbat. So, Rabbi Yehuda will not let us move a lamp that is burning at the start of Shabbat, even if it goes out during Shabbat. Rabbi Shimon does not buy into this restriction and would allow us to move the lamp once it goes out. Rabbi Shimon only prohibits moving something useful on Shabbat if it was set aside to perform a commandment. We cannot move oil that drips from a Shabbat lamp until the lamp goes out, according to this opinion, because the oil was set aside for the commandment to kindle the Shabbat lights.

With regard to food items, Rabbi Yehuda believes that if we did not specifically designate an item to be used on Shabbat prior to the onset of Shabbat, then we cannot consume it on Shabbat. Rabbi Shimon, however, says if we are hungry, eat whatever is in the pantry (but don’t cook it). Rabbi Shimon only makes an exception for grapes and figs that we leave out to dehydrate in the sun before Shabbat. We cannot consume these items on Shabbat because they are unfit for consumption until they are completely dried.

We then spend the rest of the Daf trying to decide if other Rabbis (in particular Rebbi and Rabbi Yochanan) agreed with Rabbi Shimon or Rabbi Yehuda. My understanding is that currently we take a much broader view of Muktzeh than Rabbi Shimon. So you may wonder why do we study Rabbi Shimon’s opinion at all. In answering that question today’s Daf has an interesting vignette for life during COVID-19 quarantine. Rav was a follower of Rabbi Yehuda’s strict interpretation of Muktzeh. However, he allowed moving an extinguished Chanukah menorah away from our doors on Shabbat during Chanukah. During Rav’s time, the Zoroastrians’ of Babylonia did not allow public lighting of the Chanukah Menorah for their own religious reasons. Jews who disobeyed the Zoroastrians would move their menorah back indoors to avoid prosecution. According to Rabbi Yehuda, however, we cannot do this on Shabbat even when the menorah is extinguished because it is Muktzeh. Rav, who follows Rabbi Yehuda, however, said go ahead and move it indoors because we can rely on Rabbi Shimon in an emergency.

Rabbi Shimon’s opinion is like a dissent in a Supreme Court opinion. We learn it because it informs us about the basis of the majority opinion and perhaps the limits of that opinion. Several orthodox rabbis made exceptions for Passover this year allowing live-streams of Seders. In part, there reasoning was based on Rav’s view of Rabbi Shimon’s opinion and national emergencies. The laws of the Talmud are very detailed and they are meant to govern our lives as we live them. Circumstance matters.