With the COVID-19 quarantine, I have learned that every day is a day of rest for my dogs! They spend most of their day lying at my feet waiting for me to take them on a walk or for the Amazon delivery person to appear so they can fiercely defend us. Today, much to my relief, we also learn that my dogs are exempt from both biblical and rabbinical prohibitions on carrying on Shabbat!

Some basic rules about animals and Shabbat. We can feed our own animals on Shabbat since it is necessary for them to eat. Dogs were considered different. On the one hand, in Talmudic times they were not recognized for any economic value, so they tended to be underfed. However, we have an obligation to take compassion on God’s creatures. In addition, dogs deserve a special reward because they did not bark at the Jews during the time of the Exodus. So we can feed dogs on Shabbat, even if they are not our dogs and even if they will carry food from a private domain to a public domain!

Fortunately, we can also feed non-Jews in our courtyard even if non-Jews will carry the food from the private domain to the public domain. I have no idea if the juxtaposition of dogs and gentiles was intentional, but I had a strong emotional reaction to the ordering because they certainly seem linked. The commentators try to link this to yesterday’s Daf by indicating that we cannot sell things to gentiles on Friday afternoon because people may infer we are commissioning the gentiles to transport items for us on Shabbat. With food, we do not have this concern.

On the other hand, today’s Daf suggests a wide range of economic connections between Jews and non-Jews in Talmudic times. The Talmud’s concern for whether we can rent tools to non-Jews or commission letter delivery from non-Jews, among other transactions, speaks to an economy that was highly integrated. We learn that we must not seem to be profiting on Shabbat, but if a non-Jew is paid a fee and the non-Jew can determine when and how to complete a task, we have no concern if the non-Jew performs the task on Shabbat. We cannot compensate the non-Jew for hourly work performed on Shabbat, nor can we insist the work be performed on Shabbat, but if dogs and gentiles chose to work on Shabbat, that is their business.

Indeed, our Rabbis had very helpful business advice for our non-Jewish neighbors and small business proprietors. The Rabbis believed that cleaning white clothes took longer than cleaning colored clothes. Abaye took his colored clothes to a launder and asked how much to clean them. The launder said, “Same price as white clothes.” Abaye feels he is being cheated and tells the launderer that the Rabbis have already determined that cleaning colored clothes is easier than cleaning whites and the price should be lower. There is no recorded response of the launderer to the Rabbis commentary on his unfair business practices, but I will be bringing this up with my dry cleaner if this quarantine ever ends.

We learn that we cannot begin a long sea journey less than three days before Shabbat. We immediately get some interesting qualifications to this rule. For instance, the rule only applies to a discretionary journey. The rule does not apply if we are travelling to fulfill another commandment. Also, we satisfy the rule by insisting that the captain not sail on Shabbat, regardless of whether the captain follows our instructions or not.

We cannot start a siege less than three days before Shabbat, but we can continue a properly started siege during Shabbat. We learn this from Deuteronomy 20:19-20 (“When in your war against a city you have to besiege it a long time in order to capture it, you must not destroy its trees, wielding the ax against them. You may eat of them, but you must not cut them down. Are trees of the field human to withdraw before you into the besieged city. Only trees that you know do not yield food may be destroyed; you may cut them down for constructing siegeworks against the city that is waging war on you, until it has been reduced.”) The Talmud only applies this rule to sieges of non-Jewish cities. I am not sure why.

Much of our Daf concerns the statement that ended our Mishnah yesterday. If you recall, Shammai and Hillel differed considerably on what activities could be started before Shabbat even if the process would not be completed. At the end of the Mishnah, however, we learned that they agreed we could put a heavy beam or stone on top of crushed grapes or olives before SHabbat, even though the juices would continue to express after Shabbat began. First, we want to understand why Shammai feels differently about this activity. While we cannot crush grapes or olives on Shabbat, we can press them, so we can start pressing them before Shabbat begins.

We then spend a lot of time trying to figure out who said squeezing juice on Shabbat was not biblically prohibited. As usual, we compare this ruling to determine if it is logically consistent with other rulings of possible authors. In doing so, we introduce the concept of Muktzeh, which means objects which are not normally used on Shabbat. For example, I may be able to carry my power drill (if I actually owned one) around my house on Shabbat, but I really shouldn’t because power drills have no business on Shabbat. We learn this because apparently olive pressers were paid by collecting left over olive oil and mats. We also consider mats covering cargo on ships. The Rabbis debate whether these items are Muktzeh or not. Interestingly, whether an item is Muktzeh or not determines how much we can save from our house if the house is on fire on Shabbat. I would have assumed we could save everything, but apparently not.

I believe that observant Jews today follow a more lenient rule regarding these matters. Actually, we learn that a Rabbinical student of Rav’s issued a ruling consistent with the lenient position that is accepted. Nevertheless he was excommunicated. His teacher, Rav, was much more strict and he should not have contradicted his teacher.

We conclude with a new Mishnah, but we only get part way through the Mishnah. The Mishnah considers cooking versus merely warming in an oven close to Shabbat. Things must be sufficiently cooked so we are not tempted to stir the coals and stoke the fire. We can cook the Passover roast on a Friday afternoon because it will be eaten communally and we wouldn’t dare stoke coals on Shabbat in front of others. The Mishnah continues tomorrow and we get the exposition tomorrow, so we will end here today.