Eruv - Definition of The Law of Transference As Part of The 39 Creative Activities Prohibited On Shabbat

Definition of The Law of Transference As Part of The 39 Creative Activities Prohibited On Shabbat

Transferring between domains Hebrew: מוציא מרשות לרשות / הוצאה

Definition: Transferring something from one domain type to another domain type.

Chapters 1 and 11 of Talmud tractate Shabbat deals with the melakha of transferring from one domain to another, commonly called "carrying".

The tractate distinguishes four domains: private, public, semi-public and an exempt area. It holds that the transfer of an article from a private to a public domain is Biblically forbidden; transferring an article between a semi-public to a private or public domain is Rabbinically prohibited; transferring of an article between an exempt area and any other domain is permissible; carrying an article four amos (about 1.7 m) may be forbidden in a public or semi-public domain and permitted in a private domain or exempt area; and carrying inside a private domain or between private domains may be permissible (see Eruv).

For these purposes "transferring" means "removing and depositing", so carrying an article out of one domain type and returning to the same domain type without setting it down in the interim into a different domain type does not constitute transference from one domain type to another domain type.

The definition of public and private domain is related to its relative amount of enclosures, not on strict ownership. It should be noted that this is a particularly complex area of law, as the legal definitions of private and public domains are intricate, although clear. Background knowledge, and definitions, of domain types must be understood before one can fully understand the laws of transference in this context. This law is often referred to as carrying. This is a misnomer. Carrying within a domain type is perfectly permitted. It's the transference between domain types that is considered a creative activity for the purposes of Sabbath observance.

Indeed, what an Eruv accomplishes is a merger of different domain types into one domain type, making carrying within the area enclosed by the Eruv no different to carrying within a room of a house (i.e. one domain type, namely a private domain), which is of course permitted.

According to traditional Jewish commentators, this category of melakha (work) is mentioned in Exodus 16:29:

"Let no man leave (go out) his place on the seventh day"

Likewise according to the Talmud, the account of the man who was executed for getting wood in Numbers 15:32 was because he violated this prohibition.

Also, Jeremiah has been interpreted in order to justify this prohibition.Jeremiah 17:21-22

See further: Chayei Adam Shabbos 47–56.

See also: Eruv for carrying

Read more about this topic:  Eruv

Famous quotes containing the words definition of, definition, law, part, creative, activities and/or prohibited:

    Perhaps the best definition of progress would be the continuing efforts of men and women to narrow the gap between the convenience of the powers that be and the unwritten charter.
    Nadine Gordimer (b. 1923)

    The man who knows governments most completely is he who troubles himself least about a definition which shall give their essence. Enjoying an intimate acquaintance with all their particularities in turn, he would naturally regard an abstract conception in which these were unified as a thing more misleading than enlightening.
    William James (1842–1910)

    Half the testimony in the Bobbitt case sounded like Sally Jesse Raphael. Juries watch programs like this and are ready to listen.
    William Geimer, U.S. law educator. New York Times, p. B18 (January 28, 1994)

    Where is Hollywood located? Chiefly between the ears. In that part of the American brain lately vacated by God.
    Erica Jong (b. 1942)

    Of the creative spirits that flourished in Concord, Massachusetts, during the middle of the nineteenth century, it might be said that Hawthorne loved men but felt estranged from them, Emerson loved ideas even more than men, and Thoreau loved himself.
    Leon Edel (b. 1907)

    That is the real pivot of all bourgeois consciousness in all countries: fear and hate of the instinctive, intuitional, procreative body in man or woman. But of course this fear and hate had to take on a righteous appearance, so it became moral, said that the instincts, intuitions and all the activities of the procreative body were evil, and promised a reward for their suppression. That is the great clue to bourgeois psychology: the reward business.
    —D.H. (David Herbert)

    [Research has found that] ... parents whose children were “baby altruists” by two years firmly prohibited any child aggression against others. Adults not only restated their rule against hitting, for example, but they let the little one know that they would not tolerate the child hurting another.
    Alice Sterling Honig (20th century)