Carrying and The Four Shabbat Domains

 

The labor of "carrying," of moving an object from one domain to another, seems like the most insignificant of all the melakhot. Indeed, some early commentators call it an "inferior labor" (Tosafot Shabbat 2a). After all, nothing is really done to the object - it merely changes location. (See Beur Halakha 318.) Furthermore, this melakha also concerns us less than the other melakhot, since most observant Jews live in places where there is an eiruv, which combines different domains into one and hence permits carrying.

 

Yet this one "inferior" melakha seems to draw an inordinate amount of attention. The Talmudic tractate of Shabbat begins with the laws of carrying, and a third of its chapters deal primarily with this labor. These laws also occupy about a third of the section of the Shulchan Arukh on the laws of Shabbat; and in the Kitzur, they occupy five chapters (81-84 and 94), out of the twenty-five chapters on Shabbat.

 

Rav Nachman explains that in fact all of the thirty-nine forbidden labors are included in the prohibition on carrying! (See Likutei Halakhot, Shabbat 7:30.) We hinted at this idea in the introduction to the laws of Shabbat; now we will elaborate on it a bit.

 

THE SHABBAT DOMAINS

 

According to Torah law, there are three kinds of domains:

 

1. A private domain, known as "reshut ha-yachid," which literally means "the domain of the one."

 

2. A public domain, "reshut ha-rabim," literally "the domain of the many."

 

3. A domain which belongs to nobody, which is really no domain at all and is called a "mekom petur" - an exempt place.

 

The Sages decided to add a fourth kind of domain:

 

4. An open area, which according to Torah law is an exempt place, is considered to be an intermediate kind of domain known as a "carmelit."

 

Two kinds of carrying are forbidden: carrying between a private and a public domain, and carrying at least four amot (about two meters) within a public domain.

 

CARRYING BETWEEN A PUBLIC AND PRIVATE DOMAIN

 

The "domain of the one" naturally suggests the domain of the One, those aspects of the world that belong to holiness. And the "domain of the many" naturally suggests the domain of division and separation, those aspects of life where God's unifying influence is hidden, and where polytheistic pagan worship is possible. (See Zohar Pinchas III:243b.)

 

The resemblance is not purely a linguistic one. The home, the private domain, is a place we can shape and guard, and we can readily make it into an abode for the Divine Presence. The street, the public domain, is a place that we share with other people. Even though most of the people with whom we share the public domain are worthy folk, the very fact that any person has the right and ability to enter there makes it a symbol for a place where evil has free reign.

 

The melakha of carrying objects from one domain to another symbolizes applying moral criteria to our life experience by distinguishing the good from the bad. Just as we may find something in our homes which is really trash and throw it out, so we may find something in our hearts which really has no place in the character of a righteous person and relegate it to the category of bad traits. Conversely, just as we may find an object of value in the street and make it a valuable addition to our home, we may sometimes find an invaluable lesson or value in a seemingly God-forsaken place.

 

We see that the melakha of carrying has a message quite similar to that of the melakha of sorting, as we explained in the last chapter: our hardest job in working to improve the world is not to change things, but rather to evaluate them, to distinguish and separate the good from the bad.

However, Shabbat is a day of rest. It is not a day of repairing the world but rather a day of looking forward to its future perfection. No carrying is permitted on this day.

 

CARRYING WITHIN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN

 

Based on this explanation of the message of the prohibition of carrying from domain to domain, we can grasp the profound symbolism of the other kind of carrying prohibition: carrying four paces within the public domain. What work of repair is involved in merely moving something from one place to another within the public domain?

The Ba'al Ha-Maor, an illustrious early commentator, answers this question by referring to the halakhic principle that the four paces surrounding a person are like his own personal domain. This principle is relevant for the laws of acquisitions (I acquire an object which falls in my immediate vicinity as if it had landed in my private property), the laws of Shabbat boundaries which we will learn about in chapter 95, and in many other areas of halakha. It follows that carrying something four paces within the public domain really involves carrying it between the private and public domains (Ba'al Ha-Maor, Shabbat chapter 11).

Rav Nachman basically extends this legal idea to the realm of the spiritual, according to the metaphor we discussed above. Even when a person is passing through the reshut ha-rabim, a domain open to the forces of evil and separation, he still is able to maintain a private space, a miniature environment of righteousness and holiness. The holiness of our Divine image is capable of extension and radiation (see chapter 9), thus creating an enclave of spirituality within the filthy thoroughfare of the throng.

Note that this private environment doesn't follow us. If it did, there would be nothing wrong with carrying within the public domain, since the object being carried is always close to our person. Rather, it is continually being created anew, so that the place where I put the object down is different from the one where I began carrying it. We can't carry our own private insulated spiritual environment around with us, as a snail carries his house. But we can do something better: we can take any environment and temporarily transform it into our domain, into a domain of the One. We can't avoid the influence of our environment, but for this very reason we have the power to influence and sanctify the environment.

DIMENSIONS OF THE VARIOUS DOMAINS

There is an interesting difference between the private and public domains with regard to their boundaries. A private domain extends "up to the heavens." But a public domain reaches only to ten handbreadths (about a meter).  Applying the metaphor we explained above, we see that the forces of division and separation (domain of the many) are limited in their scope. They are by their very nature lowly and degraded. Conversely, when we take our private space and dedicate it to God, making a "domain of the One," then the sky is the limit, and our potential reaches the heavens.

The number ten is significant in that it represents wholeness and completion. The forces of decay can influence their own particular world, but don't have any power beyond it. For this reason, a private domain needs to be set off from a public one by a partition at least ten handbreadths high. We need to demonstrate that we are in a completely different world from the forces of death and decay. (Based on Likutei Halakhot, laws of Sukkah 1:1.)

CARMELIT - A MIXED DOMAIN

According to Torah law, any area that does not specifically qualify as a suitably enclosed private domain or as a full-fledged mass public thoroughfare is not a domain at all. It is an exempt place, and objects may be carried within this area or to and from other domains.

However, an ancient Rabbinic decree limits this lenient status to small areas within the public domain. Any open area is considered to be a carmelit, an area with a mixed status that for most intents and purposes shares the stringencies of a private or public domain. The Sages were afraid that if carrying were freely permitted between this domain and public and private ones, then people would confuse it with the other domains and consider every kind of carrying permissible.

Together with the domain of holiness and the domain where evil has free access, there is a vast area that is neutral. This open space can be enclosed for dwelling, dedicated to the nurturing of righteousness, or alternatively made into a highway where there is no protection from defilement. In other words, there is a vast area of personal actions that are neither obligatory nor forbidden, neither good nor bad. They are merely permitted.

Let us examine how this third category of "neutral" actions fits into our metaphor of carrying objects as a symbol of moral evaluation.

If there is some positive trait that I have considered to be wrong, and I re-evaluate it and decide I should adopt it, then I have performed a great rectification. I have taken this act from the reshuit ha-rabim and properly relocated it in the reshut ha-yachid. The same holds for re-evaluating a negative characteristic that I have considered to be proper, and I now remove it from my private domain.

However, if I take some positive or negative action and consider it merely "permissible," I have so far done neither help nor harm. I can still perform the positive action or refrain from the negative one. It seems that moving something to or from an open space is no melakha at all.

But the message of the carmelit is that the improper evaluation is itself a problem. It is not merely important to perform good deeds - it is necessary to recognize their value. If we move mitzvot to the carmelit - i.e., consider them as merely neutral acts - we have ipso facto done an injustice. Likewise, the very consideration of wicked acts as neutral is wrong, even before we perform them. Conversely, re-evaluating seemingly neutral acts and properly classifying them as good or bad is a wonderful rectification. From this point of view, moving things to and from a carmelit is worthy of being considered a melakha.

What about the small areas that are still considered exempt places – areas that are not considered domains even according to Rabbinic law? If we compare carrying among the three main kinds of domains to making a moral judgement - concluding that a particular act is positive, negative, or indifferent - we can liken an exempt place to withholding judgement. Every so often it is necessary to reflect on some act or trait, while we ponder what its value is - to put off placing it into any particular domain. Like moving something from some other Shabbat domain to an exempt place, such reflection is always permissible.

However, we should note that the tight limitation on what is considered a mekom petur means that putting something there is almost certain to be both a rare and temporary act. While occasional reflection and re-evaluation is proper, a person should never leave his entire system of values up for grabs.