Chesapeake Torah

Please learn/daven for the refuah shleima of
Rav Efraim ben Miriam -heart patient

This week’s piece is dedicated in memory of Shirley Schmell zt”l
Shaindel bas R’Boruch HaCohen
By her family the Karps, Schmells, Mishaans, and Goldmans

BSD

Affiliate of the Baltimore Community Kollel
Affiliate of the Lancaster Yeshiva

In the Parsha of Yisro we find the Jews getting ready to receive the Torah. They are told to prepare and set boundaries with the phrase ”make yourself holy ” appearing repeatedly. As far as we know, G-d is not descending again upon Sinai to ‘regive’ the Torah (at least physically). Nevertheless the lesson of preparedness for holy days remains. Those Jews made boundaries to prevent ascension onto Mt. Sinai . That was a matter of protection. Our world of Erev Shabbos / Yom Tov work needs its protective boundaries as well.
Today let’s take a good look at the rules of leaving work to be prepared for a holiday/Shabbos. These rules will also show us until when the workforce of our town can aid us to be prepared (perhaps at their own expense). We’ll see a balance of our needs and theirs. There will be room in the Halacha for accomodating community need.

(It would be advisable to refer back to our last piece in order to better appreciate this week’s.)

We’ve written in the past, about how Erev(Eve of)Pesach is the most stringent when it comes to refraining from work. The workday needs to end at midday, or maybe even earlier depending on local custom. We have cited several reasons for this holiday’s stringency.

Here’s another reason mentioned by many sources.

Whenever a person brings a korban /offering, that day is considered somewhat of a Yom Tov . That being so, it’s not a day for work. Erev Pesach fits that bill as all Jews participate in their korban Pesach.
The pure legal application of this, is not to work Erev afternoon. Working in the morning will depend on custom. The Mishna in Pesachim 55A has taught us that we have 3 or 4 craftsmen who get special dispensation. This is the opinion of the Chachamim, not Rabbi Meir. The craftsmen were the tailor, the cleaner and the barber and some say the shoemaker (For repairs, everyone would except the shoemaker. The argument is about a new pair of shoes - Mishna Berura.) They can work when others can’t because they are of great need to the community. But what exactly is the scenario of the Mishna?

Rambam with Maggid Mishna
This Mishna is speaking in a place where work is permitted Erev Pesach morning. That means that this mishna is straight law with no custom having evolved.
But even here there are limits:

Regular workers, whose work is less urgent for Yom Tov preparations, may finish work begun the day before. (If the work must be of a Yom Tov nature - is a topic of much discussion in the Gemara and elsewhere)

The 3 or 4 urgent workers may even begin a new project on Erev Yom Tov.
These workers and their services are of dire need to the community; therefore we permit them to be of service until a later time.

Now what would happen in a place where the custom is not to work Erev Pesach before Midday?
We don’t need a Mishna to discuss that !!!
The community will follow whatever custom they develop for themselves
The Bach, Rabbi Yoel Sirkish, has a different angle in the Rambam. He learns that even within places where work was permitted, there is still some customary refraining from work. This would then mean that our Mishna is part legal in permitting work and part custom when limiting worker activity.

Rosh/Tur
The Mishna is speaking in a place where the custom is not to allow work the entire day. Here are the limits:
Regular workers may finish Yom tov projects begun the day before.
The 3 or 4 urgent workers-may begin new projects.
If the city was of the custom to allow work in the Erev morning, all workers may begin or finish projects as they please.

Remember though, the definition of work is not the same as it is on the actual holiday. It means physical labor here.
In regards to stores and merchandising, please refer back to last week’s piece on Bo/Beshalach.
The Prach and Chayai Adam
Now what about the Rambam’s question? The Rosh-Tur are learning that the Mishna in Pesachim is giving guidelines for places with the non-work custom. But who needs that? Why not just follow whatever they have developed over the years?
The Prach/ Chayai Adam learn that the Mishna is simply informing us indeed what the common development was known to be for such places. We would read the Mishna that some places accustomed themselves to allow certain kinds of work but not others that were less pressing for Yom Tov. Were there to be a new community that wanted enact an Erev custom, this Mishna would be their guideline.
Could a place come up with another style custom even more stringent?
The Bach/Maggid Mishna sound like a community has the ability to institute however they wish. That could result in stricter limits than we have spoken of.
The question would arise though, as to if some opinions would not allow such strictness. Perhaps the Mishna is setting a guideline that the 3-4 artisans should always be allowed dispensation.
Now wait a second!!!!
Thus far we have only discussed working Erev Pesach before midday. What about the other holidays?
As we discussed back in Parsha Vaw’ay’ra, Rashi and other Rishonim hold that a community may add hours onto the limit. Since the Rabbis had already installed the “be done by Mincha time” limit, a community can elect to stop even earlier. We told you in our other piece, that the Ran is not totally convinced of this idea. He holds that only Erev Pesach has the ability to allow for such a custom. Other holidays, as great as they are cannot develop a binding custom of this sort.
However, following the opinions that a town can add to the limit, today’s discussion would seem to apply to other Erevs as well.

Morris Hillquit the UHT and the Bakers’ Union #2
Even after the success of the first bakers’ strike, it wasn’t long before trouble arose again. Big time!!
It was early morning.
A report came in to Bernard Weinstein of the UHT from the newly formed bakers’ union. A baker had collapsed during night work and was in critical condition. He was lying in agony in the bakery. Weinstein rushed to the bakery cellar and found appalling conditions beyond belief. The bakery was wall-to-wall filth. Amidst the squalor, three emaciated and exhausted bakers continued to work. This was right alongside of their co-worker who lay collapsed. The combination of sleep deprivation, heat and the fetid air had finally overwhelmed this poor man. A model of white slavery. Weinstein had the fallen baker transported to the hospital then promptly filed a report with the Labor Department of New York.
An investigation of East Side bakeries ensued, revealing the horrid truth. “These bakeries were inhuman shops and a menace to public health.”
Although this was a tragic incident it led somewhere worthwhile. After reviewing the investigation report, the New York Legislature was ready to enacted legal protection for bakers. The new law stated that bakers could not be asked to work more than a ten-hour day. No more marathons whittling men into sickly shells of themselves.
The employers were not ready to accept this law and there would be a battle. This would lead to the court case of Lochner vs. New York , a case, which would need to go to the Supreme Court. The question before the court would be as follows:

Should government get involved in regulating commerce?
If they should, it will only be for those who are at a kind of risk which they cannot fend off by themselves.
Is baking a health risk occupation? Could the bakers do it alone?
This would be a battle between the New York and Supreme Courts.

(To be continued)

Sources:
Autobiography of American Jews by Harold U. Ribalow
“Two Jewish Justices” by Robert A. Burt
“The Supreme Court” by Jeffrey Rosen

Good Shabbos from all of the Karps

All Chesapeake Torah Publications are
dedicated to the memories of:
ABE SCHMELL
Sinai Aryeh ben Chaim Larry Ambush Mendel Taubenfeld
Sarah Ambush Pattashnick Yisroel Mordechai Schmell
Rabbi Dr.Aaron Eliezer Schnell
Eliezer ben Zvi Jean Mildred Wartzman
Melissa Heward Joseph London Sol Milgrom
Sidney Goldstein. FANNY and SAM STEINBERG. Rabbi Elozor Isbee, Florence & Arthur Goldstein, Mr.& Mrs. Morris Weiner, Florence Zolchonik, Yosef, Gussie and Pearl Zoller, Mrs. Shirley Schmell, Mr. & Mrs. Harry (Naftali) Schmell, Rabbi Solomon Schneider, Arthur Karp and the Martyrs of Slonim, Seymour Borish, Joseph Schuman, Dorothy Karp, Jack Pearlman, Rabbi Michoel Tzvi Nussbaum, Rev. Yossel Winzelberg, Mr & Mrs. Boruch Rosenfeld, Morris and Rose Gibber, Benjamin Needleman, Zelig and Bessie Glazer, Mr and Mrs. Azriel Jacubowitz, Yissocher Mattel, Nathan and Sara Cain, Harvey Miller, Rabbi Benjamin Steinberg, Rav Yehuda Kreitman, Arkady/Avraham Resman.

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