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Rosh Kollel: Rabbi Mordecai Kornfeld
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Beitzah 009: Ladders
aaron massry asked:
>>The gemara says that a ladder thats made for costruction is prohibited to
carry to another chicken coop on yom tov cause people will say that he is
moving it to construction purposes.If so every keli sheme'lachto lei'sur
should not be allowed to be handled even for pupose of permissible
purposes,for instance we know a hammer may be used to crack nuts on
shabbat.Shouldn't we be concerned that onlookers will assume your taking
the hammer to go build something?<<
The Kollel replied:
>>1) Your question may be answered if we look at the Mishnah Berurah in
Bi'ur Halachah OC 208:19, DH Sulam. The Bi'ur Halachah cites the Bi'ur
ha'Gra who sides with the Rashba, that the only prohibition is to transport
the ladder from one place to another, while merely moving the ladder around
in its place is permitted.
2) This means that according to the Rashba, the ladder is not actually
Muktzeh. Rather, the prohibition involved is that if one moves it around
between different chicken coops, this arouses a suspicion that one is going
to do construction work on the roof. In contrast, merely carrying it a
short distance is permitted.
3) This is why one may use the hammer to crack open nuts. The only activity
which is prohibited, according to the Rashba, is conspicuous transporting
of this noticeable ladder, while merely moving around a hammer does not
arouse suspicion that one is going to build with it; the only forbidden
activity is moving around a large object from one place ready for
construction to another similar place.<<
The Kollel added:
>>Here are more differences between the ladder and the hammer:
1) a. Tosfos (Beitzah 9b, DH Mai) makes a distinction between different
kinds of ladders. Tosfos presents a contradiction to the Gemara in Beitzah
from the Gemara in Eruvin (77b) which states that it is permitted to move
ladders. He answers that the Sugya in Beitzah is referring to large
ladders, and that is why it is forbidden to carry them, while the Sugya in
Beitzah refers to small ladders which one may move around.
b. According to this, since a hammer is a small item, it is permitted to
move it around. The only item for which we are concerned that people will
say he is going to use for construction work is a large ladder, while
people will not find his activity with the small hammer so noticeable and
will not suspect him.
2) a. Another distinction can be seen in the Mishneh Berurah OC 308:80 in
the name of the Pri Megadim who writes that, according to the Rambam, one
may not move the ladder used for climbing on the roof, even "l'Tzorech Gufo
u'Mekomo" -- even if one is moving the ladder in order to use it, or if one
needs to use the place where the ladder is situated for some purpose.
b. What this means is that according to the Rambam, the ladder is not even
considered a "Kli she'Melachto l'Isur" -- a utensil which is generally used
for a forbidden Melachah. The Halachah for a Kli sh'Melachto l'Isur is that
one may move it l'Tzorech Gufo u'Mekomo; this indeed is the reason why one
may use the hammer to crack the nuts, because this is considered "l'Tzorech
Gufo" as the hammer is a Kli and one is now using it for a permitted
purpose.
c. The Magen Avraham OC 308:38 writes that the reason why the ladder is not
considered a Kli according to the Rambam is that it is similar to the door
of a house. A house is not a Kli, so its door is not a Kli, and similarly
the ladder is not a Kli.
d. According to the above, we may now explain that when a person uses a
hammer to crack nuts, he is in fact using a "Kli" for a permitted purpose.
Therefore, we are not worried that people will think he is using the hammer
for construction; people understand that a hammer does have permitted uses
as well. In contrast, when somebody moves around a ladder, it is not
considered a Kli and therefore we are more stringent with its Halachos and
take into account forbidden activities that onlookers may think he is
carrying out.<<
---
The Kollel adds:
I posed your question to a Gadol and he replied "Patish Ikaro la'Kol" -- a
hammer is intended for all purposes. I will attempt to explain this answer.
1) First, it is worth bearing in mind that nowadays we possess a wealth of
different tools, each one having a specialized use. In the time of the
Gemara there was probably less of a choice of different tools for each
particular job. It is quite likely that there was no such thing as a
nutcracker, designed explicitly for cracking nuts. Therefore, even though
the majority of tasks done with a hammer would be activities which are
forbidden on Shabbos, nevertheless it would not be unusual or remarkable to
use a hammer to crack nuts if necessary. Therefore, Chazal did not make a
prohibition because of Mar'is ha'Ayin to do so.
2) Even if we would say that nowadays it is unusual to crack nuts with a
hammer, nevertheless we have a rule that in our times we do not make new
decreees and prohibitions that were not made by Chazal. In addition, it
appears to me that even nowadays it would not be so unusual to use a hammer
for such a purpose. For instance, if somebody did not have a nutcraker
available, it is very likely he would use a hammer instead, so even
nowadays there would be no need to make a prohibition on such a thing.
3) In contrast, it appears that the ladder referred to in the Gemara here
had a much more specialistic use. This can be seen more clearly if we look
at the Chidushei ha'Rashba to Beitzah 9b, DH v'Yesh, who cites an opinion
that the Gemara here is discussing very large ladders which are usually
used only to go up on the roof to smear on material there. According to
this, there certainly is a very big difference between these ladders and
the far more versatile hammer.
Kol Tuv,
Dovid Bloom
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