What a poor talmid walks out with from Shabbos 31a

אִם יִרְצֶה הַשֵּׁם

Shabbos 31a. Shiur of R’ Avigdor Miller, recording 060, from seven lines up: אמר ריש לקיש מאי דכתיב.

A lot of learning with no yirah is wheat on a roof with no chumtin.

A wick put out to make it into charcoal is a melacha for itself. A wick put out so the house will not be seen is not.

The one thread

Whatever you learned sits in one box. The box is yiras Hashem. Without it the wheat on the roof is worse than the wheat downstairs.

When they ask you after death they will ask about honest money, a set time for Torah, children, waiting for yeshuah, talking chochmah, and deriving one thing from another. Then they will ask whether yirah was the box.

On the lamp: putting a fire out so the house will not burn is not the melacha for itself. Putting a fire out to leave charcoal is. R. Yosi’s wick is the second one. The Mishnah said so: שהוא עושה פחם shehu oseh pecham.

First, the scene

A man has learned Zeraim through Taharos, or some of it. He dies. They bring him in. Six questions. Then the box.

A worker has hauled a kor of wheat onto a roof and forgotten the kab of earth that keeps flies off.

Two Amoraim are sitting. A man walks by. One stands because the man fears sin. The other stands because the man has Torah.

It is Shabbos. A lamp is burning. Goyim or robbers are outside, or the man does not want to waste oil, or the wick will light better if he puts it out now and chars it. That is the hour.

Terms of art

• אֱמוּנַת עִתֶּיךָ חֹסֶן יְשׁוּעֹת חָכְמַת וָדָעַת יִרְאַת ה' הִיא אוֹצָרוֹ emunas itecha chosen yeshuos chochmas va-daas yiras Hashem hi otzaro.
• נָשָׂאתָ וְנָתַתָּ בֶּאֱמוּנָה nasata ve-nasata be-emunah.
• קָבַעְתָּ עִתִּים לַתּוֹרָה kavata itim la-Torah.
• חֻמְטִין chumtin (earth mixed into stored grain so insects stay off).
• יִרְאַת חֵטְא yiras chet.
• מְלָאכָה שֶׁאֵינָהּ צְרִיכָה לְגוּפָהּ melacha she-einah tzerichah le-gufah.
• סוֹתֵר עַל מְנָת לִבְנוֹת בִּמְקוֹמוֹ soser al menas livnos b’mekomo.
• עוֹשֶׂה פֶּחָם oseh pecham.
• מְתַקֵּן מָנָא mesaken mana.

1. The six sedarim are the verse

Emunah is planting. You bury bread-seed and wait for a crop. That is already emunah.

Itecha is the calendar. Use the times.

Chosen is Nashim. The next generation, and how you deal with the person who bears it.

Yeshuos is Nezikin. First do not injure. Then help.

Chochmah is Kodashim. Nothing in the avodah is small.

Daas is Taharos. He called some things tamei so you will stay away. What you eat is a siman of what you are.

Remember: the last phrase is not a seventh seder. It is the treasury the six sit in.

2. The six questions are not the last question

Honest dealing. A set time. Children. Waiting for Moshiach. Talking the learning. Seeing one thing from another.

Even if yes: im yiras Hashem hi otzaro.

Remember: be-emunah is loyalty, not only “I did not steal cash.” Time stolen from an employer is in the question. Rotten goods sold as first-rate is in the question.

3. The kab of chumtin

Wheat on the roof without the earth is more exposed than wheat in the bin.

You may not spend the day only on yirah. You mix a little in so the learning lasts.

A bin filled with twenty-nine se’ah of wheat and one kab of chumtin is a better delivery than thirty se’ah that will rot.

Rabbah bar Rav Huna’s treasurer has every inner key. He cannot reach the door.

R. Yona’s man built a gate and has no house.

Both pictures are needed. Im ein Torah ein yirah. Im ein yirah ein Torah.

4. Yiras chet is the higher praise

Ordinary yiras shamayim is awareness that He is looking.

Yiras chet is treating a chet like poison. Every word. Every doorway.

When one Amora stands for dechil chatain and the other for bar orayan, the first one already used the higher name.

They pin that line on R. Elazar because R. Yochanan said in his name that Hashem has nothing in His world except yiras shamayim. Hein means one. That chochmah is a science.

5. Stop after one clove

Al terasha harbeh is not a small heter to be wicked. You already smell of garlic. More garlic is worse. Stop. Build so it does not happen again.

The rasha whose heart is as wide as a hall is not missing information. He talks about death and still marches. Hashem fattens the road the man already chose.

6. The lamp is a purpose, not a flame

Putting the lamp out so goyim or robbers will not see you: you do not need the flame gone for itself. Tanna Kama: patur.

Putting it out to save oil or to save the vessel: Tanna Kama chayav, R. Yosi patur.

Putting it out because this wick still needs to be scorched so it will light next time: both chayav. That is charcoal. That is tzerichah le-gufah. That is mesaken mana.

Do not walk in with the psak you heard on the Mishnah. The Gemara first asks who R. Yosi is. He is not plain Yehuda and not plain Shimon.

7. Two tries at R. Yosi

Abaye: R. Yosi is Yehuda, but only demolition in order to rebuild on the same plot. Spare oil is another place. This wick, lit again, is the same place.

The Mishkan was taken down to go to the next camp. Al pi Hashem yachanu: they had no other place decided. If He had said “here,” they would have put it back here.

R. Yochanan: R. Yosi is Shimon. The wick in the Mishnah still needs scorching. Putting the flame out now makes charcoal. Even Shimon says chayav.

Remember: the Mishnah already said shehu oseh pecham. That sentence picks R. Yochanan. The first picture — “it was already charred before Shabbos, so he means to light it again” — is dropped.

Open kashya

If oseh pecham already does the work, why run soser b’mekomo and the Mishkan first.

And is charcoal on a wick the same melacha as charcoal on a log — kibui that produces a fuel — or is it mesaken mana on a kli. The Gemara says both sentences. It does not say which one is carrying the chiyuv.