Why is Kindling Fire Mentioned Exclusively as a Shabbos Prohibition?

Parshat VAYAKHEL - Fekudei

by Rabbi Avi Billet

In opening the parsha with an announcement about Shabbos, Moshe Rabbenu singles out the kindling of fire as something that should not be done on the holy day. Some of the commentaries note that this singling out demonstrates that just as this is forbidden, all of the categories of Melakha (creative labors) are forbidden on Shabbos. 

 This is a classic rabbinic analysis which simplifies a more complex issue, while essentially side-stepping the question of why was this prohibition singled out? 

The Pesikta (and Chizkuni and others) note that the Torah’s indication that you are not to kindle fire “in your dwelling places” excludes the Mikdash, where handling and dealing with fire, for the sake of the sacrificial order, is permitted on Shabbos. (אש תמיד תוקד על המזבח) 

Ramban quotes Rabbi Nosson, in a statement found in the Mechilta, who says that when Moshe gathered the people, the assumption everyone made was that it would be permitted to light a candle and to heat up food, and to make a fire on Shabbos (probably because inherently, fire by itself is not a creative labor), so Moshe needed to single it out. Rabbi Nosson (Ramban explains) says the Torah is not needed to tell us that baking, cooking, and other activities for food preparation are forbidden because we are told that in the context of the Mon (manna), that it would need to be prepared before Shabbos. 

However, people might assume that lighting a candle (for light) or a fireplace (for warmth), and heating water to be able to wash one’s body in warm water should all be permitted because they would fall in the category of things that enhance Shabbos (Oneg), which in general is permitted. So the Torah has to specify the forbidden nature of fire. However, this does not mean that you can’t have fires on Shabbos. Only that you can’t kindle the fire on Shabbos. 

 The Pesikta goes into great detail about this, noting that something that was put in order before Shabbos is allowed to continue into Shabbos. You can plant on Shabbos, and the seeds may take root on Shabbos. You can put skins into the tannery on Friday, for them to soak over Shabbos. Therefore you can light a fire before Shabbos that will continue to burn into Shabbos. If someone has some kind of irrigation system for his field, and he opens it before Shabbos, the water may flow through to his field throughout Shabbos. It’s not like the way the Torah forbids chametz on Pesach, where you can’t even see it and it can’t be found on Shabbos. It is just forbidden to kindle the fire on Shabbos, but it is not forbidden to see it or for it to be doing something over the course of its lifetime, such as until it dies down. 

This is one reason why there is a (Rabbinic) Mitzvah going back all the way to the time of Moshe to light Shabbos candles. The Rabbis even said the candles represent (or even provide) peace in the home, so that a person not come to violate (or desecrate) the Shabbos, because the candle is pre-lit in case needed for the ill, or to see the food we are eating. He also mentions that a non-Jew may light a candle for his own needs, and the Jew may benefit it… perhaps one of the early sources of “the Shabbos goy,” a fascinating arrangement in some areas of Jewish life. (“Do I want you to turn on the light? You do what you want! I’m not asking you to do anything for me!”) 

In his regular peirush, Ibn Ezra notes (as does Rashbam) that the Torah needed to be specific here because cooking and baking is permitted on Yom Tov. So there needed to be a distinction made regarding Shabbos. 

 But in his Peirush HaKatzar, ironically (because Katzar means 'shorter'), Ibn Ezra has a lengthy comment about this specific instruction, as he tells a tale of his encounter with a Karaite, one who takes the word of the Torah literally and leaves no room for the interpretation of the Rabbis, versus the Rabbis who allow the fire to have been lit beforehand, but only limit how people use or engage with that fire. The Karaites assumed that the fire could not be FOUND in your home AT ALL over the course of Shabbos 

 “I told him ‘Let’s leave aside any words of tradition, and we’ll confine our arguments to the text itself.’ He was very happy [with these groundrules for the argument]. I asked him ‘Who forbade kindling lights on Shabbos, after the sun has set?’ He answered ‘Do not kindle a fire…’ to which I responded, ‘but the verse only says not to kindle a fire ביום השבת – on the DAY of Shabbos.’ We similarly learn that a bris can only take place during the daytime because the verse says וביום השמיני – on the 8th DAY – he is to be circumcised, from which we derive that a bris can ONLY take place during the daytime and not at night. He answered, ‘The verse says And it was Evening and it was Morning, one Day – both parts of the day are called יום (Day). And the evening precedes the morning.’ I told hm that is contradicted by the verse that says that God referred to the אור (light) as יום (day), so how could you go ahead and contradict what God said that only when there is light is it considered Day? And there are also several verses that reference לילה ויום – day and night – indicating they are two separate entities? (Melachim I 8:29, Bereshis 8:22, Esther 4:16, Yonah 2:1). He quoted the verse, ‘From evening until evening you shall rest your Sabbath’ (Vayikra 23:32 – the verse references how Yom Kippur is a full 24-5 hour fast). I told him that verse is an exception because it is exclusively referring to Yom Kippur and ONLY to Yom Kippur. The proof is that it says you shall rest FOR YOUR SABBATH – שבתכם – presenting in the singular, indicating that this is unique and exclusive. Usually God refers to MY SABBATHS – את שבתותי תשמרו.” 

Further responses from Ibn Ezra required the man to go back to the drawing board and to find other verses that seemed to comport to his view. Sometimes it took him a few days to get back to him, in one case it took over a month for him to try to refute Ibn Ezra. Ultimately, with each rejection of the Karaite’s argument, Ibn Ezra said, “My goal was to prove to him that we because we can find verses that we can always interpret however we like, we therefore MUST rely on how they are to be understood based on the Mesorah we have been given. This is what the Oral Torah is all about, why it is fundamental, and why it cannot be summarily rejected,” just because a person feels differently from our Mesorah. [See the remainder of the passage below*] 

The most logical answer to the question of why fire has to be mentioned separately, however, comes from Rabbi Baruch HaLevi Epstein in his Tosefes Bracha, when he suggests that the association of the Mishkan to Shabbos goes back to all the “work” (creative labor) God engaged in in the Six Days of Creation. The Talmud tells us in Pesachim 54a that God first introduced fire to world on Saturday night. Therefore, any prohibition associated with Shabbos, and its being the model of the creative labors which are forbidden on Shabbos, would have to go back to the kinds of labors theoretically associated with Creation Itself. Something created AFTER creation – namely FIRE – would have to have its own mention when the laws of Shabbos are being laid out in front of everyone. 

Whether because fire was created AFTER Shabbos, or it is mentioned separately for other reasons, such as to distinguish from its use in the Mikdash, or the use of fire for holiday eating, the active use of Fire (as opposed to the passive use, based in it having been set before Shabos), along with all the other Melakhos, defines for us what resting on Shabbos is all about. 

 May we be worthy of observing Shabbos properly, and may the observance of Shabbos properly (see Talmud Bavli Shabbos 118a) herald the coming of the Moshiach that we so desperately need.