One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
הִלְכוֹת שְׁבִיתַת יוֹם טוֹב
Shevitat Yom Tov · Chapter 2
Sefer Zemanim · Muktzeh on the festival: what your mind claimed the day before
Mind
Permission follows thought, not the object
"Take these"
Words designate the doves
3 → 2
Designated 3, found 2: permitted; found 3: forbidden
1 egg
Warm ash is still fire while it cooks one
Part 1A mind must rest on it
- The calf and the chick. A calf found in a slaughtered mother is permitted (the mother was designated); a chick hatched on the festival is muktzeh - yesterday, inside its egg, no mind rested on it. (2:1)
- Home each night. Animals that graze past the city limit but sleep in town may be slaughtered; those that also spend nights out - "the attention of the city is not on them" - may not, though they stand before you. (2:2-3)
- Even sacred property. A consecrated animal blemished on the festival may not be slaughtered - yesterday it was unblemished and no one could intend to eat it - and the Sages forbade even inspecting the blemish. (2:4)
- The firstborn in the pit. One climbs down and feeds it where it lies, but may not haul it out, since it cannot be slaughtered today and lifting it serves no festival need. (2:4)
RememberThe festival asks not what a thing is, but where your mind was resting when the day began.
Part 2Say the words: I will take these
- Speak over the doves. House chickens need no designation; doves in a cote or nesting in a loft are muktzeh unless, the day before, you said "I will take these and these." (2:5-7)
- Follow the count exactly. Designated black, found white - all forbidden. Designated two, found three - all forbidden (a stranger hides among them). Designated three, found two - permitted, simply yours minus one. (2:7-8)
- The net test. Anything you could not take without saying "bring a net to snare it" is muktzeh; a hunter's traps permit only what he knows was caught before the festival. (2:9-10)
- Yesterday's forethought. One who dammed a channel before the festival and found fish trapped in the morning may take them - they were caught, by his intention, while it was still yesterday. (2:11)
RememberSpeech is how a mind takes hold without hands - and the count must match: 3 found as 2 is yours; 2 found as 3 is not.
Part 3Gifts, firewood, and warm ash
- The gentile's gift. Produce still attached somewhere, or fish that could have been caught today, must wait until evening plus the time the picking would take - even a myrtle sprig may not be smelled until then. (2:12-13)
- Newborn firewood. Branches that fell today are forbidden (pile permitted wood over them until a minority); a utensil broken today may not feed the fire, though one broken before the festival may. (2:14-15)
- Pin down the leaves. Leaves the wind could scatter count as scattered - unless a heavy vessel was laid over them beforehand; scattered field-wood may not be brought in even if gathered yesterday. (2:16-17)
- Death and warm ash. An animal that died today may be cut for dogs only if it was gravely ill yesterday; ash is permitted only while still warm enough to cook an egg - then it is still fire, not the new thing it becomes when cool. (2:18)
RememberWhat the mind abandons drifts out of reach - warm ash is fire; cold ash is muktzeh.