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Shabbos 108


QUESTION: The Gemara says that Tefilin may not be written on the hide of a Tamei animal because the flesh of that animal is not "Mutar b'Ficha" (permissible to be eaten), as is derived from the verse (Shemos 13:9).

The SEFER HA'MANHIG asks that this verse was spoken by Hashem to the Jewish people *before* the giving of the Torah! If so, how can the verse be teaching that Tefilin may not be written on the hides of Tamei animals which may not be eaten, when, at the time that this verse was said, it was *permitted* to eat those animals?


(a) Indeed, the Torah does not mean that the Jewish people were given the Mitzvah of Tefilin at the time that they left Egypt, before they received the Torah. Only when they received the Torah did they receive the Mitzvah of Tefilin, at which time they also knew which animals were forbidden. Alternatively, the Mitzvah of Tefilin was mandatory only from the time that the Jewish people entered into the land of Israel.

The Sefer ha'Manhig proves this from the fact that Tefilin include four chapters from the Torah, and two of those chapters were not spoken to the Jewish people in Egypt but only at Har Sinai. It must be that the Mitzvah of Tefilin was not given until the giving of the Torah at Sinai or until the Jews entered Israel. By that time, the Tamei animals were already forbidden.

(b) Other Rishonim maintain that the Mitzvah applied even from the time that the Jews went out of Egypt (see, for example, Chidushei ha'Rashba in Menachos 35b). According to those Rishonim, what is the answer to the Sefer ha'Manhig's question? It must be that there was a certain tradition that the Jewish people had received from their forebears that certain animals were destined to be forbidden when the Torah would be given.


OPINIONS: The Gemara discusses the prohibition against dipping food in salt water. Why is it prohibited?
(a) RASHI in the Mishnah (DH v'ha'Lo Hu) and in the Gemara (DH Ein Molchin) says that when one salts food, one is being Mesaken the food. It seems that Rashi compares it to completing a utensil, which is forbidden because of Makeh b'Patish.

(b) The RAMBAM (Hilchos Shabbos 22:10) writes that it is forbidden because of Bishul, since salting "cooks" the food in a certain respect.

(c) TOSFOS earlier (75b, DH Ein Ibud) seems to say that salting food is forbidden because of Molei'ach u'Me'abed (processing hides). Even though there is no prohibition of processing with regard to food items, that is true only mid'Oraisa. Mid'Rabanan, though, it is also forbidden to process foods.

Rashi, at the end of his commentary on our Mishnah (end of DH v'Elu Hen) also seems to say that there is an element of Me'abed involved.

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