Expert: Rabbi Barry Dov Lerner - 7/3/2006

Question
Rabbi,
Thank you for your follow-up answer. As a closing thought, I find it interesting that, as humans beings and Jews, we seem to feel the need to improve on G-d. The text is clear that gathering was the sin, much like the prohibition against gathering manna on the Seventh Day.
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Followup To

Question -
Rabbi,
Right you are, should have been Numbers, not Deuteronomy. What was his crime? Do you find it odd that 'gathering' is not mentioned among the 39 categories of work prohibited on Sabbath?
Thanks in advance!
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Followup To

Question -
Rabbi,
What was the man's crime in Deut. 15:35? The 'traditional' explainations don't seem to make much sense (ie gathering=Sabbath desicration), as both the crime and punishment would have been known to the people and especially Moses at that time, without direct consultation with HaShem. Thanks in advance for your time. Shalom!

Answer -
Dear Ovadiah

Thanks for writing.

The text to which you are referring I imagine is really inNumbers and not Deutronomy.

In any event, according to all of the classical commentaries, the Israelites all did know that the punishment for the violation of the Sabbath was death.

However, many of them agree that what they didn't know was the exact form of the execution and its location. They had to consult with Moses and Aaron and God for this information.

Best wishes

Rabbi Dov




Answer -
Dear Ovadiah,

Thanks for writing.

The Talmud in Shabbat, see 73b and 96b, discusses exactly your question. They suggest that the "violation" was either (1) gathering the sticks together; (2) carrying the sticks in violation of a public domain; (3) or even tearing the branches from a tree.

But, it is agreed that Shabbat was violated and the punishment deserved.

Rabbi Dov

Answer
Dear Ovadiah,

I appreciate your kind - albeit slightly patronizing :-)  - comments, although I had sensed you are slightly "right" of my own thinking. Just remember please that I am a Conservative Rabbi and this is a Conservative answer site - never intended to be Orthodox.

To be clear, I disagree with your conclusion that it is "obvious" that the sin is gathering. When Hazal debate an item, it is not so obvious - IMHO.

Best wishes as we conclude this discussion and return to our own studies of Torah.

Rabbi Dov