#238: Machshavah
We learned last week that it is forbidden to remove an object placed in a tree on Shabbat. An amazing story is told by Rav Yosef Zvi Rimon (Halacha Mimekora, Shabbat, p.444) about Rav Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky, the Steipler, in connection with his personal sacrifice to observe this halacha.
“The Rav [Rav Kanievsky] had been forced to serve as a soldier in the Russian army [before he moved to Eretz Yisrael]. On one Shabbat, it was snowy and intensely cold. The guards were given a special fleece coat to wear, with which they could make it through their shift reasonably well. When the Rav neared the guard post, the previous guard saw him from a distance and left. As the Rav reached the post, he saw that the previous guard had left the coat hanging on a tree.
As is known, it is forbidden to remove objects from a tree on Shabbat. Rav Yaakov Yisrael decided not to remove the coat. As time passed, it became extremely cold, and the Rav considered again whether to remove the coat from the tree. Removing from the tree is only a rabbinic prohibition, so perhaps in this case one may be lenient? But he then thought to himself: I will wait just another five minutes, after all, no harm can be done in five minutes. After five minutes, he was about to remove the coat, but said to himself again: I will wait another five minutes, as no harm can be done in five minutes. And in this manner the entire Shabbat passed, and the Rav did not remove the coat from the tree…”
Rav Rimon notes that certainly, according to the halacha, one may clearly violate a rabbinic prohibition in a case such as this. But he concludes that this story illustrates Rav Kanievsky’s mesirut nefesh (self-sacrifice) for Shabbat and the extent that we must strive to observe every detail of the halachot of Shabbat.
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Dedicated by Fran Broder as a zechus for the hostages to be released safely to their families and may everlasting peace come to Eretz Yisrael in the merit of learning Hilchos Shabbos.
