Shulchan Arukh · Orach Chayim
In-depth pilpul
The sugya of Shabbat 35b,
the structure of the six blasts and the counting problem,
the chakira on its status — enactment or custom,
the Rama’s chidush and how the Acharonim measure it
Subject: Shulchan Arukh Orach Chayim, siman 256 · 1 seif
Talmudic basis: Shabbat 35b · Rambam, Hilkhot Shabbat 5:18–21
Edited by: Rav Yossef Haim Samama · DAAT
📑 Contents
- The baraita of the six blasts — Shabbat 35b, and the problem of the count
- The structure of the six blasts — three blasts of function, three of closure
- Chakira on the status — an enactment of the Sages, a custom, or a facet of tosefet Shabbat?
- The positions on the obligation of the blasts after the destruction
- The Rama’s chidush — the announcement of the shaliach tzibbur in place of the shofar
- The days on which they did not blow — Yom Kippur and Yom Tov
- The source of tosefet Shabbat — the link with siman 261
- The question of time — half an hour or an hour before Shabbat
- Modern practical nafka minot — siren, announcements, scheduled messages
📜 The text of the Shulchan Arukh — 1 seif
« כשהיו ישראל ביישובן היו תוקעין בע״ש ששה תקיעות כדי להבדיל את העם מן המלאכה » (שולחן ערוך אורח חיים רנ״ו)
« ונהגו בקהלות הקדושות שכל שהוא סמוך לשבת כחצי שעה או שעה שמכריז ש״צ להכין עצמן לשבת והיא במקום התקיעות בימיהם וכן ראוי לנהוג בכל מקום » (רמ״א שם)
summary: the Mechaber reports, in the past tense, what was done when Israel dwelt settled on its land — six blasts on the eve of Shabbat, to separate the people from work. The Rama adds a gloss in the present tense: in the communities, half an hour or an hour before Shabbat, the shaliach tzibbur announces that one should prepare, and this stands in place of the blasts of their day; and it is fitting to follow this practice everywhere.
The whole pilpul of the siman lies in the gap between these two sentences. The first is a description; the second is a prescription. Between them stands a question neither poses explicitly: is the Rama replacing an obligation that still stands, or instituting a new custom in place of an obligation that has lapsed? Everything that follows serves to instruct that question.
1. The baraita of the six blasts — Shabbat 35b
The seif does no more than gather up a baraita. Until one has read it in its own divisions, one knows neither what the Mechaber is codifying nor what the Rama is replacing. The Be’er HaGolah, under this seif, points to one place only: שבת ל״ה:.
summary: six blasts on Friday. The first halts work in the fields; the second, the town and the shops; the third — for Rabbi Natan, the kindling of the lamp; for Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, the removal of tefillin. Then one waits the time it takes to roast a small fish or to stick a loaf to the wall of the oven, one sounds tekiah, teruah, tekiah, and one rests.
The count does not come out on its own. The baraita announces six blasts, then names three by their function and adds three more in a single breath. That the total is six is therefore not self-evident on the page: it depends on how the closing sequence is counted. The gemara itself stumbles over that count, in connection with the practice of the Babylonians.
The gemara answers Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel with plain arithmetic — תּוֹקְעִין וּמְרִיעִין? הָווּ לְהוּ חֲמִשָּׁה: if the closing sequence is only tekiah-teruah, one reaches five. It therefore corrects the description: one blows, repeats, blows and sounds a teruah. And it seals the passage with a phrase that is not incidental for our subject — מִנְהַג אֲבוֹתֵיהֶן בִּידֵיהֶן: the custom of their fathers in their hands. Keep it in view: the gemara itself calls a variant of the sequence a custom.
Two groups, then, and not six blasts of one kind: three blasts of function, each commanding that a particular kind of work stop, and a closing sequence, which commands nothing but declares the entry. Between them, a wait measured by a kitchen gesture — וְשׁוֹהֶה כְּדֵי צְלִיַּית דָּג קָטָן אוֹ כְּדֵי לְהַדְבִּיק פַּת בַּתַּנּוּר (שבת ל״ה ע״ב). That caesura is what will later make it possible to ask whether a spoken announcement can stand for the whole or only for a part.
2. The structure of the six blasts — three of function, three of closure
| Blast | Function per Rabbi Natan | Function per Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Halt work in the fields | — |
| 2 | Close the town and the shops | — |
| 3 | Kindle the lamp — שְׁלִישִׁית — לְהַדְלִיק אֶת הַנֵּר | Remove tefillin — שְׁלִישִׁית — לַחֲלוֹץ תְּפִילִּין |
| 4 | Tekiah — closing sequence | |
| 5 | Teruah — closing sequence | |
| 6 | Tekiah — closing sequence, and then one rests | |
Rabbi Natan and Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi. Both hold the same frame — blasts of function, then a closing sequence. They differ on the object of the third: the kindling, or the removal of tefillin. The difference is not ornamental: it settles the timing of that blast, and therefore the interval left before sunset.
The gemara itself takes a side, and by an instructive route — a correction of the text.
summary: Rav Yehuda taught his son “the second to kindle the lamp”; the gemara objects that this version follows neither Rabbi Natan nor Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, and corrects it to “the third to kindle the lamp” — and according to whom? according to Rabbi Natan. It is therefore the sugya itself, and not a later posek, that aligns the received version with Rabbi Natan.
« פירש״י כדי שלא יחשדו הנכנסים באחרונה לומר שעסקו במלאכתן אחרי ששמעו קול השופר » (בית יוסף אורח חיים רנ״ו)
summary: so that the last to arrive should not be suspected of having gone on working after hearing the shofar, since not everyone knows who lives near and who lives far. The blast is therefore not only a signal: it creates a visible public order, and it is precisely that trait the Rama will have to transpose.
3. Chakira on the status of the institution
What, precisely, are these six blasts? Three ways of holding them, which do not yield the same consequences:
- Path A — an enactment of the Sages. A takanah properly so called, binding as such. If that is what it is, it does not lapse of itself along with the circumstances that gave rise to it: it takes an act to abolish it, or a substitute to sustain it.
- Path B — a custom. A practice of the communities, carried by the state in which Israel dwelt settled on its land; once the circumstances fall away, the custom falls with them, and whatever replaces it is a new custom.
- Path C — a facet of tosefet Shabbat. The blasts would not stand on their own but as the public form of a different obligation: adding from the profane to the holy. Then their disappearance leaves no void, but a duty in search of another form.
The Rambam describes the matter as the practice of all the provinces and towns of Israel, from a high place so that all may hear:
« כָּל מְדִינוֹת וַעֲיָרוֹת שֶׁל יִשְׂרָאֵל תּוֹקְעִין בָּהֶן שֵׁשׁ תְּקִיעוֹת בְּעֶרֶב שַׁבָּת. וּבְמָקוֹם גָּבוֹהַּ הָיוּ תּוֹקְעִין כְּדֵי לְהַשְׁמִיעַ כָּל אַנְשֵׁי הַמְּדִינָה » (רמב״ם הלכות שבת פ״ה הי״ח)
His verb is the present tense of description, and he goes on to fix the hours — which weighs toward path A, without his using the word takanah.
The Shulchan Arukh HaRav writes it in so many words:
« כְּשֶׁהָיוּ יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּיִשּׁוּבָן תִּקְּנוּ חֲכָמִים לִתְקוֹעַ שֵׁשׁ תְּקִיעוֹת בְּמָקוֹם גָּבוֹהַּ, לְהַבְדִּיל הָעָם מִן הַמְּלָאכָה » (שולחן ערוך הרב אורח חיים רנ״ו)
summary: when Israel dwelt in their own land, the Sages enacted that six blasts be sounded from a high place, to separate the people from work. The opening clause is to be kept: it places the enactment in a condition of the people that is no longer ours, and that is exactly what the rest of the seif draws out — “and now the custom has become…”. The sentence therefore supports path A for the time when the blasts were sounded, without settling by itself what holds today.
The gemara, as we saw, calls the Babylonian variant of the sequence a custom of the fathers — מִנְהַג אֲבוֹתֵיהֶן בִּידֵיהֶן (שבת ל״ה ע״ב) — which shows that at least the form of the sequence belonged to minhag.
The Mechaber writes in the past tense: כשהיו ישראל ביישובן היו תוקעין בע״ש ששה תקיעות כדי להבדיל את העם מן המלאכה (שולחן ערוך אורח חיים רנ״ו) — when Israel dwelt settled on its land. The phrase does not decide, but it situates.
Nafka mina. On path A, the Rama’s announcement must sustain something: a community that announces nothing would leave an enactment without execution. On path B, the announcement is a good custom, recommended but of another nature. On path C, the measure of the announcement is taken from tosefet Shabbat and not from the shofar — which is exactly what section 7 will find in a source. The question is not decided here: each of the three paths finds support in the texts cited, and the Acharonim discuss it.
4. The positions on the obligation of the blasts after the destruction
| Source | What it says of the blasts | What follows for today |
|---|---|---|
| Shabbat 35b | The baraita describes the practice and fixes its sequence; the gemara corrects the count and speaks of the custom of the fathers for the variant | Nothing is said there about the period after the destruction |
| Rambam, Hilkhot Shabbat 5:18–21 | Codifies the practice, the high place, the hours, and the days on which they did not blow | Codified with no clause confining it to the time of the Temple |
| Tur and Beit Yosef, siman 256 | Reproduce the baraita and the Rambam; the Beit Yosef twice refers to the end of the Rambam’s chapter 5 | Transmission with no clause of lapse |
| Mechaber (שולחן ערוך אורח חיים רנ״ו) | כשהיו ישראל ביישובן היו תוקעין בע״ש ששה תקיעות כדי להבדיל את העם מן המלאכה | Stated in the past tense: the description bears on a state now gone |
| Rama, gloss on the same seif (רמ״א שם) | והיא במקום התקיעות בימיהם | The announcement of the shaliach tzibbur stands in place of the blasts; וכן ראוי לנהוג בכל מקום |
| Shulchan Arukh HaRav, siman 256 | Speaks of an enactment of the Sages, then of the present custom of the communities | Announcement and sending a man to stop the craftsmen |
| Magen Avraham 256:1 and Mishnah Berurah 256:1–2 | Discuss the equivalence announcement ↔ blasts and judge it insufficient on its own | Practical duties added to the announcement |
A note on method. This table reproduces only positions whose text could be checked against its source. Where a shitah of a Rishon on the period after the destruction is sometimes invoked in the anthologies, we have not reproduced it for want of being able to verify its wording; the absence of a row here is not a position taken.
5. The Rama’s chidush — the announcement of the shaliach tzibbur in place of the shofar
The yesod. The Rama does not say that the blasts are abolished, nor that they are replaced for want of anything better. He says a few words that carry the whole siman — והיא במקום התקיעות בימיהם (רמ״א שם): the announcement stands in place of the blasts of their day. Which presupposes that the institution aimed at a function — public warning — and not at an instrument. And he closes with normative rather than descriptive language: וכן ראוי לנהוג בכל מקום.
What exactly does this announcement do?
- Path A — it fulfils the institution. The announcement is the execution of the same takanah in another form; the shofar was only the means. Then it binds as the takanah binds.
- Path B — it occupies the place without fulfilling it. A new custom, worth following everywhere, but not identical with the instituted act; which would explain why other measures may be joined to it to cover what it does not cover.
« וב״ח כ׳ דחצי שעה סמוך למנחה מכריזין והיא במקום תקיעה ראשונה וברכו הוי במקום תקיעה ששית » (מגן אברהם אורח חיים רנ״ו ס״ק א)
summary: the announcement is made half an hour before minchah; the announcement stands in place of the first blast, and Barekhu stands in place of the sixth. Two markers, two blasts: the opening and the close.
The Magen Avraham’s kashya. If the announcement answers for the first and Barekhu for the sixth, what becomes of the second, the one that made work cease? It had its own hour, considerably earlier, and neither marker occupies it.
The Magen Avraham does not reject the equivalence: he declares it tzarikh iyun and completes it. Since the second blast has no counterpart in the Bayit Chadash’s scheme, one must supply it separately — and this is where he adds to the siman practical measures that the announcement on its own does not supply:
summary: send a man to make the craftsmen cease, and have the shopkeepers close about an hour before Shabbat. The Ba’er Hetev, under this seif, reproduces the Magen Avraham almost word for word; the Mishnah Berurah takes it up as well and puts a figure on the hour.
Nafka mina between the two paths. On path A in its pure form — the Bayit Chadash as the Magen Avraham reports him — a community that announces and says Barekhu has done what is required. On the Magen Avraham’s own reading, the announcement does not cover everything: a distinct duty remains, to bring work actually to a stop in good time. The difference is not theoretical: it settles whether, besides announcing, one must go and have the shops closed. The Shulchan Arukh HaRav places the matter on the side of the distinct duty: וְעַל כָּל פָּנִים צָרִיךְ לִשְׁלוֹחַ אִישׁ לְבַטֵּל הַבַּעֲלֵי מְלָאכוֹת מִמְּלַאכְתָּם מִן הַמִּנְחָה וּלְמַעְלָה, דְּהַיְנוּ שְׁתֵּי שָׁעוֹת וּמֶחֱצָה קֹדֶם הַלַּיְלָה (שולחן ערוך הרב אורח חיים רנ״ו).
6. The days on which they did not blow — Yom Kippur and Yom Tov
Kashya. If the six blasts serve to separate the people from work, what happens when the eve of Shabbat is itself a day on which work is already forbidden? There is nothing left to halt — yet there is still an entry of Shabbat to declare. The function of halting and the function of declaring come apart: which one governs?
summary: when Yom Kippur fell on a Friday, they did not blow; when it fell at the close of Shabbat, they neither blew nor made havdalah; when a Yom Tov fell on a Friday, they did blow, but without havdalah. The division is sharp, and it instructs the kashya: where work was already forbidden that evening, the blast falls away; where it was permitted, the blast stands. It is therefore the function of halting that governs the eve-of-Shabbat blast — and not the declaration of the entry alone.
The same Rambam supplies the counterpart at the exit: וְכֵן תּוֹקְעִין בְּמוֹצָאֵי שַׁבָּת אַחַר צֵאת הַכּוֹכָבִים לְהַתִּיר הָעָם לְמַעֲשֵׂיהֶן (רמב״ם הלכות שבת פ״ה ה״כ) — they blow also at the close of Shabbat, after the stars come out, to release the people to their occupations. The opening and the closing of one and the same bracket of work.
What this division contributes to the chakira of section 3. An institution that lapses on the day its function has no object behaves like an institution of function, and not like an act owed in itself. That weighs in favour of the reading the Rama will later draw: if function governs, another means of securing the same function can take over. But it does not suffice to decide between paths A and B of section 5: a takanah may perfectly well be conditioned on its function without ceasing to be a takanah.
7. The source of tosefet Shabbat — the link with siman 261
« תְּקִיעָה רִאשׁוֹנָה תּוֹקֵעַ אוֹתָהּ בְּמִנְחָה. וְהַשְּׁלִישִׁית קָרוֹב לִשְׁקִיעַת הַחַמָּה » (רמב״ם הלכות שבת פ״ה ה״כ)
summary: the first blast is sounded at minchah, the third close to sunset. The Tur takes the datum over as it stands: « כתב הרמב״ם ז״ל תקיעה ראשונה תוקע במנחה ושלישית סמוך לשקיעת החמה » (טור אורח חיים רנ״ו). And the Beit Yosef indicates its provenance: « ומ״ש בשם הרמב״ם תקיעה ראשונה תוקעין במנחה וכו׳ הוא ג״כ בספ״ה » (בית יוסף אורח חיים רנ״ו) — this too is at the end of chapter 5.
Two consequences, not to be confused. The first is factual: the third blast precedes sunset, since it commands the kindling and the kindling is done by day. That is an interval, not a figure: the Rambam says close to sunset and no more. The candle-lighting schedules in use in the communities are settled by other decisions, elsewhere, and the present siman does not fix them.
The second is legal, and in our siman it is explicit in the Admur HaZaken: the Rama’s announcement is tied there not to the shofar, but to the duty of adding from the profane to the holy.
summary: for one must add from the profane to the holy, as will be explained in siman 261. That is path C of section 3, written out plainly by a source of the siman: the announcement is then measured no longer against the vanished shofar, but against tosefet Shabbat — which gives the Rama’s half hour and hour a footing quite other than mere convenience.
8. The question of time — half an hour or an hour before Shabbat
Two questions, not one.
- From what point does one count? The Rama writes close to Shabbat. The Magen Avraham reports in the name of the Bayit Chadash a half hour counted close to minchah — which is not the same point of departure. The Mishnah Berurah counts from the moment the sun is hidden from us.
- Why half an hour or an hour? Path A: it is the concrete measure of the time needed to finish the preparations, varying with the size of the community. Path B: it is the measure of tosefet Shabbat, and the figure is then no longer a practical order of magnitude but a shiur.
« היינו חצי שעה קודם שנתכסה השמש מאתנו » (משנה ברורה אורח חיים רנ״ו ס״ק א)
summary: half an hour before the sun is hidden from us.
It then takes over from the Magen Avraham the distinct duty and its hour:
« ולבעלי מלאכות ראוי לשלוח איש לבטל אותן ממלאכתן מקודם דהיינו שתי שעות ומחצה קודם צאת הכוכבים שהוא זמן מנחה קטנה » (משנה ברורה אורח חיים רנ״ו ס״ק א)
summary: as for the craftsmen, it is fitting to send a man to make them cease beforehand, two and a half hours before the stars come out, which is the time of minchah ketanah. And it converts the figure: « וזהו לערך שעה ורביע קודם שנתכסה השמש » (משנה ברורה אורח חיים רנ״ו ס״ק א).
What this double count reveals. There are two clocks in the siman, not one. One governs the announcement and is taken as close as possible to Shabbat; the other governs the actual cessation of work and reaches back to minchah ketanah. They do not overlap — and that is exactly why the Magen Avraham refused to let the announcement answer, on its own, for all the blasts. The structure of the baraita — blasts of function on one side, closing sequence on the other — is found here intact, in another form.
« כדי שלא יבואו ישראל לידי חילול שבת » (משנה ברורה אורח חיים רנ״ו ס״ק ב)
summary: so that Israel should not come to desecrate the Shabbat. And for the very large communities where announcing is impracticable:
« ובקהלות גדולות מאד שא״א להכריז נכון מאד שימצאו אנשים המתנדבים בעם לילך ולזרז בכל רחובות קריה ע״ד סגירת החנויות והדלקת הנרות » (משנה ברורה אורח חיים רנ״ו ס״ק ב)
summary: that volunteers go through the streets of the city to urge the closing of the shops and the kindling of the lamps. The means changes; the function remains — which is, once again, the Rama’s logic.
9. Modern practical nafka minot
1. The Shabbat siren. Where a municipal siren sounds before candle-lighting, it occupies exactly the place the Rama describes: a public signal, audible to all, issuing no longer from the shaliach tzibbur but from a device of the city. On path A of section 5, the question is whether the function suffices, independently of who performs it; on the Magen Avraham’s reading, the siren in any case does not dispense with the second duty — actually bringing work to a stop in good time.
2. The announcement of the shamash or the gabbai. This is the Rama’s case in the strict sense: a human voice, within the community, calling people to prepare. In Ashkenazi communities the call is made in Yiddish (tsayt tsu likht bentshn); the language is not what counts, the public warning is.
3. SMS, apps and scheduled messages. A reminder sent automatically before Shabbat fulfils the warning function for those who receive it. Two questions detach themselves from this, and they do not belong to this siman: that of the sending itself if it falls during Shabbat, and that of the receiving. They are not decided here and are treated with the simanim that hold their subject matter.
4. Public radio and television. Hearing the hour of Shabbat’s entry announced is a warning received passively; the question of operating the device is of another order and does not belong to this siman.
5. The minimum measure. The Rama gives סמוך לשבת כחצי שעה או שעה. Does a shorter interval do the office? On path A, the answer is measured by the time actually needed for the preparations, which depends on the community. On path B, the answer is taken from tosefet Shabbat, and an interval below the shiur would not do. The siman gives no express lower threshold.
6. Communities without a shofar. The general practice today is the announcement, in accordance with the Rama; where a blast still survives, it belongs to a local custom. A lamdan’s question: does a blast revived today accomplish anything, when the Mechaber writes כשהיו ישראל ביישובן היו תוקעין בע״ש ששה תקיעות כדי להבדיל את העם מן המלאכה (שולחן ערוך אורח חיים רנ״ו) — in the past tense, and for a settled state that is no longer this one? Or is it only a zekher, a remembrance? Both readings can be sustained, and the siman does not separate them.
7. What any modern application must keep. Whatever the means — voice, siren, message — the sources of this siman set down two distinct requirements that cannot be collapsed into one: a public warning close to the entry, and an actual cessation of work considerably earlier, of which the Magen Avraham, the Mishnah Berurah and the Shulchan Arukh HaRav each speak in their own way. A community that secures only the first has answered the Rama’s announcement, but not what those three join to it.
Going further
Level 3 — Synthesis: structured recap, memory markers and decision trees.
Level 4 — Daat HaRav: the shitah of the Admur HaZaken (Shulchan Arukh HaRav).