Parshas Mishpatim 5785
- Torah Tavlin
- Feb 19
- 3 min read
סנהדרין סב:
"המתעסק בחלבים ועריות חייב שכן נהנה"
The Gemara [כריתות יט] learns from the posuk, "אשר חטא בה", the word "בה", is פרט למתעסק. i.e., if one was oiver an עבירה while preoccupied with doing something else (מתעסק) he is פטור. שמואל says, if one was oiver the עבירה of eating חלב (forbidden fats) or any of the עריות (forbidden relationships), even though he was a מתעסק, he would still be חייב because "שכן נהנה". He adds, if one was a מתעסק on שבת, he is פטור because regarding מלאכת שבת, we need מלאכת מחשבת and a מתעסק is not considered a מלאכת מחשבת. רש"י explains [כריתות יט:] a מתעסק is one who has חלב and שומן in front of him (and knows that the חלב isn’t kosher) and he reaches for the שומן, but gets distracted and accidentally picks up the חלב and eats it. A שוגג would be if he thought the item he’s picking up was שומן and he did pick it up, but turns out it was חלב. [ד"ה להגביה] תוס' asks, why does שמואל have to tell us a מתעסק is פטור on שבת because we need מלאכת מחשבת, why doesn’t he learn it from "בה" פרט למתעסק that a מתעסק is always פטור anyway? Tosfos answers, פרט למתעסק would only exempt חילול שבת that has no הנאה. Now that we learn from the requirement of מלאכת מחשבת, it will exempt a מתעסק even if he had הנאה. [אתוון דאורייתא כד'] ר' יוסף ענגיל explains, only when the Torah forbids doing a מעשה, when done without כוונה, is the action considered as not done by the person, rather it is viewed as it happened on its own and is not מתייחס back to the person. However, by חלבים ועריות, the Torah was מקפיד on the הנאה one derives from the action, not the מעשה itself, so since he ultimately has הנאה he is חייב. [ועיין קובץ שיעורים ח"ב,כג' ז'] [הררי קדם ס' קיד] ר' חיים says, when eating a כזית בליל ראשון של סוכות, although we learn out טו' טו' from מצה and מצה doesn’t need כוונה, that’s only because of the svara of the ר"ן. However, the first night of סוכות has a din of ישיבת סוכה as well and כוונה is needed for that. [שו"ת קמא, ס' ח'] רע"א was asked, if one sees a Yid being oiver an איסור while being a מתעסק, are we מחוייב להפרישו, since a מתעסק is פטור anyway? רע"א answers: ונ"ל דבר חדש. That which we are ממעט a מתעסק, is not to say he hasn’t done an עבירה at all. Rather, he is considered a שוגג, just a שוגג of this level is excluded from bringing a חטאת, but it is still considered a שגגת איסור. So, in our case one would have to stop him. However, when it comes to שבת, since only מלאכת מחשבת אסרה תורה, an עבירה done by a מתעסק is not considered a מעשה at all and no עבירה has been committed. He brings the תורת חיים who asks: if one has חמץ in his house on פסח that he is unaware of, we pasken he is עובר. Asks the תורת חיים, why should he be oiver? Since he doesn’t know about it, he should be considered a מתעסק and be פטור? רע"א answers, this halacha is understandable the way we he is learning, that the מתעסק is only פטור from bringing a חטאת but is still considered as being עובר the עבירה he has committed.