Parshas Vaera 5785
- Torah Tavlin
- Jan 25
- 3 min read
סנהדרין לה:
"נשיאת כפים - בלא ידים"
The Gemara says that we do not carry out a מיתת בית דין on שבת. The Gemara asks that it should be מותר based on the following ק"ו: We know that the עבודה in the בית המקדש is דוחה שבת, as we do bring קרבנות on שבת. The דין is also that the pasuk, "מעם מזבחי תקחנו למות" teaches us if a כהן is חייב מיתה even if he is the only kohen available to do the עבודה, we still take him away at the expense of the עבודה being pushed off. So, if רציחה is דוחה עבודה and עבודה is דוחה שבת, then רציחה should certainly be דוחה שבת? תוס' asks that this is not a sound ק"ו. The reason רציחה is דוחה עבודה is not because it’s more חמור than עבודה, but for a side reason, that a כהן שהרג is not fit to be לישא את כפיו and certainly pasul to do the עבודה. Tosfos gives 2 answers: 1) A כהן שהרג is כשר to do the עבודה and the פסול not to דוכן or do the עבודה is only a חומרא, so רציחה must be more חמור because we wouldn’t enforce a חומרא at the expense of the עבודה. 2) A כהן שהרג is only פסול to דוכן because he killed with his hands and נשיאת כפים is done with the hands, so we say אין קטיגר נעשה סניגר. The ערוך לנר explains that a כהן שהרג isn’t pasul to do עבודה even though it is done with the hands that killed, because the עבודה is the סניגר (defender) not the hands. But during נשיאת כפים the שכינה is שורה בידים (which is why we don’t look at them), so there we say the hands that killed can’t have the שכינה by them. [ח"ח,קעב'] שבט הלוי was asked, it says: [ב"מ נח:] כל המלבין פני חבירו ברבים כאילו שופך דמים. If so, a כהן that embarrassed someone ברבים should be פסול to דוכן just like a כהן שהרג? The שבט הלוי brings our תוס' and answers that according to the first answer in תוס' it is only a חומרא and even a רוצח ממש may דוכן. According to the second answer in תוס' he may not דוכן only because he was a murderer בידים and אין קטיגר.. but in our case it’s not בידים, so this reason would not apply. [שו"ת או"ח ס' ה'] נודע ביהודה was asked if a כהן who can’t raise his hands for נשיאת כפים may use a device attached to his hat that will enable him to slip his hands into it, thus keeping them up so he may דוכן? The נודע ביהודה brings the שבות יעקב that paskens that a כהן that can’t raise his hands is only פסול to דוכן in the ביהמ"ק, but outside of the ביהמ"ק would beמותר. The נודע ביהודה disagrees and says that just like עמידה is מעכב, so too is raising the hands and regarding this question if a כהן is unable to raise his hands on his own, he may not דוכן. The [ס' קכח,יד'] משנ"ב reiterates that נשיאת כפים must be done בעמידה and with raised hands. He brings the above נו"ב and agrees and says even with the above suggested contraption, it would be אסור. The חפץ חיים does suggest that if it is hard for the כהן to keep his hands raised the entire time, he may rest them during the ניגונים and raise them when saying יברכך. ר' משה says [אג"מ יו"ד ח"ב קנח'], a כהן that was in the army and had to kill, is absolutely permitted to דוכן since his killing was in self-defense.