Parshas Noach

וְיוֹם וָלַיְלָה--לֹא יִשְׁבֹּתוּ. The Gemora learns from this verse that a Ben Noach who rests on Shabbos is punishable by death.


We know that the Avos observed the entire Torah before it was given. What did they do on Shabbos- if they rested on Shabbos, as a Ben Noach they would have been guilty of death?


The Panim Yafos answers: The issur for a Ben Noach to rest on Shabbos is 'Yomam Vlayla'- day and then night as the words of the posuk go. While Shabbos for Yisroel is night before day. The Avos did melacha on the night of Shabbos (Motzei Shabbos), thus avoiding the problem of a Ben Noach resting on Shabbos. (The problem would arise if Yom Kippur fell on a Sunday and no melacha is permitted motzei Shabbos - R' Akiva Eiger deals with this issue)


The Aruch L'ner (Tshuvas Binyan Tzion 126) says that this question is a relevant halachic question. He states a case where a child is found and we don't know if it's a Jew or not. The Rambam says that he has to keep the stringencies of a Jew. The question is what does this person do on Shabbos? The Aruch L'ner says that the Panim Yafos's deduction from the posuk- that the Shabbos of a ben Noach is day before night, is not accurate. The wording of the posuk cannot be taken literal to mean that the prohibition is only day before night. We know that night comes before day, from the pesukim in Bereishis 'Vayihi erev vayihi boker'- night before day. Since that was said at the time of creation it applies to all of creation- including a Ben Noach. The Posuk of Yomam Vlayla does not come to teach us that in this case the opposite is true. For in most places in tanach we find reference to the day before night, because the day is more important then night. Only four places in all of Tanach is the order reversed- night before day- and each has a specific reason for it. The Aruch L'ner has a different solution. On shabbos we must rest from 'melocha'- work. How do we define work? The basic defenition is 'to exert oneself by doing mental or physical work'- strenuous activity. If that were the case then it would be assur to move a heavy object across a room, while walking out of your house into a public domain with a key in your pocket would be totally permitted. Yet we know the opposite to be true. To Klal Yisroel the meaning of melocha was defined by the mishkon- work that was done to build the mishkon remains assur on Shabbos. We got that definition when we recieved the Torah. Since the Bnei Noach didn't receive the Torah and it's new definition of melocha, they are prohibited from doing melocha in its most literal translation- strenuous work. The solution for someone that dosn't know if he is jewish would be to move something heavy in a private domain. It's a melocha for a Ben Noach to be working and yet as a Yisroel he wouldn't be guilty of transgressing Shabbos. The flip side of this is that a Ben Noach that walks out of his house with a key in his pocket will still be called resting on Shabbos and thus deserving of death.

A huge Mazel Tov to the Ginzberg family on the birth of a baby boy!
And a huge Mazel Tov to a loyal reader and commenter- MFS- C. Neuhoff and family and the entire Edelstein family on the birth of their little princess!