• Purity preparations for receiving the Torah at Sinai
• Two approaches re which day of the month Torah was given
• Three decisions taken by Moshe on his own
• Coercion and consent in receiving the Torah
• Crowns gained and crowns lost
• Putting the mouth before the ears
• The sounds of Sinai
• Moshes adventures in Heaven
• The meaning of the name Sinai
• The Patriarchs as pleaders
• Carrying coloring or cleaning materials
• Carrying spices, metals, seeds and grasshoppers
• When the amount carried means more to one man than to others
• Carrying from private to public domain through neutral area
• Carrying in normal and abnormal fashions

The Norm in Carrying

One is considered guilty of a violation of the Shabbat laws which carries with it the death penalty if done intentionally after being warned and obligates him to offer a sacrifice for atonement if done unintentionally, only if his action is done in normal fashion.

Carrying from a private domain to a public one while holding an object in either his right or left hand, on his lap or on his shoulder is considered normal carrying. Among the abnormal ways of carrying listed in the Mishneh is carrying something in the mouth.

Tosefot raises a question regarding this based on another gemara (Mesechta Keritot 13b) which states that one who eats a forbidden food on Shabbat and carries it out into the street while doing so bears guilt not only for consuming the forbidden item but also for carrying from a private domain to a public one. The resolution put forward by Tosefot is that it is normal to carry in the mouth the food that one is eating while our Miishneh is referring to non-food items that are not normally carried in the mouth.

Another example of abnormal carrying mentioned by the Sage Rav quoting Rabbi Chiya is placing the object on the head. Even for the people in the town of Hutzal who were accustomed to carrying jugs of wine and water on their heads rather than in their hands, such carrying on Shabbat would not constitute normal carrying because it is not normal by universal standards.

• Shabbat 92a

What the Sages Say

"G-d attached a condition to the world He created that if Israel would accept the Torah the world would continue to exist and if they failed to do so He would return the world to pre-creation desolation."

• Rabbi Shimon Lakish - Shabbat 88a

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