Rambam Yomi with Rav Eytan

Perek כ״א (א): Safeguards Around the Melachot The Torah commands us to "rest" even from things that aren't technically labor, so the Chachamim added safeguards. This section covers rules built to keep us far from the forbidden labors: leveling the ground, climbing trees, riding animals, squeezing fruit, straining liquids, and chopping food fine. Along the way it also covers unloading...

Perek כ: Rest for Animals and Servants Shabbat rest extends beyond us: the Torah says your ox and donkey must rest too. This Perek covers why you can't load an animal or lend, rent, or sell it to a non-Jew who might work it, what equipment an animal may wear in the public domain, and the obligation to ensure your servants rest, including the status of the Ger Toshav.

Perek י״ט (ב): Amulets, Tefillin, and Tzitzit What if you find Tefillin or a Torah scroll in the street on Shabbat? This section covers what you can wear out for protection or comfort, from proven amulets to raincoats, and why properly made Tzitzit count as part of the garment. It then explains how to bring Tefillin to safety by wearing them in pairs, and why a tailor shouldn't leave home with...

Perek י״ט (א): What You Can Wear Out on Shabbat Where's the line between something you wear and something you carry? This section covers weapons, nailed sandals, and rings, and why the same ring can be jewelry for one person and a burden for another. It then lists the ornaments women may not wear out for fear they'll be removed and carried, along with a few things that are allowed, from ha...

Perek י״ח (ב): Hides, Living Things, and Half-Measures We finish the list of Shiurim with parchment and paper, then ask whether carrying a living creature counts as carrying. Why is a live adult exempt, while an animal or a bound person is not? The section closes with the rules of intent and partial amounts: when something saved for planting or medicine needs no minimum, and what happens if you ca...

Perek י״ח (א): How Much Is Enough to Be Liable? Carrying only counts as a Torah violation if you carry out a minimum amount, and that amount depends on what's being carried. This section lists the Shiurim: a dried fig's worth of food, a quarter of a Revi'it of wine, enough ink to write two letters, and many more for animal feed, spices, dyes, building materials, and hides.

Perek י״ז (ג): Wells, Corners, and Measuring It All How do you water animals at a well on Shabbat? This section shows how pairs of wall segments at the corners can turn the area around a well into a permitted enclosure, and where that leniency applies. It then covers a few more edge cases, including a breach at a corner, and closes with the Rambam's guide to the measurements (fingerbreadths, h...

Perek י״ז (ב): The Fine Print of Lechi and Korah What exactly makes a crossbeam or side post valid? This section sets the measurements: how wide and strong a Korah must be, how tall and wide an alley opening can be, and what to do with a breach in the wall. It also covers alleys with several openings, where to place the Lechi, and why a Korah must sit on top of the alley rather than beside it.

Perek י״ז (א): Permitting the Alley How does a shared alley become a place where you can carry on Shabbat? This section distinguishes a dead-end alley from one open at both ends, and shows how a simple Lechi (side post) or Korah (crossbeam) can complete the missing “fourth wall.” We also cover which alleys qualify and what materials can serve as a Lechi.

Perek ט״ז (ב): What Makes a Wall a Wall? This second half of this Perek finishes the case of the Shayara. The Rambam then turns to the Mechitza itself, the wall that creates a Halachic boundary. What must it withstand? How tall must it be? How many gaps can it have before it stops counting, and what is the difference between a breach and a doorway-shaped opening (Tzurat Petach)? We look at walls m...

Perek ט״ז (א): Fenced Fields and the 'Beit Seatayim' Can you carry in a walled garden or an enclosed field? It depends on why it was fenced and how big it is. This Perek introduces the key measurement of a Beit Seatayim. We look at how sowing, planting, and building pillars can change the size of an enclosed space, and at the proportions of the Mishkan’s courtyard as the model for a permit...

Perek ט״ו: Edge Cases of the Domains This Perek rounds out the laws of carrying with a long series of borderline situations: a person straddling two domains while eating or drinking, ledges and window protrusions jutting into public space, filling a bucket from a water channel or the sea, and what happens when a scroll or a thorn drifts from one domain into another mid-Shabbat. Through these cases...

Perek י״ד: The Four Domains Defined This Perek lays out precisely what separates the four categories of space for the laws of carrying: Reshut HaYachid (a true private domain), Reshut HaRabim (the public domain), "Karmelit" (an intermediate space that is neither), and Makom Patur (an exempt area too small to count). Through a long series of real-world cases, walls, pits, boats, hills, an...

Perek י״ג: The Mechanics of Carrying Building on the domains established in the previous Perek, this Perek works through the detailed technical rules of Hota'ah: why a person's open hand counts as the four-handbreadth space that makes a transfer count, the many scenarios of throwing an object or passing it between people, and the fine distinctions around pausing, resting, or continuing mid...

Perek י״ב: Fire and the First Laws of Carrying This Perek opens with the two labors of fire: kindling even the smallest flame and extinguishing one, including when putting out a fire is permitted, such as to stop it from spreading. It then turns to an entirely new Melacha, Hotza'ah, the forbidden labor of carrying between domains, laying the foundation: what defines a private domain versus a p...

Perek י״א: From Hide to Parchment, Pen to Page This Perek covers a cluster of Melachot tied to processing animal hides, trapping, slaughtering, skinning, and tanning, before turning to an entirely different pair: writing and erasing, where the Rambam defines the minimum of two letters that triggers liability either way.

Perek י: Tying, Writing, and Building This Perek gathers a cluster of distinct Melachot: tying and untying knots, tearing, writing and erasing, and building and demolishing, defining exactly how much of each activity is needed to incur liability.

Perek ט: From Fleece to Thread Continuing the theme, this Perek covers the labors involved in producing cloth: shearing wool, washing, combing, dyeing, spinning, and the early stages of weaving, along with a few additional cooking-related edge cases.

Perek ח: From Field to Loaf This Perek works through the eleven labors involved in producing bread, plowing, sowing, reaping, gathering, threshing, winnowing, selecting, sifting, grinding, kneading, and baking, along with the exact minimum measure of each that triggers liability.

Perek ז: The Full List of Thirty-Nine Here the Rambam finally lays out the thirty-nine categories of forbidden labor themselves, along with the rules for liability: how many sin-offerings are owed when multiple labors are performed unknowingly, and the crucial distinction between a primary category (Av) and its derivative (Toladah).

Perek ו: Asking a Gentile to Help Can a Jew ask a non-Jew to perform work on Shabbat on their behalf? This Perek covers the rules of Amirah L'Akum, when instructing a gentile to do prohibited labor is forbidden, when it's permitted, and the related question of benefiting from labor a gentile performs of their own accord

Perek ו: Asking a Gentile to Help Can a Jew ask a non-Jew to perform work on Shabbat on their behalf? This Perek covers the rules of Amirah L'Akum, when instructing a gentile to do prohibited labor is forbidden, when it's permitted, and the related question of benefiting from labor a gentile performs of their own accord.

Perek ה: Kindling the Shabbat Lights This Perek covers the definition of Bein HaShmashot, the twilight period whose status as day or night is deliberately left uncertain, and turns to the Mitzvah of kindling Shabbat candles: which oils and wicks are fit to use, and why the Chachamim placed this responsibility primarily on the woman of the house.

Perek ד: Wrapping Food for Warmth A short but practical Perek on "Hatmana", insulating food to keep it hot. The Rambam explains why insulating with heat-retaining materials is restricted even before Shabbat begins, and the narrower rules for wrapping food once Shabbat itself has started.

Perek ג (ב): The Laws of Cooking Today we continue Perek ג, which covers the Melacha of Bishul: what happens when food is left on or near a fire before Shabbat, when it may be returned to the flame, and the rabbinic safeguards against stirring coals or otherwise advancing the cooking process once Shabbat has begun.