Thought for the Day: When and Why a Melacha in the הוצאה Category Requires a Specific Scriptural Source

I am trying something new. I have always learned everything by starting at the beginning and just moving through. After all, the author knows what they want to convey and what they believe is the best way to do that. It strikes me as the height of arrogance to think I know better than the creator before I have even started! (And I am an expert on arrogance; if I do say so myself.)

But now I am in kollel, so time to start learning like a kollel man. I started Shabbos (it is the next masechta after Brachos, after all), which begins by discussing הוצאה/carrying things out and in. The topic of הוצאה is discussed in through 9a, then veers to another topic. הוצאה is picked up again on 96a for a few daf. I was told that when the kollel learned this a few years ago, they learned all of הוצאה together. And Lakewood is now learning הוצאה and that is how they are doing it. Ok, at this point, if I were to learn it in order, that would be the height of arrogance. So last week I skipped from the end of 9a to the bottom of 96a.

A note about skipping: I skipped third grade. My first day in fourth grade, the teacher -- Miss Folz -- handed out 4x6 index cards and told is she would tell us what information we should write and where on the card; name. phone number, address, etc. After a few minutes I raised my hand to tell her I was out of room She looked puzzled and looked at my card. "What? Why are you writing capital letters on two lines?! You know that capital letters are one line and small letters are half the line!" I didn't know. Apparently sometime in third grade they told them about that. The shame I felt that day is likely another reason I don't like to skip around. (I am pretty sure her manner of treating people is why she remained Miss.)

The first mishna discusses throwing stuff from a private domain to the public and vice versa. The gemara notes -- and Rashi doubles down to very carefully explain the logic -- that throwing is a תולדה/corollary to the אב/principal category of הוצאה. The gemara then asks, seemingly with some surprise: Ok, throwing is a תולדה, where is the scriptural source for הוצאה (the אב/principal melacha) itself?!

Having just skipped to 96b, pages 2a-9a are still fresh in my mind. That is where the topic of הוצאה is introduced (that is why we are here now in the 11th chapter)... and the gemara is only now asking for the scriptural source? In fact, the gemara had a chance to redeem itself in chapter 7, כלל גדול, where all the forty less one categories of forbidden labors are listed. Moreover... who says there is a scriptural source at all? There is no verse that says "don't tie knots" nor "don't sort mixtures except for immediate use, taking the good from the bad, and only by hand", nor even "don't squeeze grapes and olives". We know most of hilchos Shabbos only because the Torah said "Keep my Shabbos" right after it said, "Build the Tabernacle."

This might not sound like big questions to you, but to us kollel guys 💪 this is big stuff! I asked around and was told a few sources. I spent the next few days, about six hours total, researching this question. It was heaven!

Both the Pnei Yehoshua and Chasam Sofer address the issue, what I am telling you here is a bit of a cholent from them. Usually we learn the אב/principal melacha from either the building or running of the Tabernacle. הוצאה  is different -- both the אב and the תולדות were necessary for the building, running, and transport of the Tabernacle. There is a nice discussion on 96b about what difference it makes whether a melacha in the הוצאה category is an אב or a תולדה, but besides that, the Chasam Sofer says that one difference is that the אב has a scriptural source. Since we must mention some תולדות, throwing and passing from one domain to another, the אב. Must be written. There is also a very refined technical point that we cannot apply the usual rules of logic to things learned from a non-scriptural source, so a melacha that has an אב and תולדות must have a scriptural source. That also explains why Rashi went to such lengths to explain and prove that throwing is certainly a תולדה of הוצאה.

I finished my research this morning. Great way to prepare for Shabbos! The next gemara, by the way, is about the מקושש/gatherer who violated Shabbos, and event that occurs at the end of this week's parasha. Funny, it is almost like someone Else is in charge...