yiri@ucf-cs.UUCP (Yirmiyahu BenDavid) (10/30/84)
There are 2 questions suggested by Dave's thoughtful article. Was a new pile of firewood gathered for each fire in question. My impressions has been that the answer is unequivocally 'yes' and that this was one of the primary objections. Torah specifically gives the example of the man who gathered firewood on Shabbat and he was executed at the command of Moshe for it because it was work. WAS there a problem (I know the answer in modern times and strongly suspect it is different from Moshe's time) in using the Shabbat fire to, say, light a candle which was already prepared with wick, oil, etc.? It seems to me that the point of main- taining the Shabbat fire was to avoid the work involved in rubbing two sticks together, using flint, etc. They didn't have Bics to flick back then. My impression (historically) has been that 'kindling' a fire implied using flint, etc. and that using the Shabbat fire would simply be transferring fire from one point to another rather than kindling it. This, however, should be distinguished from having to prepare and trim wicks, replenish oil, etc. which would have constituted work - only in the Temple was this activity permitted on Shabbat for the Temple menorah.