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We are continuing in siman 3, where the Chayei Adam is discussing putting up food to cook from before Shabbos going into Shabbos. Yesterday, we learned that the food must be edible by sunset, rather than the time they accept Shabbos. For example, if one is making early Shabbos, the food does not need to be edible until sunset. The question is that when someone accepts Shabbos early, they do not wait until sunset to eat their Shabbos meal, but rather eat it after they have finished davening. If so, we should again be concerned that the food will not be edible, and the person will be tempted to stir the coals. The Chayei Adam leaves off vetzrich iyun, that the issue requires further clarification.
The Nishmas Adam references the Magen Avraham in siman 253. Over there, the Rema is concerned for someone accepting Shabbos early, and holds that a person’s food must be edible by the time they accept Shabbos. The Magen Avraham disagrees. He explains that accepting Shabbos early is known as tosefes Shabbos. There is a machlokes regarding the nature of tosefes Shabbos. The Rambam holds it is derabanan; mideoraysa, there is no mitzvah to bring in Shabbos early. The only exception is Yom Kippur, where there is a mitzvah deoraysa to begin the afflictions of Yom Kippur on the previous day, as the pasuk says b’tisha lachodesh ba’erev. (Parenthetically, when one recites Tefillas Zakah, there is a line about accepting the fast in order to fulfill this mitzvah. If one is running late, they should skip to that paragraph or say orally that they accept tosefes Yom Kippur.) Once the Gemara proves that tosefes Yom Kippur is deoraysa, the Gemara extends it to Shabbos and Yom Tov as well; however, the Rambam holds these are just asmachtas, and tosefes Shabbos on those days is not deoraysa. According to the Rambam, we can understand why we would not extend the concern of stirring the coals to when a person has accepted early Shabbos.
Multiple rishonim disagree with the Rambam, and hold there is a mitzvah deoraysa of tosefes Shabbos. If so, the concern should return.
Rav Akiva Eiger suggests two possible answers. The first is that even if there is a mitzvah deoraysa of tosefes Shabbos, the amount mideoraysa is just a small amount of time. When we add on significant amounts of time, such as when we make early Shabbos, it is derabanan. The deoraysa amount of time is suggested to be approximately 2-4 minutes, where it is clear that a person is adding time for tosefes Shabbos and not just because they are concerned that it is already shkia. For example, if sunset is at 6pm, a person should not perform melacha up until exactly 6pm, because the atmosphere conditions may cause the sun to set a little earlier, the clock may be off, or the calendar may be mistaken. By 5:58, a person should stop performing melacha out of a safeik for shkia. At 5:55, a person should say that they are stopping and accepting tosefes Shabbos, and this is tosefes Shabbos deoraysa. Any earlier acceptance of Shabbos is tosefes Shabbos derabanan.
We will discuss the next answer of Rav Akiva Eiger in the upcoming shiur, be’ezras Hashem.
Summary
- In order to put up food before Shabbos which will cook into Shabbos, the food must be at least edible before sunset.
- This is true even if one accepts Shabbos early.
- There is a mitzvah to accept Shabbos early. This is known as tosefes Shabbos (literally, adding on to Shabbos)
- One should never do melacha all the way until the calendar time for sunset, as the actual sunset can vary up to two minutes. Refraining from melacha during that time is not a fulfillment of tosefes Shabbos, as one would refrain then even without the command of tosefes.
- The minimum amount of time for tosefes Shabbos is enough that it is a noticeable time. Different poskim give suggestions between two to four minutes.
- According to one opinion, only this minimal amount is mideoraysa. However, Miderabanan, one can accept tosefes Shabbos from plag hamincha.
