[Avodah] eruv tavshilin

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

It turns out that the poskim do discuss the idea of whether shechting and maasering are mere hachanos, or whether they are full mitzvos.

Before I begin, I'd like to mention a totally irrelevant discussion. Rambam (Maaser 2:1) and many others discuss the situation of a farmer who - at the time of miruach - plans not to eat his crop, but to sell it or use it for some other purpose; is there a chiyuv to maaser that crop or not? This is an important question, but it is irrelevant to our discussion, and I'm mentioning it so that no one will get distracted by it. Our thread is working under the presumption that the farmer did plan to eat the crop, or even if he did not, that the crop is full-fledged Tevel for whatever other reason. Now, given that situation, suppose he maasers the tevel with the intention of not using the chullin (nor the maaser nor the trumah) for any purpose whatsoever. Was his bracha on the hafrasha a bracha l'vatala? THAT is the situation which is analogous to making an eruv tashilin with plans to do no melacha in preparation for Shabbos.

Back to our topic... I found two sources which might be very relevant to this discussion. I don't fully understand them, and I'd prefer to review them a few more times and try to understand them better, but by that time this thread will be long forgotten, so I'm posting what I can at this point, in the hopes that someone with better learning skills will correct any errors.

In Yoreh Deah, Taz 1:17 discusses people with various hearing or speech problems, and whether they might shecht an animal if someone else says the bracha. Can we split it up, so that one says the bracha and another does the act? Is shechita like Kiddush, which applies to everyone, or is it like Hamotzi, which applies only to the person who is eating?

About halfway through (in my edition, at the end of the bottom line of the first page) he writes: "The bracha on shechita is not for the shechita itself, because there's no chiyuv of shechita unless he wants to eat. But the real kavana is to praise Hashem for forbidding us to eat unshechted meat. And in this, all Jews are shayach to that bracha, for all of them have that prohibition. It's just that there's no situation where one can say this praise, except when shechting some animal. It's just like what the Bais Yosef said ... about the bracha of L'hachniso at a bris, which is praise and thanks at all times for this kedusha. It also fits with the Birkas Erusin, where the chasan does the erusin and the rav says the bracha; there too, the bracha is on the issur of arayos which He forbade to all Jews. -- But by separating Trumah, the ikar of the bracha is on the mitzvah of hafrasha, not the issur of eating tevel, because the mitzvah of hafrasha is a chiyuv on him, even if he does not want to eat the produce yet." (The Taz goes on to conclude that the bracha must be said by the person doing the hafrasha.)

I must wonder about the last phrase, "afilu im ayno rotzeh le'echol min hatevuah adayin." Why did the Taz add that last word, "adayin - yet"? How is the timeframe relevant? Surely there is no difference in the halacha whether he wants to eat the produce now, or whether he does not want to eat the produce now. But the halacha could well be different if he does not want to eat the produce *ever*, and that is exactly what this thread is about.

It is clear to me that the Taz puts Al Hashechita, L'hachniso, and Al HaArayos all into one category, and L'hafrish in another category. It is my wild guess -- and I will eagerly defer to others more learned than I -- that the Taz holds that one can maaser his produce with a bracha only if he plans to eat (or use) it someday. In contrast, he seems to say that one can shecht with a bracha even if he plans never to eat that animal, because, after all, the bracha isn't really on the shechita at all, the shechita is merely an occasion to say the bracha.

If the above is accurate, then how can we apply it to Eruv Tavshilin? My guess is that just like the issur of eating tevel is not worthy of a bracha, so to the issur of doing melacha on Yom Tov without an Eruv is also not worthy of a bracha. And just like one can maaser with a bracha only if he plans to eat it, one can make an eruv tavshilin with a bracha only if he plans to rely on it for melacha.

I also found a Chazon Ish which - at first glance - seems relevant to this discussion. In Demai 4:2 (2nd paragraph), he writes that "it seems that the ikar is according to those who say that maaser is a mitzvah chiyuvis." - Hafrasha is a mandatory mitzvah, not an optional mitzvah. One has to do it, whether he plans to eat the produce or not.

However, one must not stop there, but continue. The Chazon Ish explains that Biur Maasros imposes a deadline by which the hafrasha must be done. *That* is why one's intentions are irrelevant.

I do not know whether this Chazon Ish helps us understand Eruv Tavshilin or not. It is very tempting to say that Hafrashas Trumos uMaasros is a mere hachana just like Netilas Yadayim. Granted that it is a "mitzva chiyuvis", but that is just a practical result imposed by a separate mitvah (namely Biur Maasros), and it doesn't mean that Eruv or Shechita are similarly chiyuvim.

Alternatively, one could also say that these mitzvos *are* interrelated, and that this deadline does impact on the nature of the hafrasha itself, making it a mitzvah chiyuvis. If so, then Hafrashas Trumos uMaasros is NOT a mere hachana. It is in a totally different category than the Eruv, Netilas Yadayim, and Shechita mentioned in my last post, and again, it cannot shed any light on them.

Akiva Miller

PS: It just now occurred to me that this question can be asked not only about Eruv Tavshilin, but about the other two Eruvin as well: Can I make a bracha on an Eruv Chatzeros if I plan on *not* bringing anything into the chatzer? Can I make a bracha on an Eruv Techumin if I plan to walk no farther than I usually do? Sounds exactly like the Eruv Tavshilin question to me.

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