[Avodah] Shabbas he mi lezok (Was An-im Zemiros)

[Michael Poppers]

(Forgive me if what I note below has been discussed this past week --
looking at the ToC/"Today's Topics" stanzas of digests I haven't yet read,
I saw a lot of "An-im Zemiros" subject headings but no "Shabbas he mi
lezok" headings....)

In Avodah Digest V24#26, RMarBl wrote:
> What does "Shabbas he mi lezok" mean? The Gemara in Shabbos (12a) says
that someone who goes to visit a sick person should say this (Shabbas
he mi lezok u'refua krova lavo) to the sick person. Rashi explains, we
are telling the sick person to try not to be sad because it is shabbos
and a person is supposed to be happy on shabbos. The Ran has a
different peshat. He says we are telling the sick person that since it
is shabbos we can't daven for him. <
The key point of both RaShY and RaN is that neither the m'vaqeir nor the
choleh is permitted to be mitztaeir on Shabbos.  That "we can't daven" for
the choleh might be (better, "we can't cry out for" the choleh) p'shat in
"Shabbas hi miliz'oq," not in the RaN.

> Rashi's peshat fits in better with the mi shebeirach l'cholim, we say
the mi shebeirach and then we tell the people in shul, don't be upset
about the sick person it is shabbos. However, according to the Ran it
is a bit difficult, we are contradicting ourselves, we just said a
prayer for the sick person and we end off by saying we really aren't
allowed to daven for you. The Aruch Hashulchan in OC 287 asks this
question and writes that our minhag is difficult.  Maybe the pshat is
that we are explaining why this is the only tefilla we are saying for
the sick person. Interestingly enough, the Artscroll siddur translates
the mi shebeirach like the Ran.
> The Shulchan Aruich Harav writes that one should not say the regular
mi shebeirach but only Shabbos hi . <
IMHO, one can be m'chaleiq between a one-on-one visit w/ a choleh on
Shabbos, where the chance for either or both to be mitztaeir is high enough
that Beis Shammai forbade it, and a Mi Shebeirach in a public forum, where
at least the choleh isn't present and where the person who would have
visited may not even be the one requesting (viz. the [very recent?] custom
in some places that individual names are not mentioned by the one making
the Mi Shebeirach).  The custom not to make a Mi Shebeirach except in a
case of saqanas n'fashos may relate more to why the weekday Amidah isn't
said on Shabbos than to the concept of avoiding tza'ar (hmmm, do we avoid
saying "Avinu Malkeinu" on YhK shechal baShabbos because of baqashos [hard
to say because of tircha] or because of the likelihood of tza'ar?).

All the best from
--Michael Poppers via RIM pager
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