Topics covered:
Permitted knots on Shabbos include the the openinings of a woman’s robe, hairnet and undergarment. Also a shoe, sandal, the cover of a wine or oil jug, and a rope before a domesticated animal to keep it from going out. Regarding the garments, didn’t we already learn that a knot one can untie with one hand is a permitted knot? Why do we need this list? Because sometimes a garment has two openings, and one never gets untied. Does that knot acquire a “permament” status, so that tying/untying would be prohibited by rabbinic decree even if exempt from the heavier Torah prohibition? Depends on the knot and the situation. When a utensil breaks enough, it is no longer a utensil, and thus a new object. If it was tamei, ritually impure, it becomes tahor, ritually pure. But it can also become muktzeh, unprepared for use on Shabbos because the new object did not exist before Shabbos. This breaking and transforming can occur in stages. Our Sages believed that our ancestors knew MORE than we do, because they were closer to the Revelation at Sinai, and thus the source of all wisdom. Finally, we don’t just learn the law to “sing” it, i.e. parrot its rulings. We seek to learn it at a deeper level…