The Mishnah on Amulets on the Sabbath

m. Shabbat 6:2, 9–10

70–220

About This Entry

On the Sabbath, it is prohibited to carry objects (burdens) from one domain to another. One exception to this is one’s clothing. This passage from the Mishnah considers whether other objects, including amulets, qualify as burdens with respect to this Sabbath regulation or rather are permitted for wearing. Both the Palestinian Talmud (y. Shabbat 6:2, 8b) and the Babylonian Talmud (b. Shabbat 61a–b) elaborate on when amulets may be worn on the Sabbath. (For more about Sabbath regulations, see The Thirty-Nine Acts of Labor Prohibited on the Sabbath.)

Hebrew

6:2. A man may not go out [on the Sabbath] with nail-studded sandals, nor with a single [sandal] unless he has a wound on [the other] foot. A [man may not go out] with phylacteries [tefillin], nor with an amulet unless it [was written] by an expert, nor with a cuirass, nor with a helmet, nor with greaves. [ . . . ]

9. Boys may go out with their knots, and princes with bells. So [indeed] may anyone, but the sages speak of the present [or, common custom].

10. One may go out with a locust egg, or with a fox’s tooth, or with the nail of one who has been hanged for the sake of remedies—these are the words of R. Meir. However, the sages say: This is forbidden even on a weekday because [it imitates] the ways of the Amorites.

Translated by Markham J. Geller and Lennart Lehmhaus.

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Credits

m. Shabbat 6:2, 9–10, trans. Markham J. Geller and Lennart Lehmhaus, publication forthcoming. Copyright Markham J. Geller and Lennart Lehmhaus. Used with permission of the translators.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.