It says here in tana debey rabbi yishmael that you can go out with your tefilin erev shabbos close to shabbos because you have to always feel your tefilin etc. My question is as follows: the mefarshim (meiri, beis yosef taz 252) ask on why you need this reason: you should not be gozer because even if you were to go out like that on shabbos, you would be patur (and thereby be a gezeyra legezeyra). They give different answers...but my question is: why cant the same question be asked on the din of rabbi chananya that you have to check your begadim before shabbos lest you forget - even if you do forget, you are still patur because you didnt know you had it during the akirah and the gemara (bk 26 - quoted by tosfos, meiri on 11a) say you have to know about the item before to be chayiv?!
Just wanted to know if you thought that this was related to the the way that the meiri puts it because he says his answer to the question of why it shouldn't be asur to wear tefilin right before shabbos because anyway you are patur if you wear it on shabbos (מ"מ לרווחא למילתא נאמרה כלומר שאף לדעת האומר שגוזרים גזירה לגזירה מותר) and then says the very curious words: ומ"מ יהא אדם זריז למשמש בכליו ערב שבת שבתוך כך ישמור מכמה שגגות. This expression almost sounds like to me that he is saying that the same question should apply here (like I explained in my question), and is answering that you should be careful anyway because it saves from שגגות?
Aryeh Goldman, Flushing,NY
1. I saw a big Chidush in the name of the Rogatchover Ga'on zt'l, based on the Mechilta to Shemos 31:16. The verse says, "And the children of Yisrael kept the Shabbos, to make the Shabbos." Rebbi Eliezer ben Parta said, "The Torah says about everyone who keeps Shabbos that it is as if he has made Shabbos."
2. The Rogatchover explains that Shabbos is not simply a day on which we do no work, but in reality Shabbos is a day on which we create rest, Menuchah. Menuchah is a positive entity. We learn this from Tosfos in Sanhedrin 38a, DH Chatzvah, who writes that the world was created in six days but it was still lacking Menuchah. The restfulness of Shabbos is a positive creation, not merely a lack of action.
3. On the basis of this idea, the Rogatchover writes that this is why we have to check that there is nothing in the pockets of our clothes before Shabbos enters. We have to do a positive action to ensure that we will be resting properly on Shabbos. If somebody did not check his clothes and afterwards discovered that they contained items which he carried in Reshus ha'Rabim, he is not considered "Mis'asek" (who is not liable for Shabbos desecration at all) but rather he is a "Shogeg." He inadvertently did a Melachah on Shabbos for which he is Chayav to bring a Korban.
4. Regarding the Me'iri: We will have a beautiful Peshat if we explain the Me'iri with the help of the Rogatchover's idea.
(a) The Me'iri writes that a person who is careful always to check his clothes on Erev Shabbos will save himself from several Shegagos.
(b) The Rogatchover writes that since one has to do a positive action in order to attain the restfulness of Shabbos, it follows that someone who did not check his clothes before Shabbos -- and as a result carried items in the public domain on Shabbos -- is considered as a Shogeg because he has now performed a positive action of not resting. (By the way, this Chidush of the Rogatchover can be found in several of his Sefarim, including the Tzofnas Pane'ach on the Torah, in Parshas Ki Sisa, on the verse, "v'Shamru Bnei Yisrael....")
(It could be that are the first people to ever have connected the idea of the Me'iri with the idea of the Rogatchover! Yasher Ko'ach Gadol!)
5. So far I have answered these questions in the way of Chidush, but now I am going to answer more according to the Peshat ha'Pashut, bs'd.
a) The Tosfos (11a) that you cited, Aryeh, can also answer the question on Chananyah. Tosfos writes that the reason why one must not go out with the needle when it is nearly dark is that one might forget to put the needle away until it is Shabbos, and then when he eventually remembers about the needle, he may forget that it is Shabbos and go out. Similarly, we can say that the reason why Chananyah says that you must check your clothes on Erev Shabbos is that you may have, for example, a handkerchief in your pocket. By the time you remember about the handkerchief, you may forget it is Shabbos and walk out into the street with the handkerchief in your pocket.
b) We can explain the Me'iri with the words of the Magen Avraham (OC 252:26). He writes that although we do not possess a Reshus ha'Rabim mid'Oraisa, it is still a Mitzvah to check one's clothes on Erev Shabbos, because one might have Muktzah in one's pocket. The Pri Megadim, in Eshel Avraham (at the very end of #252), cites the Maharsha to Beitzah 3b (DH GM') who says that Muktzah is a severe prohibition, and is similar to a Torah prohibition. The Maharsha cites as his source the Tosfos Yeshanim, printed in the margin of the Gemara in Beitzah 3b.
6. This therefore may be what the Me'iri means. One should be careful to check one's clothes on Erev Shabbos because otherwise one could easily come to carry Muktzah, which is considered a Shegagah because it is similar to a Torah prohibition.
B'Hatzlachah Rabah,
Dovid Bloom