In the case of buying houses in Israel, if Shabbos is the only day we can do this - it is allowed. However we can’t sign any documents, or exchange money. David S pointed out - how in ancient times signatures were not used as we know them today – contracts were simply agreed to in front of witnesses. When buying a house one could agree to pay for it, or make arrangements to pay for it, after Shabbos.
We may be permitted to go to the store and make a purchase on Shabbos, however there are certain conditions. First, it must be very important to have the purchase in order to realize a greater mitzvah. An example would be someone shows up at our house and this person does not have anywhere else to go. Second, we can’t exchange money on Shabbos. In fact, we really should not even discuss payment directly. Typically, this would be a store that is not normally open, but the owner – someone we may know from a place like our shul – is able to open it for us in order that we can get the item. Howard talked about how we may be able to hint around the fact we are going to make arrangements later to pay for the item.
We discussed how on Shabbos we take a break from our normal everyday routines, and we should act like we are not in a hurry to go anywhere thus we should generally avoid running. However, there are exceptions when there is a greater mitzvah – like getting to learning on time – or when it is raining. Unless we really enjoy running, we should not do this type of exercise on Shabbos. Exercise we enjoy such as playing volleyball would be a lot better on Shabbos.
We discussed some other prohibitions such as measuring and riding a bike. We are not permitted to take measurements on Shabbos, such as how much something weighs. However, we can approximate in order to use a recipe. Many hold that we should not ride a bike on Shabbos. There has been concern that we may try to fix a bike on Shabbos, or drive the bike outside the Eruv. On the other hand, David W pointed out that it is unlikely any of us would try to fix a bike on Shabbos.
We discussed the week's parsha. In the parsha, 12 spies are sent into Canaan. They come back with a bleak report. Yaki gave a very interesting dvar torah, that the purpose of the spying mission was to access the spiritual conditions rather than the physical conditions. Yaki points out that those chosen to do the spying were 70 year old men, rather than young military soldiers. The hope is that reporting the poor spiritual condition of Canaan, would motivate the Jews to conquer the land. Unfortunately, the poor spiritual condition spread over to the spies. In just 40 days the spies changed in such a way that they were now apathetic towards making a home in Israel, and reported how difficult it would be to conquer the land knowing this would lower everyone's motivation.
My own thoughts are that the Jews may have known they had the physical strength to overcome the enemy, especially with Hashem on their side. Their fear may have been not that they couldn’t win a war, but what their life would be like afterwards. There was hope that knowledge of the spiritual condition of the place would motivate them, but this did not work. The Jews were not so desperate that anything would be better, and they choose the security and predictability of their current situation. Instead of wiping the Jews out, Hashem let them continue wandering around for 40 more years until a new generation had arrived.
This is a summary of what we discussed this past Shabbos. No Halachic rulings are intended or should be inferred.
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