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Why did the Chazon Ish say that Perek Kira is the hardest sugya in Shas?

Is it because it deals with coal ovens, which were ubiquitous for Chazal but almost entirely out of use today?

Is it because the means for making certain procedures mutar no longer directly apply, because we aren’t cooking with coals?

Is it because it’s based on gezeiros from psychology, such as our apparently unconscious desire to “stoke the coals” or the equivalent on shabbos?

Some other reason?

Edit: thanks to N.T.—I agree that it is because this sugya is highly complex. But why is it so complex compared to others?

Edit beis: thanks to Noach miFrankfurt, here are mekoros:

  1. Shabbat 36b
  2. OC 253
  3. Mishnah Shabbat 3:1
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    Presumably he just meant that it ìs very complex, which it is.
    – N.T.
    Commented Sep 11 at 4:57
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    There are many opinions. That is true for a lot of sugyos, but the Chazon Ish felt it was especially true here, apparently.
    – N.T.
    Commented Oct 31 at 6:42
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    There are a zillion opinions, it's unclear how it applies from their technology to ours, and it comes up l'halacha le'maaseh for everyone, every week. (And to "just be machmir" and eat cold food is also not a good solution.)
    – Shalom
    Commented Oct 31 at 12:02
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    It's because many concepts interact, hatmana, shehia, mevushal Col tzorco, maachal ben Drosai, qerera chyuta, etc, shema Yechate, michze Kimvashel, , before Shabbat,in the middle of Shabbat, at night and in the middle of the day. there are Gemara 18:2, 20.1, 34.2, 36-38, 39, 46. You need to deal with a lot of contradictions, the rif and Rashi have different girsaot and understanding along the whole Sugia, Rabenu Tam., RI, Ramban, Rambam, It's very entangled.
    – kouty
    Commented Oct 31 at 14:48
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    Your question would be improved by including the masechta and blatt in your question
    – Noach MiFrankfurt
    Commented Oct 31 at 18:53

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When it comes to sugyas there are different types of hard such as difficult/subtle concepts, terse/difficult wording, סתירות to resolve, etc.

I have no knowledge of the exact words of the Chazon Ish and what reason he might have offered. If I had to venture a guess, I would say that the difficulty in פרק כירה is the following.

Here the "hard" emerges from the sheer number of halachic variables to contend with when heating food or preserving the food's heat on Shabbos. The following is not a completely exhaustive list but it includes:

  • Type of heat source: eg. כירה, תנור, כופח, מוליאר, אנטיכי
  • State of heat source: whether גרופה וקטומה or not
  • Type of fuel used for the fire: eg. קש\גבבא, גפת\עצים
  • Activity: eg. שהייה, החזרה, הטמנה
  • Mindset during activity: eg. whether דעתו להחזיר or not
  • Type of food: eg. תבשיל, חמין
  • State of food: eg. raw, כמאכל בן דרוסאי, מבושל כל צורכו
  • Reaction of food to overcooking: מצטמק ויפה\רע לו
  • Position of food in relation to oven: eg. inside, top, near
  • Reason איסור דרבנן generated: שמא יחתה, מחזי כמבשל

This leads to a high number of potential cases and outcomes to remember and master. And this is even before we delve into a myriad of halachic opinions about these cases emerging from differences among the Tannaim and how the Amoraim view each opinion of Tannaim and how the Rishonim view all of the above. Then for extra credit, what are the סברות for each of these opinions re: rabbinic prohibitions which are often less defined and more difficult to categorize when compared with Biblical prohibitions.

This often leads to people writing down large tables and charts just to keep track eg. this which I saw (p. 6 of the PDF) at daf-yomi.com. enter image description here

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    Yasher koach!!!
    – Shimshon
    Commented Oct 31 at 15:08
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    No problemo! Another piece of advice - you list your source for the Chazon Ish statement as R. Shraga Kallus - his page here torahanytime.com/speakers/1143 mentions the following "He can be reached at [email protected]" so I would suggest that you ask more details of what he heard and in turn where he saw this or who he heard it from.
    – EraserX
    Commented Oct 31 at 16:08

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