Choresh, or plowing, is one of the thirty-nine melachot –works or activities– prohibited on Shabbat.

Candle lighting in NYC: 4:41 PM
Shabbat ends in NYC: 5:50 PM

 

This prohibition includes all activities which will make or help any plant to grow.

It is forbidden to sow seeds, to plant trees or flowers, etc. Trimming a tree, which will cause the branches to regrow stronger, is also considered a derivative of ‘sowing’.

One of the most common activities included in this melakha is watering plants, trees, flowers or grass on the ground or in planters: all these activities are not permitted during Shabbat. (As we have previously explained, it is permitted to program before Shabbat a sprinkle or an irrigation system that will be automatically activated on Shabbat).

Although watering plants is forbidden, according to the Sephardic custom, it is permitted to place on Shabbat plants like mint branches or myrtle branches or a bouquet of flowers on a vase with water. It is also permitted to add water into that vase. This is because these plants are already detached from the ground and we are just delaying their dryness, not causing them to grow (rishba, birke yosef).

On that note, many Rabbis will authorize to place flowers on water on Shabbat only if the flowers have already blossomed, and not when the flowers are still incipient and closed.

(Yalkut Yosef)

Candle lighting in NYC: 4.33 PM

Shabbat ends in NYC: 5.42 PM

There are 39 categories of Melakha (creative tasks) that are forbidden of Shabbat. One of them is Kotser: reaping fruits, flowers, plants, leaves, etc. from the ground or from a tree or cutting branches for a fireplace, or mowing a lawn.

In other words, cutting or plucking any ‘growing’ thing.

This is one of the few melakhot explicitly mentioned in the Torah (Ex. 34:21), “Six days shall you work, but you shall pause on the seventh; in plowing and in harvesting, you shall stop.”

Examples: During Shabbat you cannot reap a fruit from its tree, even though you intend to eat it right away. Similarly, during Shabbat you cannot cut a mint -branch while is attached to the ground. Not even to use it for smelling it and say a berakha (when using mint branches for Habdala, we should be careful to pick those mint branches, only once Shabbat is over!).

From the other side, once the fruit is already detached from the tree or a plant is detached from the ground, you may cut it or break it in smaller pieces.

For example: if you have a mint branch already detached from the ground, you may cut it ‘with your hands’ in smaller branches or leaves, in the same way you are allowed to cut an apple, once is not in the tree anymore.

A a fruit which falls naturally from a tree on Sabbath, may not be used on the same day (Mukse).

Shabbat Shalom!

Candle Lighting in NY: 4:26 PM
Shabbat Ends in NY: 5:35 PM

Children Singing Moroccan Habdalah http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xigNLJkD5RQ

Every day, my father in law, who lives in Ashdod, Israel, would go to the market and come home with some delicious fruit or treat–declaring that he bought it in honor of Shabbat.

• This is the attitude with which we are supposed to welcome the Shabbat queen.Preparing ourselves to welcome Shabbat, every day of the week!

It is permitted to set an alarm system on a private residence which will operate on Shabbat, especially when there is a real possibility of life threatening situations.

The alarm system must be activated before Shabbat begins. If possible, one should by-pass one of the doors to be used by the family (some people would recommend to by-pass the front door, which ironically is less used by burglars to break in) and leave all other doors and windows ‘activated’. If this cannot be done, please consult a rabbi how to set the alarm system.

When the alarm is activated, there are motion sensors, typically located close to the ceiling, which some people cover or deactivate before Shabbat begins. In any case, it is not forbidden to walk though those sensors, although small led lights are activated by the motion of family members inside the house (pesik resheh derabanan dela nicha leh).

If the alarm accidentally goes off on Shabbat, and won’t stop by itself, one should try to have a gentile to turn it off. If that is not possible, it would be permitted for a Jew to shut off the alarm, because 1. the noise is disturbing the entire neighborhood, and it could affect sick people, etc. and 2. preventing or stoping the flow of electrical current is not Biblical -deoraiita- prohibition, (adapted from Practical laws of Shabbat, I, 335).

3rd day of Tebet, 5771

Can I walk past a motion sensitive light on Shabbat?

In order to respond this simple question we must first clarify a few Halakhic principles.

When one performs a permitted action and inevitably a forbidden action or melakha will result from it (this category is called pesik resheh) he is forbidden to proceed with the permitted action, even when he had not intent.

For example: dragging of a heavy chair over soft earth on Shabbat, will inevitably result in the production of furrows which constitute a melakha (activity forbidden on Shabbat, which in this case is Deoraita!).

When as a result of a permitted action (‘walking’) a forbidden melakha (‘turning on the light’) will be unintentionally and automatically generated, if I don’t care or need the product that results from it, and it is not Deoraita, I’m allowed to perform the permitted action.

When I’m walking in the street, I don’t need those lights (lo nicha leh), since the lights are shut off by themselves (not permanent, not Deoraita) so, I’m allowed to walk past that street even if the lights will be automatically activated.

Similarly, I’m allowed to walk by a surveillance system, even though little lights are turn on and off, or by a video cameras, as long as I don’t do this intentionally or for my beenfit.

Passing by an optical eye which opens automatically a door I have to pass, iwould be forbidden because I care for that door to open, I need the door open.

NOTE: For those who want to understand better this Halakha I wrote a short explanation in the link below.

Candle lighting in NYC: 4:00 PM
Shabbat ends: 5:18 PM

Shabbat Shalom!

 

19th day of Kislev, 5771

Fishing and Commercial websites

In previous halakhot we explained that the rabbis of the Mishna (200 CE) discussed the status of self activated devices on Shabbat, programmed before Shabbat begins. The rabbis authorized for example, to set fishing nets on a river on Friday,knowing that fish will be caught during Shabbat. The caught fish, obviously, must be removed after Shabbat (See link)

We learn from the case of the fish nets, that a profit generated during Shabbat, if no human action was involved,it does not represent a Shabbat problem. For this reason you can have stocks or money in a savings account, although it will generate a profit on Shabbat.

Can we apply the same logic to a commercial web site, and authorize a Jew to keep his web site ‘operating’automatically during Shabbat?

Modern rabbis are divided in the interpretation of the web site case, vis-a-vis the fishing nets of the Mishna. Some rabbis (Shebet Halevy, 10,57) would not authorize a web site because, unlike the case of the fishing nets, there is a principle of ‘trade’ involved in the website. This is apparently the opinion followed by some companies like www.bhphotovideo.com whose website remains available 24/7/365, but orders are not ‘accepted’until Shabbat ends.

It seems, however, that the majority of modern orthodox rabbis authorize to have a commercial website self operating on Shabbat, with 2 conditions

1. That the majority of potential customers are not Jewish customers. This will exclude for example, an Israeli/Hebrew site or a Judaica store website, etc. (See link)

2. The orders are ‘processed’after Shabbat. In other words, the whole money charging process (checking credit, charging the credit card) takes place during Shabbat in a completely automatized way but human intervention begins only afterShabbat, with the shipping process.

In these terms, most rabbis, including our own rabbi Ben Hayim, would authorize keeping a commercial web site active during Shabbat.

Shabbat Shalom!!!

In previous halakhot we explained that the rabbis of the Mishna (200 CE) discussed the status of self activated devices on Shabbat, programmed before Shabbat begins.

The rabbis authorized for example, to set fishing nets on a river on Friday, knowing that fish will be caught during Shabbat. The caught fish, obviously, must be removed after Shabbat (See link)

We learn from the case of the fish nets, that a profit generated during Shabbat, if no human action was involved, it does not represent a Shabbat problem. For this reason you can have stocks or money in a savings account, although it will generate a profit on Shabbat.

Can we apply the same logic to a commercial web site, and authorize a Jew to keep his web site ‘operating’ automatically during Shabbat?

Modern rabbis are divided in the interpretation of the web site case, vis-a-vis the fishing nets of the Mishna. Some rabbis (Shebet Halevy, 10,57) would not authorize a web site because, unlike the case of the fishing nets, there is a principle of ‘trade’ involved in the website. This is apparently the opinion followed by some companies like www.bhphotovideo.com whose website remains available 24/7/365, but orders are not ‘accepted’ until Shabbat ends.

It seems, however, that the majority of modern orthodox rabbis authorize to have a commercial website self operating on Shabbat, with 2 conditions

1. That the majority of potential customers are not Jewish customers. This will exclude for example, an Israeli/Hebrew site or a Judaica store website, etc. (See link)

2. The orders are ‘processed’ after Shabbat. In other words, the whole money charging process (checking credit, charging the credit card) takes place during Shabbat in a completely automatized way but human intervention begins only after Shabbat, with the shipping process.

In these terms, most rabbis, including our own rabbi Ben Hayim, would authorize keeping a commercial web site active during Shabbat.

Shabbat Shalom!!!

Last week we discussed the use on Shabbat of automatic devices or appliances that were activated before Shabbat.

Many Halakhic principles on this area are learned from the Shulchan Arukh (circa 1560) who authorized the use of a water mill -a turbine like device used to grind wheat, etc.- which was operated before Shabbat and continued grinding wheat ‘automatically’ during Shabbat.

The challenge for today’s expert Rabbis (poskim) is to apply this principle to our modern world.

A few examples:

It is permitted to operate a washing machine or a dryer before Shabbat begins because these machines are turned off automatically (the clothes, obviously, can not be removed until Shabbat is over). Ashkenazi Rabbis will oppose this rule if the appliance makes a noise (hashma’at kol, see Penine Halakha, 17).

The Sephardic approach is more lenient in these cases. In a business, for example, Rab Obadia Yosef authorizes to leave a fax or an answering machine active on Shabbat provided one can assume that the majority of those who might call during Shabbat are non Jews.

The same principle, reasons Rabbi Yosef, is applied if one owns a vending machine. If I own a vending machine I can leave it to operate during Shabbat. Except if the machine is in a jewish area, for example: a community Jewish Center or in Israel, to avoid the deliberate or involuntary activation of it by a Jew on Shabbat.

What about a Web site? Can I have a commercial Web site working for me online during Shabbat? B’H next week.

 

 

Rabbi Yosef Bitton. YMJC 130 Steamboat Rd. Great Neck NY 11024