Wintry Weather on Shabbos - Rabbi Shimon Meir Farber shlita

00:02 Speaker 1 You’re listening to the “Lema’an Yishme’u” podcast from Machon Halacha Chabad.

00:09 Speaker 2 Now we’ll discuss a few laws concerning rain and snow on Shabbos. Suppose I’m walking along and heavy rain falls on me. There are several details to keep in mind concerning the prohibition of laundering on Shabbos. As the Alter Rebbe rules in siman 302, se’if 2, the color of the garment makes no difference, and in practice it also makes no difference whether it is new or old: one may not shake out the garment, because doing so would squeeze water out of it. So one may not shake out such a garment on Shabbos. But if it is a raincoat made entirely of nylon, 100 percent nylon, one may shake it out, even vigorously. However, just as the law regarding leather is that one may not rub it, because that too constitutes laundering on Shabbos, one should ideally not rub nylon on Shabbos either. Shaking it out, though, as we said, is permitted even vigorously. When I get home in wet clothes, do I have to take them off, or may I continue wearing them? The Mishnah Berurah writes that at the first opportunity, if he has other clothes, he must take off the wet ones so that he does not squeeze them. But the Alter Rebbe, as he rules in siman 301, se’if 56, says that someone whose clothes are wet because he went into water or because heavy rain fell on him may continue walking in them, even all day long. In other words, as long as he is wearing them, we are not concerned that he might forget and squeeze them while walking. Once a person has taken off his wet clothes, however, the Sages decreed that one may not hang up clothes on Shabbos because of how it looks: people might think he laundered them on Shabbos. The same applies here. One may not take off a coat and hang it where clothes are normally hung, because of that concern. Even in a private room, one may not hang it there, lest people think he laundered it on Shabbos.

02:03 Speaker 2 One may, however, take it off and place it somewhere that would not lead people to think it had been laundered on Shabbos, such as on a hanger or a chair, and the like. Just be careful not to put it near a heater, because the water might be heated to the point of cooking. If the water could eventually reach the temperature of yad soledes bo, that presents a problem of cooking on Shabbos. So be careful not to put the garment near the heat. I have clothes outside in the yard or on the balcony, and it starts raining. I want to protect them by bringing them into the house. May I do that? First, it depends on the condition of the clothes at bein hashmashos. If at bein hashmashos they were very, very wet—they had come out of the wash without being thoroughly wrung out, or without being wrung out at all—then those clothes are muktzeh and may not be moved on Shabbos. They were already prohibited at bein hashmashos before Shabbos began, so they remain prohibited throughout Shabbos, even if they dry during Shabbos, as explained in the laws of muktzeh. But if the clothes were not soaked, and were only slightly damp or completely dry, then one may bring them into the house, even though doing so is effectively preparing on Shabbos for a weekday. Why is it permitted? Because I won’t be able to do it later, on a weekday. In other words, I would suffer a loss. Therefore, I may bring the clothes in if there is a concern that they will get wet on Shabbos. Now suppose I’m in a public domain, water is cascading down the street, and I want to put a bag over my shoe. May I do that? The law, as brought in the halachic authorities, is that one may not put a bag over a shoe, because that is

03:46 Speaker 2 not a normal way of wearing clothing. Even if the bag also protects part of my foot, and not just the shoe, it is still not considered a normal way of wearing clothing, so I may not put it on. What if I want to put the bag over my sock and then fasten my shoe over it? Perhaps, because it is secured in place, it is more like clothing. But as the halachic authorities have written, permitting that is also far from straightforward, so one should not do it on Shabbos. One may, however, wear several pairs of socks one over another, because that is a normal way of wearing clothing. Even though one pair is enough for me, I may wear several pairs, and there is no concern that this is not a normal way of dressing. From here we’ll move on to the laws of hats, hat covers, and wig covers on Shabbos. If a coat has a rain hood sewn onto it or attached with buttons or a zipper, one may wear it on Shabbos where there is no eruv, even without putting the hood over one’s head. Likewise, if it is a very large hood designed to cover one’s hat, one may wear it whether or not it is actually covering the hat. What if I want to put a bag over my hat or over my wig? The law is that even if the bag covers not only the hat but also my neck, one may not put it over a hat or wig on Shabbos, nor may one go out wearing it. Even if one put it on before Shabbos, one may not go out wearing it on Shabbos in a place without an eruv, or in a place where people do not rely on the eruv. What about covers that fit very

05:26 Speaker 2 snugly—special plastic covers that fit tightly over a hat? May one wear them? There is a very broad dispute among the halachic authorities. On one side, the Igros Moshe and the Minchas Yitzchak permitted them, as did many others; on the other, the Divrei Yatziv and the Shevet Halevi, along with many others, prohibited them. Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, for example, prohibited them in a full-fledged public domain, but permitted them where it was not a full-fledged public domain. So we need to understand the reasoning. When I put a cover over my hat, is its purpose to protect me or to protect the hat? Those who permit it hold that although it protects the hat, it protects me as well: if the hat gets wet, I will eventually get wet too. In practice, then, each community follows its own custom, and each place should follow the ruling of its local rabbi. For example, in Crown Heights people do not wear such covers, while in other places around the world they do. Each community follows its own custom. Now suppose I’m walking along and a strong wind blows my hat into a tree, or my tallis, coat, or another garment gets caught in a tree. May I take it down on Shabbos? One must know that the Sages decreed that a tree may not be used at all, and that one may not take down anything hanging from it, out of concern that a person might come to detach something from the tree. So, for example, if children were playing ball and the ball flew into a tree, there is no permission to take it down. Even if they are careful not to touch the tree and use a broomstick to get the ball down, they may not take it down on Shabbos. But because of human dignity, if my hat blew away, my yarmulke blew away, my coat

07:15 Speaker 2 It got stuck in a tree. So, out of respect for human dignity, the Sages permitted taking it down from the tree. Just be careful not to climb the tree or shake it, and take it down very carefully so that you don’t come to detach anything on Shabbos. May you use an umbrella on Shabbos? The ruling is that even where there is an eruv, and even if the umbrella was already open, you still may not use an umbrella on Shabbos. On the one hand, it might seem permissible, since the Magen Avraham rules that a canopy that was closed before Shabbos may be opened on Shabbos. But all the halachic authorities conclude that an umbrella is different: you may not open one on Shabbos, and you may not use one that was already open. All the authorities agree on this ruling. Several reasons have been given, but in practice they all ruled stringently that an umbrella may not be used on Shabbos, even where there is an eruv and even if it was open before Shabbos. Since an umbrella may not be used on Shabbos, it has the muktzeh status of a utensil whose primary use is prohibited, with all the laws that entails. May you put a rain cover on a baby carriage on Shabbos? In practice, we are stringent: only if the carriage canopy was open a tefach—eight centimeters—before Shabbos may you open the canopy further and put the rain cover on the carriage. But if the canopy was not open even a tefach before Shabbos, you may neither open the canopy nor put the rain cover on the carriage. Now let’s discuss several laws concerning snow that falls on Shabbos or before Shabbos. As the Alter Rebbe rules in section 308, subsection 21, if there is another route you can take, you do not have to go far out of your way, but preferably you should take that route rather than walk directly on the snow.

09:21 Speaker 2 But if it is the only route available, or if it is the shorter route and the alternative would mean a detour, you may walk on the snow on Shabbos. There is no concern that doing so melts it, and so on. May you shake snow off yourself on Shabbos? If snow has fallen on me, I may gently shake it off an ordinary garment. If it is a nylon garment, such as a raincoat made of 100 percent nylon, I may even shake it vigorously, as we mentioned regarding rain that fell on a coat. Although snow is not muktzeh—although snow is not muktzeh, and one might have thought to prohibit it as something newly formed, since it was not there before Shabbos and formed on Shabbos—in practice, you may not make snowballs or a snowman on Shabbos, and you may not throw snowballs either, for several reasons. The authorities raised concerns involving several prohibited forms of work: threshing, because one breaks up the snow and melts it; building; and demolishing. The Mekor Chaim writes: “May the spirit of those who make snowballs with their hands expire, and one should protest against youngsters who make and throw snowballs on Shabbos.” But if they are children below bar mitzvah age, one is not obligated to protest, because there are several uncertainties here. That is, it is not inevitable that a prohibition will occur. Also, they do not intend for the water to flow out, and it is not certain that water will flow out of the snow. Nor is this really building, since it does not last. Therefore, there is no obligation to protest. But since we educate children about what may and may not be done on Shabbos, we should teach them not to play with snow on Shabbos. Now, several laws concerning a power

11:14 Speaker 2 outage on Shabbos. If the power was out for only a few minutes, the automatic control system most likely restored it, so there is no problem using or benefiting from the electricity. But if the outage lasted a long time—several hours, and so on—and affected just one or two buildings, then, if it is known that there is no sick person or woman in childbirth there, it would be a problem to benefit from that electricity on Shabbos. As explained in Shulchan Aruch, what happens when the electricity is turned on on Shabbos in violation of a prohibition? How should one treat the use of that electricity on Shabbos? But if an entire neighborhood or area lost power for several hours, then even though a Jew most likely restored it, there is no problem using the electricity on Shabbos. You may use it because there are sick people or others who would be in danger without electricity. Since it was restored for their sake, I may use it on Shabbos as well. We went to sleep, the power went out in the middle of the night and came back on a few hours later. Meanwhile, the food on the hotplate had time to cool down and then heat up again. May we eat that food, or not? The ruling is that if the food had not been fully cooked—for example, if the cholent had not finished cooking and contained a piece of meat that was not fully cooked; I do not mean cholent that is cooked but improves as it continues to simmer, I mean cholent that still has not cooked enough—then the food may not be eaten on Shabbos. It must be removed from the hotplate, and you must wait until after Shabbos to eat it. But if the food was fully cooked, then even though it cooled down and was subsequently reheated, it may be eaten on Shabbos. The halachic authorities give several reasons why one may be lenient: for one thing, I did not place the food

13:20 Speaker 2 on the hotplate on Shabbos itself; it had been there since before Shabbos. Also, the laws concerning leaving food on a hotplate are not agreed upon by all the authorities. Some say that those laws do not apply to a hotplate at all, and therefore the food may be eaten even if it cooled down. But that is on condition, as we noted, that it was fully cooked before the power went out. We are at home, the power goes out, and now the heating is not working and the house is very, very, very cold. Or, for some reason, we forgot before Shabbos to turn on the heating or set a Shabbos timer, and the house is very, very, very cold. There is a concern that we will become ill if we have no heat. The principle is that everyone is considered ill when exposed to cold. In such a case, it is permissible to call a non-Jew and explicitly ask him to turn on the heating on Shabbos. There is no need to hint; you may tell him directly. Although turning on an electric coil heater generally involves the Torah prohibition of kindling, and so a Jew may not do it on Shabbos, here we are dealing with illness. “Everyone is considered ill when exposed to cold” is a general rule: when a house is extremely cold, we are all considered ill in relation to that cold, and therefore we may explicitly ask a non-Jew to turn on the heating on Shabbos. With wishes for a healthy winter, and may we merit, with Hashem’s help, to hear new Torah from the mouth of Moshiach Tzidkeinu very soon.