Search results for: ""melacha""

Shabbat: Strengthening Exercise
You may not exercise on Shabbat to strengthen your body. You may exercise on Shabbat for enjoyment, for socializing, or other fun purposes if:
  • No melacha is involved, and
  • It does not appear to be for healing (refu'a) or health purposes.
Example You may run on Shabbat if you like to run. You may not run on Shabbat if you don't like running but would do it to lose weight or to get in shape.
Jewish Festivals: Strengthening
You may not exercise on Jewish festivals to strengthen your body. You may exercise on Jewish festivals for enjoyment, for socializing, or other fun purposes if:
  • No melacha is involved, and
  • It does not appear to be for healing (refu'a) or health purposes.
Example
You may run on Jewish festivals if you like to run. You may not run on Jewish festivals if you don't like running but would do it to lose weight or to get in shape.
Jewish Festivals: Replacing Doors
You may not replace a door on its hinges and you may not replace a sliding door onto its track on Jewish festivals.
Reason This is due to the melacha of boneh (building).
 
Shabbat: Talking about Weekday Subjects
You may talk about weekday subjects on Shabbat if what you are discussing already happened, but you may not discuss plans to do activities that involve any type of melacha, even d'rabanan.
Jewish Festivals: Talking about Weekday Subjects

You may talk about weekday subjects on Jewish festivals if what you are discussing already happened, but you may not discuss plans to do activities that involve any type of melacha, even d'rabanan.

Grinding on Shabbat: How Finely You May Grind
You may not grind, grate, or even finely chop or dice food on Shabbat. You may not use a garlic press on Shabbat.
The minimum size before violating the melacha of tochein varies by the type of food. The resulting pieces must be somewhat larger than the size you would normally use in order to be permitted.
Jewish Festivals: Bringing Mail inside House
Do not bring mail inside the house on Jewish festivals, unless it was delivered:
  • Open
Reason Most mail is muktza on Jewish festivals since it cannot be opened or used without doing melacha, AND
  • From within techum Shabbat, AND
  • By a non-Jew. 
 
Grinding on Jewish Festivals: How Finely You May Grind
You may not grind, grate, or even finely chop or dice food on Jewish festivals. You may not use a garlic press on Jewish festivals.
The minimum size before violating the melacha of tochein varies by the type of food. The resulting pieces must be somewhat larger than the size you would normally use.
Baruch HaMavdil... and Birkat HaMazon at Third Meal

Situation You washed your hands, said ha'motzi, were eating your meal (this could be se'uda shlishit or even a fourth meal) and it is now dark. You want to do melacha.

What To Do If you have not yet finished se'uda shlishit, saying Baruch ha'mavdil bein kodesh l'chol after dark on Saturday night does not affect the Shabbat additions you will then say in birkat ha'mazon.  So, you may say Baruch ha'mavdil bein kodesh l'chol and do melacha, and then continue to eat your meal or say birkat ha'mazon INCLUDING the two Shabbat additions of retzei and ha'rachaman hu yanchileinu yom she'kulo Shabbat u'menucha l'chayei ha'olamim.


 
Introduction to Jewish Festivals: Selecting/Boreir
Issues of boreir are almost always d'oraita, not d'rabanan, and therefore we are stringent in applying restrictions concerning boreir.
Unlike on Shabbat (when you must remove some good along with the bad so as not to violate the melacha of boreir), on Jewish festivals you may remove the bad from the good if it is easier to take the undesired food from the desired food.

Desired from Undesired
You may select desired food from undesired (or inedible) substances if you follow these two rules:
1. Cannot Use Specialized Separating Utensil
    Don't use a utensil--such as a slotted spoon, peeler, or sieve--that is specialized
    for separating:
  • Food from other food, or
  • Food from other substances.
    Note You may remove dirt from a carrot's surface by scraping the peel with a knife (a tool not specialized for separating food), but not by using a peeler.
    Exception As on Shabbat, an action necessary to eat a food normally (derech achila) does not violate the prohibition of boreir. So you may peel a food that is normally separated from its peel or shell in order to be eaten, as long as you do not use a specialized instrument to do so.
Examples
  • You may peel an orange by hand, with or without a knife.
  • You may remove the shells from peanuts by hand.
  • You may remove the shell from a hard-boiled egg by hand.
2. Do This Shortly before You Eat the Food
   Prepare the food soon before it will be eaten.
     Note       You may prepare the food as much in advance as you would normally prepare a meal which you will eat--even as much as several hours.
     Examples     
On Jewish festivals, you may:
  • Remove fish bones from fish while you are eating the fish or just before eating it.
  • Cut open a melon such as a cantaloupe and remove any seeds normally.
Shabbat: Bringing Mail inside House
Do not bring mail inside the house on Shabbat, unless it was delivered:
  • From within techum Shabbat, AND
  • Within an eruv, AND
  • By a non-Jew, AND
  • Already open.
Reason Most mail is muktza since it cannot be opened or used without doing melacha.
Jewish Festivals: Ending: Before Havdala: Baruch HaMavdil
Say baruch ha'mavdil bein kodesh l'chol (without saying God's name!) if:
  • It is already “dark” (you can see three medium-size stars--tzeit ha'kochavim), and
  • You want to end the Jewish festival (and Shabbat) before saying ma'ariv's amida or havdala.
Note Saying this formula allows you to do melacha, but you may not eat or drink until you have said or heard havdala.
Note Men must still say the amida and men and women must say or hear havdala later even if they said baruch ha'mavdil bein kodesh l'chol. For how late you may say havdala after a Jewish festival, see Jewish Festival Havdala at Night or Next Day.
Flying through Shabbat for Business
If you fly through Shabbat (permitted for business only), you must keep even Shabbat d'rabanan while flying over the area of the earth that is in Shabbat.
If you fly east (such as from Asia to the US, across the Pacific) after Shabbat is over, you will re-enter Shabbat and may not do melacha on the airplane. Say the Shabbat prayers and kiddush at the appropriate local time where you are flying.
 
Rosh Hashana: End: Baruch HaMavdil Bein Kodesh L'Chol and Birkat HaMazon
Saying Baruch ha'mavdil bein kodesh l'chol after dark at the end of Rosh Hashana (as for Jewish festivals) does not affect the additions you will then say in birkat ha'mazon.
Situation You washed your hands, said ha'motzi, began eating your meal on Rosh Hashana afternoon, and it is now dark.
What To Do You may say Baruch ha'mavdil bein kodesh l'chol and do melacha, and then continue to eat your meal or say birkat ha'mazon INCLUDING ya'aleh v'yavo and ha'rachaman hu yichadeish alenu et ha'shana ha'zot l'tova v'livracha.
How Long between Sunset and Dark
Some communities end Shabbat 42 minutes after sunset, which is when some rabbis in New York observed that it gets dark. At other latitudes, the interval may vary considerably, from shorter toward the equator or much longer toward the poles.
Note In New York, dark is at 45 minutes after sunset in the winter and 50 minutes in the summer, according to Rav Moshe Feinstein. Some people wait 72 minutes after sunset before doing any melacha.