Tag: muktzah

  • May One Activate Thermal Hand Warmers on Shabbos?

    May One Activate Thermal Hand Warmers on Shabbos?

    Also: Are they muktzah if already heating?

    Originally Published in Ami Magazine -February 2025

    Rabbi Moshe Taub

    I was recently met with a heated reaction when discussing…a heated reaction.

    During a recent post-Minchah halachah shiur, I was examining the halachos related to hand warmers on Shabbos. A rabbi never knows what topic may provoke a vociferous response, and the crowd grew passionate during this discussion.

    “This has to be assur!” implored one.

    “Well, some do see this as an issur Torah,” I responded.

    “Good,” said another, and then added, “Just because we don’t know what the issur is doesn’t mean it’s muttar! I can’t understand why this is even up for discussion.”

    I told the group that the day before, when I arrived at shul for Shabbos Minchah, I had noticed one of these hand warmers lying on the armrest of my chair.

    “I was unsure how it got there, and then I wondered if I could move it out of the way on Shabbos. This led me to speculate about whether one would be allowed to activate such technology on Shabbos. You might ask, ‘What difference does it make why they’re assur?’ So I will start by showing that it actually does make a big difference.”

    Let’s explore how these warmers work and what is problematic about using them on Shabbos.

    I. First: A Muktzah Primer

    Whether such gloves may be activated on Shabbos will be discused below. That issue came about as simply a byproduct to an initial sh’eilah I had: may I move them//are they muktzah?

    Many mistakenly assume that the central premise behind Nechemia’s decree of muktzah is the concern that moving certain items on Shabbos may lead a person to use them for their forbidden functions. For example, a pen is muktzah in order to prevent one from writing on Shabbos.

    Although the fear that one may do a forbidden melachah sometimes plays a role in muktzah (“muktzah machmas issur“, e.g. a lit candle, see below) this is not the chief concern behind muktzah (see Rambam, Hilchos Shabbos 24:12). Nor would such reasoning explain why, say, an expensive painting would be muktzah (muktzah machmas chesron kis).

    In other words: muktza as an invention of a new category that was birthed together with an injunction against its movement, having nothing to do with melacha or its prevention, per se.

    A Simple Demonstration:

    A PEN

    A pen becomes muktzah not because we fear one will forget and write with it, rather, and simply, because we assume that one is not planning to use it on Shabbos, and all items assumed to not be utilized on Shabbos are deemed muktzah.

    That’s it.

    Muktzah, then, simply means hukatz—to be set aside.

    This means that the many categories of muktzah are, in truth, simply the various reasons for the assumption these items were set aside.

    A pen is muktzah, and falls into the category of a kli shemelachto l’issur, something we assume is not planned for its main function since that act is forbidden on Shabbos.

    Because a pen does have some non-abstract uses that are permitted on Shabbos – e.g. as a pointer, to open nuts, etc. – it may be used for those purposes on Shabbos if they arise, as it was never hukatz from those. Indeed, items like this that are muktzah due to their issur status are the weakest type of muktzah, and may be moved if they are but in one’s way.

    So even if hand warmers are assur on Shabbos, I could have moved the ones on my chair.

    But wait! There may be another type of muktzah to consider.

    As mentioned, there is a special category called muktzah machmas issur. This category of muktzah only shares its name, yet is unrelated to classic muktzah and its special injunction. This is when an item is deemed muktzah not because of an assumption of disuse (painting, pen, a rock, etc.), rather because handling this item may lead to a forbidden activity/result. Some common examples are a lit candle – which is muktzah because moving it may cause it to be extinguished; wet clothes – which are muktzah because one may wring them out; and an iPhone – which is muktzah because its backlight may be activated.

    If it is indeed forbidden to activate hand warmers on Shabbos and if it is true that moving them may activate them, they would not only be muktzah by dint of being a kli issur, but also muktzah machmas issur!

    However, according to many, the fear of violating a rabbinical prohibition would preclude an item from falling into this latter category of muktzah.

    II. How Do They Work?

    We have been working under the assumption that activating such warmers would certainly be forbidden on Shabbos.

    Is this true? How do they work?

    There are two types of hand warmers.

    • The less common type is a reusable pack filled with a supersaturated solution of sodium acetate in water (gel). When the small metal disc inside is agitated, it releases tiny fragments of metal that act as nucleation sites for sodium acetate, changing the gel from a liquid to a near-solid state, which releases stored heat energy in a process called crystallization.
    • The more common type of hand warmer is for one-time use. Inside the pouch are tiny crumbs of iron. When agitated, oxygen is introduced, causing a speedy rust process to begin releasing energy as heat. (Other chemicals such as salt may be added to speed up the process.)

    The halachic issues involved are numerous.

    In regard to the first type, we must first consider bishul, which on the Torah level is only a concern at high temperatures that likely do not apply here. If indeed such temperatures are reached, it still only reheats the gel, which is a rabbinic concern (bishul achar bishul), and only according to some poskim.

    This concern may apply to the second type as well, depending on how we define bishul b’chamah and toldos chamah (cooking with the sun and other odd methods of cooking; famously, this is the problem with microwaving on Shabbos in terms of bishul; see, e.g., shu”t Igros Moshe 3:52).

    Furthermore, many people place empty aluminum pans on top of a hot plate on Shabbos. Would bishul even apply to such metals? (See Chazon Ish 37:11, with Chut Shani 22:4.)

    Beyond bishul, there are other issues such as molid, creating a new entity on Shabbos or Yom Tov. Molid is the reason we are permitted on Yom Tov to light a candle from an existing fire, but we can’t kindle a new flame.

    Finally, there is the biblical concern of makeh b’patish, which involves completing or activating an item by adding the finishing touch.

    III. Other Considerations

    The chemical reactions in hand warmers and their halachic applications go well beyond warm hands. They are an issue, for instance, when it comes to MRE self-heating meals, which soldiers use (and which I used during the time I traveled for kashrus supervision). One activates the pouch, places the sealed food on it, returns it to the box and waits (which means adding hatmanah to the halachic mix).

    May one reheat food this way on Shabbos?

    {For those who are interested, Rav Menachem Shimmel published two brilliant essays delving into this technology and its many halachic applications in Yeshurun, volumes 20 and 21}

    IV. Lessons Learned

    Although people should ask their rav about these many fascinating issues, I am discussing all this for reasons beyond l’hagdil Torah.

    I’d like to share what I told the agitated members of my learning group, who were bewildered by the fact that I would even consider investigating the possibility that hand warmers might be permitted on Shabbos.

    Of course we should trust our instinct, certainly in regard to the question of when to ask a sh’eilah. Although it is also true that issues such as zilzul Shabbos can be defined by the era or by one’s feeling (specifically, the feelings of the leaders of that generation; see Chazon Ish), one must still be able to discuss the halachah dispassionately and not just because it has real-world applications for cholim and soldiers.

    Moshe Rabbeinu understood the danger of making decisions while in an agitated state, even though his anger in that instance was righteous (see Bamidbar 31:22 with Sifri and Rashi).

    Knowing the exact status of items such as hand warmers and MRE meals aids us in understanding muktzah, and it may indeed assist a soldier on the field by preventing him from using a much worse mode of bishul. It can also be useful to a choleh or someone who is alone for Shabbos (see Rav Zalman Nechemia Goldberg, quoted by Rav Schimmel at the end of one of his essays).

    Food for thought. ●

  • Is Snow Muktzah on Shabbos & other Sundry Snow Halacha

    Is Snow Muktzah on Shabbos & other Sundry Snow Halacha

    Let’s First Share Some Quick and Basic Rules

    1 – While it’s best to salt snow and ice before Shabbos, one may salt snow and ice on Shabbos if needed.

    2 – Shoveling soft snow is permitted for areas needed on which to walk. 

    3 – Shoveling hard and packed snow should be avoided if possible. 

    4 – Either way, one should seek to avoid any strenuous shoveling.

    5 – It is better to be safe and at home than in shul and putting oneself in any danger. 

    6 – Please check on neighbors and friends to see if they are in need of any aid and Stay Safe!

    …. And now, for the interesting background!

    (The Following Was Written In 2015 for Ami Magazine by Rabbi Moshe Taub)

    “Chateichem kashanim kasheleg yalmbinu…your sins shall become white as snow” (Yeshayahu 1:18; see Tehhilim 51:9)

    Everyone complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it!

    Attributed to Mark Twain

    Just as Nachshon ben Aminadav (see sota 37) had to ‘take the plunge’ into the yam suf with the faith that Hashem would protect and save him from its elements, so too many of us must brave the storm to make it to shul -while others should rather stay home.

    During such weather events, anyone who is ill, has a medical condition, or is otherwise not confident in their walking mustn’t try to be a hero.

    Let us discuss snow in Talmudic lore, leading us to its many fascinating shailos.

    The gemara (yoma 35b) famously tells us of the time two great leaders, Shamayah and Avtalyon, were learning until the morning. When the beis hamedresh was not becoming lit at daybreak, they looked up at the skylight expecting to see a cloudy morning. Instead they saw the image of a man! Hillel, after moving to Yerushalaim at the age of forty, famously had climbed to the roof so as to hear their Torah, for he could not afford to enter that day.

    As Hillel lay there, a sudden storm arrived during the night and buried him!

    Already in mishanyos (e.g. Mikveos ch. 7) we find discussion of a mikveh made out of snow.

    Rav Zevin zt’l, in his celebrated sefer ‘L’Ohr Halacha’, dedicates a whole chapter on snow in halacha. In fact, there is an entire sefer dedicated to snow in halacha, titled ‘Hanosein Sheleg’ (by Rabbi Yishai Mazlomyan)!

    This sefer includes over one hundred questions posed to Rav Chaim Kinievsky regarding snow.

    I recall as child wondering if a beracha would need to be recited on snow.

    It may surprise some readers to learn that there is no beracha on snow! (Please do not try it for yourself!)

    Rav Chaim Kinievsky was further asked why it needs no beracha of special praise, whereas other natural phenomena has unique berachos. He responded, “Because it is just hardened water!” (Hanosen Sheleg p. 194).

    Nevertheless, there still may be another, special, beracha. The Shulchan Aruch (siman 227:1) rules:

    “…on lightning and on thunder and upon winds that blast mightily one makes an oseh maaseh Bereishis (beracha). If one wishes they may make shekecho u’gevuroso maleh olam”

    { -see Mishnah Berrura regarding our present minhag of making only ‘maaseh bereshis’ upon lightning and only ‘shekocho’ upon thunder}

    So while snow would not, in-and-of itself, require a special beracha to be recited, major storms may. Each rav, during each storm, would need to decide if that bar had been reached.

    Perhaps one could argue that this is not considered a food and as such would require no beracha. In fact the gemara(Nidda 17) says just that –snow is neither a food or a drink!However, even that gemara points out that intent matters.

    Some point to a midrash (Eichah Rabba4:10) where it discusses those who drank snow, giving it a food status, neccesitating a shehakol(for other views, see Kol Tzvi, vol.11).

    As for a borei nefashos according to this view, likely one would not make any beracha achronah as one does not eat/drink a shiur within a single halachik eating session (I hope!).

    See also shu’t Btzel Hachachma 3:114.

    More questions abound regarding snow, some often coming from children.

    Let us briefly discuss the most common shailos:

    May one make snowballs on Shabbos?

    Shemiras Shabbos K’Hilchosah says it is forbidden, being similar to boneh. Others are lenient. Rav Chaim Kinievsky writes that it is worthy to refrain.

    My own youngest children –being loyal Buffalonians – were so excited when they saw the snow one Shabbos morning that they asked to play with it in the backyard –making ‘snow-angels’ and the like.

    Is this allowed? The truth is that this question in not merely ‘child’s play’, as it brings up the allowance of even walking in the snow on Shabbos!

    It would seem the answer depends on which of two views one holds by. Allow me to briefly explain.

    The gemara (Shabbos 51) teaches us that one may not ‘crush snow’ on Shabbos for its water that will come out (the rishonim debate the reason for this law, which is beyond the scope of our purposes here).

    This prohibition is called ‘risuk’.

    However one is allowed to cause ice to melt by, say, placing it into a cup of soda.

    Furthermore, the Shulchan Aruch (320:13) rules that one may walk upon snow on Shabbos even though this will certainly crush/melt it.

    The Mishneh Berrura offers two reasons for this last leniency:

    • Either this is allowed because there is no intent to melt the snow, or
    • (quoting others) it is because since the prohibition of risuk is merely m’derebanan, and since not allowing us to walk outside would be impossible for many to observe, chazal purposefully limited this injunction to exclude walking on snow.

    So, as for kids playing upon the snow in the backyard, if we accept that chazal were only not gozer regarding walking on snow – then playing may be forbidden. However, if the reason that walking is allowed is because the intent is not to melt the snow then for kids playing too it would be allowed.

    Often with storms there is an assumption –based on an estimate made by the rav –that the eruv is down.

    Is, then, the snow gathered on clothing and shoes on the way to shul a problem if there is no erev? So long as one does not draw the snow purposefully on oneself this would not be an issue.

    Is Snow Muktzah? May One Shovel It?

    The status of snow on Shabbos begins, in a sense, with the great Rav Tzvi Pesach Frank.

    Rav Frank was one of the leading poskim of the last generation. Arriving in eretz yisroel in 1892, he had already studied under the greatest minds in Europe, including being zocheh to once attending a shmuez given by non other than the venerated Rav Yisroel Salanter.

    Eventually he became the rav of Yerushalim. Rav Frank’s biography as a posek and a rav-to-be-emulated deserves its own entry, but for the purposes of ‘snow’ we will look at but one incident with which he had to wrestle.

    It was February 2, 1957.

    The United Nations, on this date, called for all Israeli troops to leave Egypt after ‘Operation Kadesh’ (yes, named after the same Sinai peninsula, ‘Kadesh’, found throughout the Torah)

    It was also Rosh Chodesh Adar.

    It was also Shabbos.

    It also snowed heavily in Jerusalem.

    This was not your average Jerusalem sprinkling of snow; this was a real storm, a blizzard perhaps.

    In fact, I found The Associated Press’ archive footage and pictures of the day after this storm: cars stuck in snow banks, kids making large snowmen, and makeshift tools being used to clear the roads.

    This was an event.

    The morning of Shabbos rosh chodesh Rav Frank was besieged with one question more than all others: “Is snow muktzeh?”

    In particular, as he writes in his Shu’t Har Tzvi page 288, after this “sheleg gadol“, many wanted to know ascertain if they may shovel on Shabbos, specifically their roofs that were not built to handle the weight of such snow.

    At first this may seem like a simple question –one that must have been discussed numerous of times throughout the generations, and to which there is an accepted practice.

    But this would be incorrect, as there’s a paucity of early sources discussing the issue.

    Rav Frank begins his response by proving from numerous sources that snow –even freshly fallen on Shabbos –is not deemed muktzeh or nolad (a previously ‘non-existing’ item).

    For one, he points to the gemara, quoted above, discussing the prohibition of risuk – crushing ice and snow on Shabbos.

    After disallowing that act, the gemara goes on to say that one may however place snow or ice into a beverage – even though this will cause it to melt.

    Clearly, then, the gemara was not concerned abut handling snow so long as one is not crushing it for its liquid.

    The Chofetz Chaim comes to the same conclusion regarding rain, even fresh rain that fell on Shabbos.

    But, as we already alluded to, although few discuss this issue, not all agree.

    While this may confuse rabbanim, what is worse is that this debate bleeds into another debate; one that is between two of the greatest research tools of our time…Artscroll and Feldheim.

    These two acclaimed publishers each have a wonderful sefer–written in English for the layman and rabbi alike –on the laws of muktzeh.

    Imagine you are stuck in your house on Shabbos due to a storm. Unable to contact a rav, you may look to your English lukuttei halacha.

    So, you open Artscroll’s ‘Hilchos Mukzteh’ by Rav Simcha Bunim Cohen where he writes, “Snow is not muktzeh even if it fell on Shabbos” adding the caveat “so long as it has some use”.

    To be double check if there are any other views, you then open Feldheim’s  “Tiltulei Shabbos’ by Rav Pinchas Bodner. Although he brings two opinions, he spends much of the space focusing on the view that snow is indeed muktzeh, supporting this strict view by quoting HaRav Moshe Feinstein, who paskened (to him) that snow is muktzeh. In fact, this was later published in his teshuvos (5:22:37).

    So, to end your confusion, so you take out Feldheim’s Hilchos Shabbos by Rav Eider z’l -so to be ‘machriah beineihem’. He writes (emphasis mine), “Although rain or snow that fell on Shabbos is not muktzeh…” bringing this psak from none other than Rav Moshe Feinstein himself!!

    (How to explain this seeming contradiction in Rav Moshe’s rulings is beyond our purposed here)

    At the end of the day, most rabbanim I have spoken to seem to rule that snow is not mukzteh. This is supported by Rav Frank, Rav Elyashiv and most who discuss this issue.

    Yet the question remains: Even if not muktzeh, would shoveling be allowed?

    For one, there is this from the BBC:

    “A study looking at data from 1990 to 2006 by researchers at the US Nationwide Children’s Hospital recorded 1,647 fatalities from cardiac-related injuries associated with shoveling snow.”

    I always believed that the reason why shoveling poses such a health risk is due to sweating. The chochmas hobrai olam made it so that our bodies will inform us when we are overworking ourselves. The most obvious sign is sweating. 

    Hence the risk, as shoveling is done in the cold and one’s body does not react as it would if this activity was done indoors, thus potentially causing people to overlook their limitations.

    Based on this study it would seem that shoveling is indeed a strenuous activity, and perhaps the type of which one can’t perform on Shabbos. For this reason one who does shovel on Shabbos would have to limit it to a basic, simple path. If this path is long, and the snow deep, then help should be delegated out so that one person does not do such work.

    Speaking of sweat, there is a prohibition of exercising on Shabbos. As brought in Shulchan Aruch, one cannot work his body in a way that produces sweat. Shoveling will likely not fall under this law because the person who is shoveling is not doing it for his health, rather for his peace of mind. The exercise prohibition is only activated when it is the intent.

    Rav Tzvi Pesach Frank does have a caveat to his allowance: He explains that one may only shovel if the snow is soft. Once it hardens it may be deemed as part of the ground, resulting in the prohibition of soseir (destroying), according to some views.

    There are many more questions: May one ski to shul? What about sledding? If the roads are icy, may one skate on Shabbos?

    These too are discussed and debated, and will be left, perhaps, for another time.

    Let me end with an amazing story about shoveling snow, as told by the Brisker Rav, who would cry each time he said it:

    In Volozion, each time there was a heavy snowfall –even if all the roads were closed, the path to Yeshiva was always clear.

    The bachurim were perplexed and set out to investigate the matter. The next time there was a snowstorm they would wait out and see how this comes to be.

    Sometime later a blizzard hit. The boys set out and waited. Suddenly, before dawn, an image appears…it was their holyrosh yeshiva Harav Chaim Volozion with shovel in hand!

    The navi tells us “chateichem kashanim kasheleg yalmbinu…your sins shall become white as snow” (Yeshayahu 1:18; see Tehhilim 51:9).

    It is interesting that snow is used as a reference to purity but also as a symbol of sin (by tzaaras). Perhaps it is because even something that is to be pure, if used in the wrong way, can be a path to sin.

    Through our observance of halacha during such a challenging Shabbos may we be zocheh to the whiteness of purity, and, if we experience snowfall again, may it be with all of us together in Yerushalaim habenuyah.