halacha geeking

[cellio]

One of the many fences created by the rabbis is that of muktzah. This is a class of object that you're not even supposed to handle on Shabbat, because the primary use of that object involves activities that are forbidden on Shabbat. So, for example, you aren't supposed to handle writing utensils, your gardening equipment, the TV's remote control, etc.

Recently, while contemplating the logistics of a pot-luck break-fast for Yom Kippur, I found myself wondering: since Yom Kippur is Shabbat Shabbaton (the Shabbat of Shabbats), and it's a fast day -- on that day is food mutkzah?

I don't actually have anything riding on the answer to this (if I did I'd ask my rabbi); I'll take my contribution over before the holiday starts, most likely. But I do find myself wondering about the principles involved. Torah law doesn't need to follow consistent principles -- it is what it is -- but rabbinic law does.

Comments

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

Short answer: No, because there is a large class of Jews for whom food is permitted on Yom Kippur. (Children, many of whom need to be fed by their parents.)

[cellio]

Interesting. Does it depend on "class" or "large"? For example, there is a small class of people for whom instruments that would otherwise be muktzah are permitted (mohels, and doctors if saving a life, must perform those acts on Shabbat). Does this mean that surgical gear etc isn't muktzah for anyone, or is it still muktzah because we're talking about rare circumstances? Your answer implies that muktzah status is global, not dependent on the individual, else food would have a different status for a parent (accompanied by kids) versus a lone adult (who is healthy etc).

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

In this case, "large."

The instruments used by a mohel or surgeon are permitted to be handled for use because their use (brit b'yomo for the mohel, and pikuach nefesh for the surgeon) is a mitzvah that is docheh Shabbat (literally it "pushes aside the Shabbat"). A mohel may not handle his blade on Shabbat if it's not for the sake of doing a brit on that day (and in fact a mohel's blade is the classic example of something that is muktzeh machmat kis, muktzeh because the item is precious and delicate.)

Side note: There are actually four or more categories of muktzeh, depending on why the item is not handled on Shabbat, and they have different rules for when they may. For example, you can take out the kitchen trash or a dirty diaper, because they are mukteh caused by being disgusting, and something in that category may be removed from one's dwelling, but you can't then pick up a garbage bag from your driveway to put it at the curb for pickup. And so on.

So muktzeh is very situational.

But in this case, since the need to handle food for use on Yom Kippur is so common, and since even a person who starts YK healthy may end up becoming dangerously weak or dehydrated and may not be able to complete the fast, there is no presumption ab initio that any particular food item won't be used on YK.

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

Different halachic problem, though: You can't prep for after Shabbat while it's still Shabbat. (Also true of Yom Tov, which is why we need to make an Eruv Tavshilin.) So taking your contribution over before the holiday starts is still the right thing to do, even though muktzeh isn't involved.

[cellio]

Oh, that makes sense. I hadn't considered that transport, absent actually preparing the food itself, would be in that category.

But that raises another question: why is it ok to make an erev tavshillin for chag but not for Yom Kippur? Either way it's an out for doing something that would otherwise be forbidden. Not that I would (on YK), but again, trying to understand the principles.

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

Eruv tavshillin is based on several principles:

• Shabbat is on a higher level of kedushah than Yom Tov. (For proof of this, look at the various texts and laws regarding havdallah when Shabbat and Yom Tov are adjacent.) So it should be OK to prepare from Yom Tov to Shabbat.

• Just in case that's not the case, we start our Shabbat preparation before Yom Tov starts. That's why you need two food items, one cooked and one baked, to make the eruv tavshillin on. This turns the cooking done on Yom Tov from "Oh no, I need to start preparing for Shabbat!" into "And now let me put the finishing touches on my Shabbat preparation." Yes, this is mostly frame-of-mind and not actually halachic, if it weren't for the principle that Shabbat's kedushah trumps Yom Tov's, this wouldn't work; I think of it more as a statement of principles.

• According to some of the rabbis on the Talmud, eruv tavshillin only works if it's possible to eat the food you're preparing while it's still Yom Tov, and the mechanism also depends on the chance that you might have a lot of guests show up half an hour before Shabbat and you'll want to feed them. So here's "intent" in reverse --- even though you know you're preparing for Shabbat, there is a non-zero probability that you'll actually need the food for Yom Tov, and it's that small possibility that makes it permissible to do the prep on Yom Tov. Although this is a minority opinion, and we don't require adherence to it, those who are punctilious will act in accordance with this opinion. (I.e., if they're cooking something that takes an hour, they'll be sure to start it no less than 90 minutes before Shabbat.)

• And finally, with the exception of Rosh ha-Shanah (which is a yama arichta -- a single long day even in Israel), our eruvei tavshillin are almost always from a Thursday-Friday chag, where the second day is a "lesser" Yom Tov because it's observed only due to calendrical doubt. If it's actually chol (which we know in our kishkes it really is) then there shouldn't be anything wrong with preparing for Shabbat on it.

In summary, eruv tavshillin is a complex multilayered mitzvah that touches on lots of different halachic, hashkafic, and memetic areas, and is a fascinating subject of study in its own right.

[talvinamarich.livejournal.com]

Talking out me other end, here :P

I think it would be a matter of the item's purpose. I am making a lot of assumptions about the reasons for muktzah, of course.

If you are handling the tools of work, you are doing work. Putting the hammer away is as much a part of being a carpenter as hammering a nail: you begin work when you pick up the hammer, you end work when you put it away.

Food, however, is not a hammer or a TV remote. Food is an important part of Jewish spiritual life. Food is the thing most often named as a sacrifice. (Is anything *else* acceptable as sacrifice, for that matter?) It cannot be judged by the same rules and standards. Indeed, fasting is, to my mind at least, a type of sacrifice.

I think your answer is right there in your question: you are handling food that will be used to break the fast. The fast begins when you stop eating with the intent to fast. The fast ends when you break it: when you eat food, not handle it. If you pick up some food and think, "Maybe I can sneak this bit and nobody will notice", that would be forbidden: you are contemplating sin. But to pick up some food and say "When the time is right, with this food shall we end our fast," that is contemplating the proper completion of the sacred rite of fasting. It is to fasting what putting away the hammer is to work. So, if you handle food in that context and for that purpose (and in compliance with all other explicit restrictions and rules), you are doing something essential to the experience of fasting.

So, if my opinion matters at all, I'd say you are in good shape. :D

[lucretia-borgia.livejournal.com]

What 530nm330hz said, in both replies.