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.)

[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.

[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.