Shabbat Archives | Rosh Yeshiva Responds

Hotel Rooms: Reshut Hayachid

2 05, 2023

Hotel Rooms: Reshut Hayachid

May 2nd, 2023|Shabbat|

https://pixabay.com/photos/bedroom-interior-design-bed-room-5664221/

QUESTION

Nashville

Many hotels have changed their policies in recent years due to unfortunate recent events and require that someone come in and do a security check of every room every day even if the do not disturb sign is up. Does that change the calculus of whether the rooms are reshuyot hayachid?

ANSWER

Totally not. רשות היחיד is about מחיצות, not ownership and property. And if your question was about requiring an עירוב חצירות, then this only makes it better since it just underscores the reality that you

Ovulation Tests on Shabbat

2 05, 2023

Ovulation Tests on Shabbat

May 2nd, 2023|Shabbat|

https://pixabay.com/photos/lab-medical-diagnostics-blood-313864/

QUESTION

New York

Are ovulation tests permitted on Shabbat? (You pee on them and lines appear, like a pregnancy test). What about for someone just tracking her ovulation but not planning to conceive this cycle? (preparing for IUI/etc) Color appears almost immediately but you wait around 5 mins for the final results.

ANSWER

If this is to serve the goal of conceiving then it is definitely ok. This is a large צורך מצוה. *Definitely mutar.* Although it possibly does not have a grama dimension, it is still, in my opinion, תרי דרבנן (disposable;

Visiting a Hospital on Shabbat

1 05, 2023

Visiting a Hospital on Shabbat

May 1st, 2023|Choleh, Electricity, Prohibitions, Shabbat|

https://pixabay.com/photos/hospital-bed-doctor-surgery-1802679/

QUESTION
Maryland

I work at a nursing home. Like many institutions, during covid we checked temps and asked visitors (and staff) to use an iPad to answer symptom checks as they come in, even on Shabbat. When I come on Shabbat, I have been allowing staff to check my temp with an electronic thermometer and a non-Jewish receptionist ask me the iPad question while s/he enters them in for me. I am trying to make an official policy. Considering the ongoing pikuach nefesh, it would seem unnecessary to require a non-Jew to use

30 04, 2023

Eating at a Table Partially Outside of the Eiruv

April 30th, 2023|Eiruv, Orach Chayim, Shabbat|

QUESTION

Maryland

This is a makeshift eruv set up at a cabin. The eruv goes over the table so that half of the table is inside the eiruv and half outside. More of a theoretical question: I know there is a similar question regarding sukkah, but is there an issue if ראשו ורובו בתוך הערוב ושלחנו חוץ לערוב—having your entire body within an eruv, but a part of the table at which you’re eating outside an eruv?

Any issue with eating at

30 04, 2023

Construction to Make a Shul ADA-Accessible through Non Jewish Workers on Shabbat

April 30th, 2023|Amirah LeGoy, Disabilities, Orach Chayim, Shabbat|

QUESTION

Washington, DC.

We are engaged in what is proving to be an endless construction project at our shul. Part of it includes making the building ADA-accessible. The contractor has requested to be able to work on the interior of the building from 12-8 PM on Saturdays, at a time when no one is around. If we stipulate that they must remain inside the building and strictly adhere to the hours so as to avoid disruption to Shacharit and Mincha, would that

23 04, 2023

Using an Electronic Based Toilet Training System on Shabbat

April 23rd, 2023|Orach Chayim, Prohibitions, Shabbat, Technology|

QUESTION

Baltimore, MD

There is a family who is using a nighttime toilet training program for their 9-year-old son. The program requires a magnetic sensor that triggers an alarm system. The alarm needs to be turned off and reset when it goes off. What options do they have to continue to use the system on Shabbat? They are concerned that stopping will break up the continuity of his toilet training.

ANSWER

I think it’s fine with a shinuy. I think bedwetting issues can be a source of a lot of psychic angst for

5 04, 2023

Drinking Wine Brought by Car on Yom Tov

April 5th, 2023|Moadim, Orach Chayim, Prohibitions, Yom Tov|

QUESTION

Baltimore, MD

A family that has some Shomer Shabbat members and some who are not, have friends coming to their second Seder in Baltimore from New Jersey, presumably driving on Yom Tov. Those friends will be bringing wine with them. Can they drink that wine at the Seder? Is tehum a concern at all in this case?

ANSWER

2 04, 2023

Bringing Babies to Shul: A Halakhic and Policy Consideration in City with No Eruv

April 2nd, 2023|Amirah LeGoy, Orach Chayim, Shabbat, Synagogue|

QUESTION

Paris, France

Communal policy question: there is no eruv in Paris and in our community there’s tremendous chillul shabbat (desecration of shabbat) going on from several families who otherwise entirely keep Shabbat but bring their babies to shul because not doing so would mean never coming to the community together. We had reached out to you in private about the possibility of having a non-Jewish nanny bring our baby to shul. I must say having had post-partum depression being able to leave my

5 03, 2023

Pushing Someone in a Wheelchair to Shul on Shabbat without an Eruv

March 5th, 2023|Amirah LeGoy, Disabilities, Orach Chayim, Prohibitions, Shabbat|

QUESTION

Jerusalem, IL

Rav Moshe Feinstein (Igrot Moshe OH 4:90) writes that in a place where there is no eruv, a person can only propel themselves or be pushed in a wheelchair by a non-Jew. We are dealing with a case of someone about whom it is not clear if they can walk on their own. Is there room for a Jew to push this person to shul?

ANSWER

If you can do it with a shinuy, or have two people pushing, then it’s shevut d’shevut be’makom mitzvah (a Rabbinic prohibition coupled with another Rabbinic prohibition which is permissible for the sake of a

Building a Tent on Yom Kippur for a Puppet Show for Kids

23 02, 2023

Building a Tent on Yom Kippur for a Puppet Show for Kids

February 23rd, 2023|Orach Chayim, Shabbat|

QUESTION

Brooklyn, NY

We are planning on having a puppet show for kids on Yom Kippur. The plan is to build a small camping tent, that they’ve cut out a wall from which they rigged in such a way that it would serve as their stage for the puppet show. (The performers are in the tent, and the audience watching sees what’s happening through the cut out wall).

In its basic form it’s a classic camping tent, that you’d get for camping , with poles etc.

Is building a tent like that, which is meant to be taken down a problem of Boneh?

ANSWER

Yes. It’s

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