The Laws of Muktzeh on Shabbat

 

There are two fundamentally different categories of objects that may not be moved on Shabbat.  One is called "muktzeh," meaning "set aside."  This refers to any object that a person definitely would not have had in mind to use on Shabbat, because as Shabbat came in it was unusable or set aside for some special purpose.

 

The other category is utensils which are ready for use, but whose primary use is to do a forbidden melakha.

 

These two categories have different rules, different scopes, and different historical origins, so we will discuss them separately.

 

MUKTZEH

 

When God tells Moshe how He will provide manna to feed the Jewish people, He says, "And on the sixth day they will prepare what they brought, and it will turn out to be twice as much as they gather every day" (Shemot 16:5). Of course, the people must prepare the manna every day; still, this preparation is mentioned specifically with regard to Shabbat.

 

This emphasis is echoed later in the same chapter, as Moshe explains to the people,

 

"Tomorrow is a solemn day of rest, holy to God.  Bake what you will bake, and cook what you will cook, and everything left over from today leave over and save for tomorrow." (Shemot 16:23)

 

Again, the preparation of the manna is mentioned specifically in the context of preparing on Friday for Shabbat.

 

These verses hint at the special importance of preparing on weekdays for Shabbat.  Of course, this preparation is partially a matter of practical necessity.  Baking and cooking are forbidden on Shabbat, and so if we want cooked food on Shabbat we need to prepare it in advance.

 

"One who toiled on erev [the eve of] Shabbat will eat on Shabbat; but one who didn't toil on erev Shabbat, from what will he eat on Shabbat?" (Avoda Zara 3a)

 

But behind the necessity is a matter of principle.  After all, God could have freed us from the need for food for one day a week, as He did for Moshe during the forty days Moshe was on top of Mount Sinai without eating or drinking.  Or, for Shabbat God could have provided special manna that required no preparation.  In both cases, no preparation would need to be done on Shabbat, yet no weekday preparation would be necessary.

 

Instead, the Torah emphasizes that there is a special importance to preparing for Shabbat on weekdays.  Weekdays are not merely days when we may do labors of preparation; they are days that are intended to prepare specifically for Shabbat.  The fourth commandment tells us to remember the Sabbath day; our Sages learned that already from Sunday we should have Shabbat in mind (Mekhilta Yitro, Mekhilta de-Rashbi Yitro).

 

Likewise, Shabbat is not merely a day when preparation is forbidden; it is a day that DEPENDS on the preparation done during the weekdays.  On Shabbat, we may only use items that were already PREPARED FOR USE during the week.  This is the essence of the muktzeh prohibition: By demanding that only items prepared during the week may be handled on Shabbat, we create an INTERDEPENDENCE of Shabbat and weekdays.  Shabbat is not only different than weekdays; it depends on them.  The weekdays are not only different than Shabbat; Shabbat is what gives them direction and meaning.

 

In the introduction to the laws of Shabbat (chapter 72), we explained that weekdays are a time of giving, Shabbat a time of receiving.  In chapter 77, when discussing the manna, we sharpened this distinction: Shabbat is specifically a time of receiving FROM the weekdays; weekdays are meant to be days that specifically give TO Shabbat.  The laws of muktzeh sharpen this distinction further: Shabbat is to receive ONLY from the weekdays.

 

Given this background, we can easily understand the various categories of muktzeh:

 

1.  Items that the owner specifically demonstrated are not meant for Shabbat use.  This includes food that is undergoing preparation that will not be completed for weeks (se'if 1) and objects that the owner is insistent be used only for their intended weekday uses (se'if 6).

 

2.  Objects that are not prepared for ANY use as Shabbat comes in.  This includes inedible raw food such as uncooked rice (se'if 2), raw materials like feathers and untanned hides (se'if 2), and natural objects like dirt and stones (se'if 7).

 

3.  Items that did not even exist as Shabbat came in, like an egg laid on Shabbat (se'if 4).  These are called "nolad."

 

This also explains why twilight on Friday night is the critical time period for determining what is muktzeh (se'if 9).  Twilight ushers in a time that is between day and night.  At nightfall, it is completely Shabbat.  Something that was muktzeh, set aside, throughout twilight was unprepared as Shabbat entered, and so we cannot say that it was prepared on Friday for the benefit of Shabbat.

 

SHABBAT AND THE WEEKDAYS ARE PARTNERS

 

This demand for interdependence conveys an important moral lesson.  Recall that Shabbat is called a bride of the Jewish people, as we sing in the "Lekha Dodi" hymn on Friday night.  The relationship between weekdays and Shabbat can be likened to the relationship between spouses.  The emphasis on the interdependence of Shabbat and weekday can teach us that interdependence is vital in a marriage.

 

Marriage is not meant merely to fulfill needs for companionship, support, and family that as a matter of necessity we could not fill in other ways.  The need of each spouse for the other is a matter of principle, not of circumstance.  In fact, we might even say that a person's greatest need is to be needed!  While it is important not to put unnecessary burdens on our partners, we should never imply that we could do without them!  We discuss this further in chapter 122.

 

FIRE IN THE HOUSE

 

There is another custom with a very similar message.  The schismatic Karaites understood simplistically the verse (Shemot 35:3) "Don't burn fire in all your dwellings on the Shabbat day,” and forbade fire in the house on Shabbat.  But our Sages not only permitted this, but specifically mandated having fire in the house on Shabbat, to emphasize that we permit a fire made before Shabbat to serve us on Shabbat (Rema, Shuchan Arukh OC 257:8).  The emphasis is that we should specifically benefit on Shabbat from labors done during the week.

 

MOVING VERSUS USE

 

The above approach mainly explains why we may not USE muktzeh items on Shabbat.  Actually, the prohibition extends even to MOVING muktzeh.  The message of this prohibition is: if you don't need it, just leave it alone.  Shabbat is a day when we view the world as perfected and completed.  It is a day when we don't move things from one domain to another (chapters 82-84), a day when we don't travel too far afield (chapter 95), and it is a day when we learn to just leave things alone.  This is especially true of earth, which is the symbol of something that is permanent and unmoving - "Generations come and generations go, but the earth stands forever" (Kohelet 1:4).  This is like the Shabbat, which our Sages explain is "fixed and permanent"  (Pesachim 117b; a similar analogy is in Zohar Pinchas III:243b).

 

The Talmud indicates that the root of the rabbinical muktzeh prohibition is in the Torah prohibition of carrying (Shabbat 124b); one common denominator of the two is that they make Shabbat into a day when we know to leave well enough alone.

 

MOVING A CORPSE

 

One kind of muktzeh is a dead body.  Even so, because of respect for the dead, if the corpse is in a very undignified place it may be permissible to move the body through the subterfuge of moving it together with some kind of food or with a child, as we learn in se'if 16.

 

This rule is used in a Talmudic story to illustrate a very important principle of Judaism.

 

The Talmud relates that King David passed away on Shabbat in his courtyard.  King Shlomo was not allowed to move his father directly into a more dignified place; instead he had to use a subterfuge of moving him together with a child or a loaf of bread, as we just explained.  But Shlomo WAS allowed to move carrion in order to feed the king's dogs. 

 

The Talmud says that Shlomo alludes to this situation in the verse that closes, "for a live dog is better than a dead lion" (Kohelet 9:4).  Halakhically, moving a dead body (carrion) for the benefit of the dogs is permissible, whereas moving a corpse (that of King David) for the honor of the deceased king, who had the might and courage of a lion and came from the tribe of Yehuda which is likened to a lion, is permissible only with a subterfuge.

 

Considering a human corpse to be muktzeh may seem to lack respect for the dead.  But this rule is essential for teaching the sanctity of life, by emphasizing that the human body is special only because of the Divine soul that occupies it.  When the soul departs at death, the body becomes something lifeless and useless, something muktzeh or set aside, like earth and stones.

 

(5) MOVING UTENSILS

 

The kinds of muktzeh mentioned above are always forbidden to use.  Tools whose primary use is forbidden on Shabbat comprise a different category.  Obviously, these may not be used for their usual purpose - driving in a nail with a hammer or cutting a piece of cloth with pinking shears would be melakha - forbidden labor.  Also, these implements may not be moved about for no reason, or in order to protect them or because they are unsightly - just as muktzeh may not be moved.

 

However, these items MAY be used for a permissible purpose - for instance, using a hammer to crack nuts or shears to slice open a bag of cookies (in a permissible way).  They may also be used if we have need of the place where the utensil sits.  For instance, if a hammer is on the table and I want to put a plate there, I may move the hammer to a safe place so that I can put the plate where I like.

 

The Talmud describes the origin of this rule:

 

"This rule was taught in the time of Nechemia the son of Chakhalia, as it is written (Nechemia 13:15):

In those days I saw in Yehuda those who pressed grapes on Shabbat, and bringing in grain [and loading it on donkeys, together with grape wine and figs and all kinds of loads, and bringing them to Yerushalaim on Shabbat; and I warned them on the market day]."  (Shabbat 123b)

 

Nechemia lumps together those who pressed grapes on Shabbat - a clear case of melakha - with those who merely carry burdens - something that is not technically forbidden.  From the end of the verse, as well as from the continuation of the passage, it becomes clear that the purpose of carrying the produce on Shabbat was for commerce.  How did this situation justify the imposition of the restriction on moving utensils?

 

In the time of the Exodus, the thirty-nine forbidden labors were not only those needed for the building of the Sanctuary (Mishkan), as we explained in chapter 80, they were also the basic labors used in most people's livelihood.  But by the time of Nechemia, commerce became an important occupation.  This created the ironic situation where large portions of the people could go about their everyday business on Shabbat without technically violating any Shabbat prohibition!

 

The prohibition on moving everyday objects - which at first was much more severe than it is today - made doing business almost impossible.  This emphasized to people that Shabbat is not merely a day where we are technically obliged to refrain from thirty-nine specifically enumerated labors; it is a true day of rest, when we turn from worldly pursuits to more inner concerns.  (Based on a class of Rav Yaakov Medan.)

 

We pointed out in chapter 80 that the PROHIBITION of something on Shabbat ironically can indicate its very IMPORTANCE during the week.  It indicates that this is an important part of PREPARING the world for God's presence - which we then receive on Shabbat when we view the preparation as completed.  Using this approach, we can say that the extension to the laws of Shabbat from the days of Nechemia is meant to emphasize that commerce too can be part of God's service - if it is conducted in accordance with God's will.

 

Rav Nachman of Breslav also combines labor and commerce in describing the value of weekday activity:

 

"For there are great secrets and intentions in all aspects of commerce and labor [melakhot].  And just as there are intentions and secrets in all the commandments of the Torah, likewise there are awesome and wondrous secrets in all of the thirty-nine melakhot." (Likutei Halakhot, Shabbat 3:3)

 

CHAPTER 89 - BASE FOR MUKTZEH

 

Even a permissible object is considered muktzeh and is forbidden to move if it was dedicated, as Shabbat came in, to serve as the base or support for a muktzeh object.  Our intention to make the permitted object an accessory of the muktzeh item is taken seriously, and the base is given the same status as the muktzeh item itself.

 

The halakha takes account of our subjective intentions, and relates to objects not only according to their objective identity, but also according to the way we relate to them.  (See also chapter 54.)