Friday, November 10, 2006

beitza 15 - sending a toaster to a friend on y"t

the gemara says that one may send tefilin on y"t but not the spiked sandal.

what about a toaster oven? is it similar to tefilin or sandal?

from my brief look, it seems that there is a machlokes tosfos yom tov and rav akiva eiger if tefilin on y"t are a kli shmlachto leisur. acc to rav akiva eiger it is not (only shabbos it is - see there because carrying) therfor a toaster might be asur lest he will use it, however acc to tosfos y"t maybe sandal is especially assur but tefilin and other things that are melachto leisur will be mutar.

would love to hear from the rabbi's on this one. either case, can we agree that what people are makpoid not to give a sefer as a gift on shabbos is wrong and should be mutar?

1 comment:

Avi Lebowitz said...

First we have to clarify the distinction between a sandal and tefillin. Both rashi and tosafos understand that it is not sufficient for it to be useful during the week, bec. that would also include a sandal hamesumar. therefore, they both say that it has to be something which you can wear on yom tov, AND that you can benefit from during the week. therefore, a sandal is excluded since you can't wear it on yom tov (we are gozer you may come to wear it). similarly a toaster oven cannot be used on yom tov, so it would be assur (bec. you may come to use it).

however, in shulchan aruch 516:3 the magen avrohom and m.b. make no mention of the requirement to be able to use it on yom tov. They are most likely assuming like the opinions that it is assur to wear tefillin on yom tov (as it seems from shulchan aruch). but the question then is, why is sandal assur? the shulchan aruch is either going to say like the rashba that it was a special gezeira to be more machmir by sandal not to even send it, or like the ritvah that it does not bring simcha rather reminds of the tragedy.

Acc. to the opinion in shulchan aruch, anything usable during the week should be allowed to sent on yom tov. But, i think you are correct that this will be dependent on whether tefillin are considered a kli shemilachto li'isur. if they are, we see you can even send a kli shemilachto li'isur bec. the pleasure of receiving them is tzorech gufo. but if not, it could be a toaster which is a kli shemilachto li'isur is worse than tefillin and cannot be sent. this is something that is a big machlokes, so we would have to be machmir that tefillin can only be sent bec. they are not milachto li'isur but a toaster would be assur.

regarding gifts on shabbos, so long as it is not similar to mekach umemkar as prescribed in shulchan aruch 323 and 306, it seems mutar.