“Zalman - could you get me a cup of tea?” asked his father on leil Shabbos before they began learning together. Zalman went to the kitchen and prepared a cup of tea for his father. As he was walking back to the living room carrying the cup of tea, he tripped on a toy that his baby brother left on the floor. Although, Zalman did not fall, the cup of tea slipped from his hands.
“Boruch Hashem! The cup did not break,” said Zalman to himself, “But how should I remove all this spilled tea from our kitchen floor? I need to take care of it right away so that no one will slip on it. Hmm...What if, at least for now, I’ll push the spill to the side with our rubber floor squeegee? Not sure if that’s permitted, though. I remember learning that we cannot wash floors on Shabbos...”
Question. May Zalman push the spilled tea to the side with a rubber floor squeegee?
Hints & Answers*
HALACHA CHALLENGE: The sefer Shemiras Shabbos Kehilchosa (23:7 and note 30, new edition) teaches that the rabbinic restriction of washing floors on Shabbos was only enacted on doing the act of ‘washing’, which is defined as putting the water on the floor in order to wash it (and then removing that dirty water). The mere act of simply removing the spilled water (or a juice spill, etc.) is not included in this g’zeira. Perhaps the reason for this can be understood as follows: When a person washes a floor he is interested in improving the look of the floor. As such, he may come to level the surface of an earthen floor. However, the sages never prohibited removing a spill since in that case a person is not involved in improving the floor, but rather removing an obstacle from it.
RHYMES:
“tongue”
FIND:
I am Iyov and he is Yaakov.
RIDDLE:
An apple. The aroma that Yitzchok smelled when Yaakov approached was an aroma of the field of apples. (See Rashi’s commentary to Bereishis 27:27)
*Menucha answers are not to be taken as final decisions in halacha.
