DailyHalacha.com for Mobile Devices Now Available

Halacha is For Refuah Shelemah for
 Shmuel ben Leah
"Healthy heart, legs, and mind, as part of fully healthy nefesh and guf"

Dedicated By
Children

Click Here to Sponsor Daily Halacha
      
(File size: 904 KB)
Separating A Bottle Cap From Its Ring on Shabbat

There is extensive debate amongst the Poskim regarding opening a bottle which has a cap attached by a ring. When the cap is twisted, the ring separates and falls to the neck of the bottle.

There are three opinions amongst the Poskim. Some Poskim prohibit opening such bottles on Shabbat. They hold it violates Shabbat, since the act of twisting the top essentially creates the cap. Before, it was a seal of the bottle, and now it is a separate vessel.

Some Poskim, such as Rav Shlomo Zalman (Jerusalem, 1910-1995), distinguish between metal and plastic bottle tops. The metal caps have a ring which is an integral part of it, attached by perforation. Twisting it open creates a new entity. The plastic ones are not a part of the cap itself, and do not constitute a problem.

On the other hand, some Poskim, such as the Menuhat Ahaba (Rabbi Moshe Halevy, Israel, 1961-2001), say that neither variety is problematic, since it was always considered a cap.

Hacham Bension (Or Lesion 2:27:8) also permitted opening bottles, even with the metal cap. He based his argument on the fact that the manufacturing process of the bottle tops first sets the cap, as a separate entity, on the bottle and only then seals the cap with the metal ring. If one would stop the assembly line in mid-process, he would see a distinct stage in which the bottle has a viable cap, without the ring. Halachically, this means that twisting the bottle top does not form the cap. It was always there; the ring is merely a seal, which may be broken according to Maran in 314, who permits breaking the seal of a barrel to access the wine.

While there is room to be lenient, it is praiseworthy to open bottles before Shabbat.

SUMMARY
One may open all bottle tops on Shabbat, although it is praiseworthy to open them before Shabbat.

 


Recent Daily Halachot...
Putting a Liquid or Solid Food into a Keli Sheni on Shabbat
Is It Permissible to Put Baked Bread on a Blech to Make Toast?
Is It Permissible to Place Raw Food in a Keli Sheni on Shabbat?
Pouring Water on to Hot Food on Shabbat
Heating a Partially Cooked Food on Shabbat
Pouring Water Heated by the Sun on Foods on Shabbat
If One Turned On Hot Water on Shabbat
May a Non-Jewish Stockbroker Execute Transactions for a Jew on Shabbat or Yom Tob?
Instructing a Non-Jew to Perform a Melacha for the Sake of a Fulfilling a Misva After Shabbat
Instructing a Non-Jew to Prevent Major Financial Loss on Shabbat
Mukse-May a Jew Instruct a Non-Jew To Move A Lit Candle on Shabbat
Asking a Non-Jew to Open an Electronic Lock in a Hotel on Shabbat
Asking a Non-Jew on Shabbat: Buying and Selling
Amira L’Akum: Instructing a Non-Jew to Perform a Rabbinic Transgression
Amira L'Akum: Instructing a Non-Jew to Draw Hot Water
Page of 239
3585 Halachot found