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...
Se’uda Shelishit
Halachot and Customs of Minha on Shabbat
Reciting “Ata Honantanu” in Arbit on Mosa’eh Shabbat
The Importance of Torah Study on Shabbat
Musaf on Shabbat – The Silent Amida and the Hazan’s Repetition
The Unique Importance of Musaf Prayer on Shabbat
The Status of Food Cooked by a Non-Jew on Shabbat for a Jewish Patient
Asking a Non-Jew to Prepare Food for an Ill Patient on Shabbat
Torah Reading and Using Shabbat as a Day for Learning
Asking a Non-Jew to Carry a Flashlight on Shabbat
Is it Preferable to Ask a Non-Jew to Perform Melacha on Shabbat When Someone’s Life is in Danger?
May One Take Something That is Hanging on a Tree on Shabbat?
Guidelines for When the Refrigerator Light Was Not Deactivated Before Shabbat
Is it permissible to ask a gentile to retrieve something from a car on Shabbat?
“Lehem Mishneh” – Using a Borrowed Loaf, or a Loaf That Had Been Attached to Another
Page of 239
3585 Halachot found