DailyHalacha.com for Mobile Devices Now Available

Click Here to Sponsor Daily Halacha
"Delivered to Over 6000 Registered Recipients Each Day"

      
(File size: 610 KB)
Is It Permissible to Cut Fruit or Crush Ice on Shabbat?

It is prohibited to squeeze fruit on Shabbat. The question is whether one may cut fruit, which may cause juice to be extracted. For example, when making a fruit salad, there is usually juice that forms at the bottom.

The answer can be derived from a different case of crushing ice. Maran rules in accordance with the Rambam that crushing ice or snow on Shabbat is prohibited as an offshoot of "Sohet" (squeezing), since in both instances the action of squeezing extracts liquid. The Mishna Berura cites the Taz (Rabbi David Segal, Poland, 1586-1667) who holds that nevertheless, it is permitted to cut a cube of ice into smaller chips, even though water will form. The reason is that he does not have intent for the water and moreover, the water is going to be discarded.

Based on this precedent of ice, the Minhat Yishak (Rabbi Yishak Ya’akob Weiss, Jerusalem, 1902-1989) (4:99:2) permits cutting the fruit, since he does not have intent for the juice. This is also the position of the Shabbat Shelomo (p. 147).

SUMMARY
It is permitted to slice fruit on Shabbat, even though juice will be extracted.

 


Recent Daily Halachot...
Pesah- Use Your Best Dishes & The Proper Time for Kiddush
Pesah – If a Gentile Bring Hametz Into One’s Home
Some Laws of Chol Ha'mo'ed
Pesah-How Much Massa Must One Eat at the Seder?
Passover- Complications of Mechirat Hametz When One Travels Overseas for Pesah
Passover- Bedikat Hametz – Where One is Required to Search; the Custom to Put Ten Pieces of Bread Around the Home Before the Search
Pesah-If a Piece of Wheat is Found in Rice During Pesah
The Sale of Hametz: The Need for a Formal “Kinyan,” and the Status of Wine Sold to a Gentile
Pesah-Baking Massa on Erev Pesah
Pesah-What Massa Must be Used for the Seder Night?
Pesah-Baking Massot on Ereb Pesah
Pesah-The Water Used to Bake Massot
Pesah-What are the practical applications of “Stolen Massa?”
Is it Proper to Recite the 13 Midot on Yom Tob?
How Many Days of Yom Tob Does One Observe if He Always Visits Israel for the Shalosh Regalim?
Page of 239
3585 Halachot found