Q&A: A Question About Squeezing on the Sabbath
A Question About Squeezing on the Sabbath
Question
Hello,
Is squeezing also relevant to small things, for example after washing your face in the morning and rubbing your eyes, then theoretically maybe that squeezes the eyelashes; if you brush your teeth and droplets splash onto your shirt and then you go to sleep, maybe the droplets will be squeezed out of the shirt when you lie on it; if it’s raining and there are drops on your pants, they could be squeezed out when you sit down; and so on.
Thank you
Answer
This is not a question of big or small, but of one’s intention in the act. If a person does one thing, and in the course of it something else gets squeezed out automatically, that is an unintentional act. According to most opinions, there is no prohibition in that at all (aside from Rabbi Akiva Eiger’s view, that there is a rabbinic prohibition). And even if he is aware that something is being squeezed out, but the act is not being done for that purpose, then it is an unintended act, and it depends on whether it is inevitable and perhaps whether that outcome is desired or undesired. In any case, in my opinion there is no reason to be concerned about such tiny matters.
Discussion on Answer
When he showers, he is not thinking about squeezing his hair, but when he dries himself off he is. And with a sponge too, it is clear that one wants to squeeze the sponge, because that is the normal way it is used.
Thank you for the answer.
So why is it permitted to rub your eyes (after washing your face or after crying, for example)? Here too, seemingly, he does intend to squeeze.
Thank you for the answer.
But I still didn’t understand — I understood that if you shower on the Sabbath you have to be careful not to squeeze your hair, and for example it is forbidden to use a sponge mop because the sponge can be squeezed out — how are those things different? In both of those cases too, he does not intend to squeeze anything out (when someone showers he is not thinking about squeezing his hair, and with the mop too no one is thinking at all about the sponge being squeezed).