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Enjoyment for everyone

שו”תCategory: HalachaEnjoyment for everyone
asked 9 months ago

Hello Rabbi. I am currently dealing with the laws of Yom Tov, as is traditional practice in dealing with matters that are most unrelated to the period, and I came across an interesting phenomenon in the poskim.
Regarding heating water for washing one’s body, Shulchan Aruch writes, following the Gemara and the Rishonim, that it is forbidden to heat it because it is not a pleasure that is equal for everyone.
It is clear that all of this was true at some point up to a certain period. The interesting phenomenon is that even the poskim of our time simply copied each other in a kind of circle where each one leaned on the shoulder of the poskim of their time, but no one in their right mind thought for a moment that equal enjoyment for every soul is a dynamic concept that can change. It is clear that in our time it is completely normal to bathe every day and anyone who heeds the Rambam’s recommendation to bathe from Shabbat to Shabbat may be a better Jew but will have to live alone and about whom the scripture says, “Far from an evil dwelling place.”
In short, according to basic rational thinking, it is clear that this should be permitted in our day and age, and yet I have not seen any rabbinic authority that has written to permit this, even though they have permitted much more controversial things such as cigarettes and the like. Maybe I wasn’t looking in the right place and maybe I’m missing something big here, but in any case, I would be happy to hear the opinion of a rabbi as a rational person with the ability to navigate the halakhic realm.


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מיכי Staff answered 9 months ago
Here I found the comment about it: https://www.yeshiva.org.il/ask/105572 Hasbara seems correct.

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