Q&A: Moving Pets on the Sabbath
Moving Pets on the Sabbath
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I wanted to ask what your view is regarding moving pets on the Sabbath.
I know there are quite a few rabbis who seem uncomfortable with this issue, even though I never really understood why. So I’d be happy to hear your opinion.
By the way, yesterday I happened to think: could the rule of an inevitable result indicate that it is permitted? After all, otherwise how could the Talmud even have entertained the possibility that one may cut off a chicken’s head for a child if it is muktzeh?
Answer
Who is uncomfortable? Obviously it is permitted. Animals that are muktzeh are not pets—that’s a modern category. Pets are no different from anything else that is designated for your use.
But the rule of an inevitable result cannot serve as proof, for three reasons: 1. A chicken is not a pet. (True, there is an a fortiori argument here: if a chicken is permitted, then a pet is certainly permitted. But animals that are not pets are certainly forbidden according to the law of the Talmud, and nevertheless the rule of an inevitable result still applies.) 2. The rule of an inevitable result belongs to the Torah-level plane, and therefore there is no problem with the Talmud discussing a case where a person cut off a chicken’s head even if this involves only a rabbinic prohibition. 3. One could make the interpretive assumption that he cut off its head without moving it. (Though plainly, using something that is muktzeh is also prohibited.) But really these are unnecessary pilpulim. It is unrelated to the discussion.
Discussion on Answer
*** Benjamin, take note. From now on I’m starting to delete even merely irrelevant and trolling messages. ****
K, not because of molid but, if anything, because of nolad. It is open to discussion, but I don’t think something newly created has come into being here. Even an egg prepared in its mother’s womb, or a chick that is ready, is not considered nolad.
Thank you very much. For a second, when I read your answer, I thought I was imagining things and that maybe it really isn’t common to permit pets, but I saw that this is indeed mentioned that way in quite a few Sabbath Jewish law books. As I recall, it is presented as a kind of enactment of the Sages that one may not make any use at all of animals on the Sabbath.
I really did mean the a fortiori argument in point 1.
Point 3 sounds a bit odd, though possible. And regarding point 2, I’m not knowledgeable enough to calculate how common that is.
By the way, regarding point 3: independently of that, is there a problem with using the severed head because of nolad or something like that? If so, that would explain point 2 very well.