Q&A: Questions About the Sabbath
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
Questions About the Sabbath
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I wanted to ask how one can avoid cutting fingernails on the Sabbath? I see this as one of the hardest prohibitions on the Sabbath.
2. When the Sages prohibited measuring on the Sabbath, does that include measuring time? Are measuring temperature, blood pressure, etc. considered measuring?
Or were they simply talking about measuring volume and size, as in commerce?
Answer
I won’t respond to the first bit of trolling.
As for the second question, see column 193.
It’s possible the questioner meant nail-biting, not orderly nail-cutting. In my non-authoritative opinion: I once read that if there’s a somewhat loose piece of nail or skin that is bothersome and painful, you may pull it off so it won’t keep bothering you. As for actual nail-biting, I don’t know whether that counts as "distress" (from experience, avoiding biting really is distress in every sense). In any case, before the Sabbath you can trim the nail with clippers all the way down to the base, so there’s nothing left to grab in order to bite it.