Q&A: Adding Another Game to Avoid the Issue of Sorting in Monopoly
Adding Another Game to Avoid the Issue of Sorting in Monopoly
Question
Hello Honorable Rabbi,
I have a question regarding the prohibited labor of sorting.
In the game Monopoly, as I understand it, as long as the game is in progress, there is no problem sorting the bills and game cards. But after the game ends, when one sorts the bills and returns them to their place, there may be a problem of the prohibited labor of sorting.
Would it be possible, for example, to create an additional game in which each participant quickly sorts the bills in his possession, and the winner is whoever finishes first? In that way, the act of sorting would be an integral part of the additional game, and would not be considered sorting merely for the sake of putting them in order. Could this solution perhaps avoid the problem of the prohibited labor of sorting?
Answer
Possible. But there is room to be lenient even without that, since here there is no “waste” and “food,” because you want all the parts of the game. And if we add to this the opinions that sorting applies only to things that grow from the ground (and the fact that here you are sorting by hand and not with a utensil), I think one can be lenient.
Discussion on Answer
I don’t think there is any preparation here. After using something, you put it back in its place.
Hi,
I think there is no preparation from the holy day to a weekday here, because for the sake of my Sabbath enjoyment I want my house to be tidy, and not for all the Monopoly parts to be in a mess.
When you finish something in life, you put it in order.
Rabbi, I wanted to share some research I did, and I’m having difficulty with what you wrote regarding:
“there is room to be lenient even without that, since here there is no ‘waste’ and ‘food,’ because you want all the parts of the game. And if we add to this the opinions that sorting applies only to things that grow from the ground (and the fact that here you are sorting by hand and not with a utensil), I think one can be lenient.”
Regarding sorting, the explanation I found that presents this paragraph in a good and professional way for the average person is at the following link:
https://www.meshivat-nefesh.org.il/post-163/
As I understand it, regarding sorting small objects, everyone agrees that this is sorting, and that no halakhic decisor today rules that sorting applies only to things that grew from the ground.
(Maybe I’m mistaken 😊)
As for those who do rule that it is permitted to sort larger things that are visible to the eye, from my research I don’t know of any decisor who says it is permitted to sort small things as well. Maybe I missed something?
In my opinion, hundreds of Monopoly bills mixed together are very hard for the eye to sort straightaway, so there is concern that this is a forbidden mixture. That’s why I asked about an additional game, whether it solves the problem, and the Rabbi answered that it does.
I do not engage in classifying and surveying the approaches of halakhic decisors. I say what seems right to me.
How does your answer in this responsum fit with what you wrote here:
https://mikyab.net/%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%AA/%D7%9E%D7%99%D7%95%D7%9F-%D7%9E%D7%A9%D7%97%D7%A7%D7%99-%D7%A7%D7%95%D7%A4%D7%A1%D7%94-%D7%91%D7%A9%D7%91%D7%AA/
There you wrote regarding the question:
Is it permitted to arrange the components of board games on the Sabbath in their designated place after finishing playing with them? For example, if there are red and blue playing pieces and during the game they got mixed together, is it permitted to sort them into their separate bags at the end of the game?
And you answered: In my opinion, no. This is sorting.
It doesn’t really fit. This is a case where it is genuinely hard to determine things categorically. There I inclined to be stringent, and here I inclined to be lenient. It is an inclination, not a definitive statement.
But the considerations because of which you were lenient in this case all apply in the case where you were stringent:
“there is no ‘waste’ and ‘food’ here, because you want all the parts of the game. And if we add to this the opinions that sorting applies only to things that grow from the ground (and the fact that here you are sorting by hand and not with a utensil), I think one can be lenient.”
Correct, which is why I wrote that it doesn’t really fit. It is a borderline case, and my inclinations about it were different.
So practically speaking, is it permitted to put games away on the Sabbath after playing with them, when putting them away involves some sorting?
As I wrote here, I think one can be lenient.
Not only an issue of sorting, but also of preparing from the Sabbath for a weekday, and it seems to me (if the local halakhic authority here agrees with me) that your idea solves that too.
And here we have thinking outside the box that arranges the inside of the box.