What is the halacha
with regards to using a hot water bottle on Shabbos?
A
hot water bottle is used either to warm one’s bed in the winter or is placed
on the abdomen to ease a stomach pain. There does not seem to be any
halachik reason why one should not be able to use it to warm one’s bed.
However, if we transport ourselves to a time when there were no
pre-manufactured hot-water bottles and people would use an open vessel and
place it on their stomach, we will understand what the Shulchan Aruch
is referring to.
The
Mechaber says
that it is forbidden to place a k’li with hot water on one’s stomach
even during the week. The reason is because the water might be boiling hot
and endanger the person. Rashi adds
that on Shabbos it is doubly ossur because the water might spill on
one’s body resulting in a person bathing on Shabbos in hot water. We are
referring to water heated on Shabbos and therefore one may not wash even a
small portion of one’s body with this water.
Is there a problem using a closed k’li?
We
find a machlokes Rishonim. According to Rashi who holds that
the problem is that we are concerned lest the water spills on one’s body. If
the k’li is closed, like contemporary hot water bottles, there is no
problem. According to Tosefos who holds that one may not place a
k’li with hot water on one’s abdomen because it is considered using
medication, even a closed bottle is prohibited. Accordingly, when one’s
intention is merely to warm one’s bed, one may use a closed water bottle.
Does that mean that it is forbidden to ease a
stomach ache with a hot water bottle?
If
a person is classified as ill, which means that he is either bedridden,
or
his entire body aches,
he
may use a hot water bottle. If one is not classified as ill, one may not use
any medication, and since placing a HWB on one’s stomach is a type of
medication one may not use it. However, in the winter months, where it is
common that one places a HWB in one’s bed for warmth, one may do the same
when one has a stomach ache. This is based on a rule, which says that one
may administer medication when it is something that healthy people do as
well.
For example, healthy people drink brandy, therefore one who has a sore
throat or a toothache may drink brandy in the normal manner, even though
one’s intention is to ease the sore throat. One may not gargle with the
brandy because then it becomes noticeable that one’s intention is for
medicinal purposes.
Hence, in the winter months one may place a HWB in one’s bed even when one’s
intention is medicinal because healthy people do so as well.
One
may nevertheless heat a towel and place it on one’s stomach, as that is not
something associated with medicine.
Is one permitted to immerse oneself in a mikveh on
Shabbos?
A The Mechaber says that one may immerse in a mikveh on
Shabbos. This heter dispels two problems. The main problem is that
although we rule that it is forbidden to immerse a tameh vessel in a
mikveh on Shabbos,
nevertheless a person may immerse himself in a mikveh.
The second problem is that although our custom is not to bathe even in cold
water on Shabbos, immersion is permitted.
According to many poskim, men
who immerse on Shabbos morning should try and avoid the hot water mikveh.
This is because bathing in hot water is a rabbinical prohibition, and
although we find poskim
who permitted it and made a distinction between bathing and immersing, yet
we see that the Mishna Berura Simon 326:7 says that the mikveh
should only be lukewarm (and colder) but not hot.
May
one make use of a sauna on Shabbos?
Subsequent to the g’zeira prohibiting hot bathing on Shabbos,
Chazal prohibited the use of a sauna on Shabbos. This was because people
would still bathe after the institution of the g’zeira and when
caught ‘red-handed’ they would say that they were merely using the sauna.