Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hey, good afternoon everybody. So one of the campers just came over to me actually just now before Mincha and he had a very, very bad sunburn. And he said he had a whole bunch of Shilas relating to Shabbos.
So I thought maybe a good topic to talk about, I didn't just think of this topic right after he came over to me 10 minutes ago, but I thought a good topic to talk about in general is relating to sun tanning on Shabbos. Just two disclaimers. We are not going to talk about any tzviyas issues that may arise of someone trying to santan on Shabbos, nor any medical issues.
My mechutin is a dermatologist, and he will tell you the sun can be very, very dangerous, so we're not going to talk about that. We're going to talk about the halachic issues of going and getting a santan on Shabbos. So there is definitely a melech of tzaveya. as far as it relates to the skin of a human being, because we know this from the halachos of makeup on Shabbos.
The Shulchan Ark writes, that a woman is not allowed to put on a certain type of makeup on Shabbos, because it's tzoveya. And the Mishuburuk points out,
Chapter 2: What are the halachic issues of suntanning on Shabbos?
You're not going to have Tzovea on a Daraisa level on human skin, but Midrabanon, it's still going to be Tzovea. So in fact, the Minchas Yitzchak and the Tshuva in Chelek Hei, Simmon Lamed Beis, as well as Rabi Yamin Zilbrin, Tshuva Saad Zilbrin, Chelek Beis, Simmon Lamed,
say that maybe for someone to go out in the sun on purpose, in order to color their skin, in order to have darker skin, might be a violation of Tzaveh. Why is it that the majority of Poles can assume not that way? So in Shmir Shabbos Gilchasa, he explains... that it's mutter because you're not doing any action that is coloring your skin.
When a person puts on makeup, when a person puts on some sort of coloring on their skin, that is an action that is a malacha. However, when you're just going outside and it's happening on its own, maybe that is not a violation of even savea midrabanon. Also, it's not immediate. It doesn't happen just like that. It's a process that takes a little bit of time.
And also one could argue that it is not an artificial color of the skin, it's a natural thing that happens with the skin, and therefore perhaps not a violation of Tzovea. The bigger issue when it comes to people who want to go sit out in the sun on Shabbos is that one needs to have sunscreen in order to sit out in the sun, and sunscreen on Shabbos could be a violation of the Malacha of Mimachek.
Now, how is that Mimachek? What is Mimachek? Mimachek is one of the 39 of us Malachas of Shabbos. The Rambam defines Memachik as taking off the hair or wool from the hide of an animal in order to smooth out the hide. So what in the world does that have to do with sunscreen? I'm not an animal. I don't have any wool growing on my skin, nor am I smoothing it out.
So what exactly does this have to do with mimachek? So the Rambam writes that a tolda of the malach of mimachek is mimareach. Mimareach means that a person smooths out some soft substance that can be pressed into a shape, that can be molded into a shape, or it could be smoothed out over a surface.
And that would be, the yisr mimareach would only apply on a dalrais level to a solid, pliant type of substance, But Midrabanan, any semi-solid type of substance that could be smoothed out over an area would be a violation of Mimareach Midrabanan. So creams and the like is at least Mimareach Midrabanan.
Ramosha Feinstein famously in the Tshuva says that this is, he holds this is the reason that one should not use toothpaste on Shabbos because he holds it is a violation of Mimareach, that you're taking this toothpaste a semi-solid toothpaste, and you're smoothing it out over the surface of your teeth.
Those who are makeable to use toothpaste suggest, Rav Vadyo Seif writes, that it's not mimareach, because mimareach is only when you plan on keeping it there. But if you're just rubbing something over the surface to then immediately wash it away and remove it, that that would not be a violation of mimareach.
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Chapter 3: How does tzovea relate to suntanning and makeup on Shabbos?
So Avadiah says, because the way you use soap is to wash it away right away. And similarly with toothpaste, it's to wash it away right away, and therefore would not be a problem. But for a suntan lotion, where it's not to wash it away, it's to leave it there, so it would be a problem.
Avadiah then points to a Magan Avram that says that a person is allowed to rub saliva into the ground, that if a person spits on the ground, or they see saliva on the ground, they could rub it into the ground, and that is not a violation of of Mimareach.
So Rav Adya argues that the reason is that the Mimareach is only when you're spreading it out over a substance in order to remain on the surface. but when it's going to be sunken into the ground, and that's the whole purpose, that it should not remain on the surface, that would not be Mimarech.
One could argue that maybe that's a viable heter for sunscreen, that if the purpose is to rub it into your skin so that you won't see any of it, that would be similar to the Maganavram saliva on the ground. But more likely, that is not a viable heter, because when it comes to sunscreen, you do want to see the layer on the surface of your skin.
If it's totally absorbed in the skin, then it's probably not working. So you want to make sure that it's providing the proper protection. Baruch Hashem, as... technology advances. We now have, I don't know, technology, whatever, product development advances. We now have sunscreen that is not cream. You can have spray sunscreens.
I got a Shiloh not that long ago from someone who said that they have a very sensitive skin and the liquid sunscreens do not provide the protection that they need because they're not as good as the, whatever you call it, the creams. So I said, that sounds a little funny to me.
So I called my Mechutim, who's, as I mentioned, a dermatologist, and I asked him, and he said, no, that's correct, it doesn't provide, but for a normal person, you know, for regular people, it should be enough for the amount of time that you go out on Shabbos, but in a Hanami, if someone has extremely, extremely sensitive skin, and maybe does not provide, you know, for prolonged exposure to the sun, where it could be very dangerous for a person, maybe it does not provide the same protection, in which case,
Your best option may be Amir al-Nakhri. Amir al-Nakhri is the mother of a person who is at the stage where they can become a person who is at the stage where they can become a person who is at the stage where they can become a person who is at the stage where they can become a person who is at the stage where they can become a person who is at the stage where they can become a person who is at the stage where they can become a person who is at the stage where they can become a person who is at the stage where they can become a person who is at the stage where they can become a person who is at the stage where they can become a person who is at the stage where they can become a person who is at the stage where they can become a person who is at the stage where they can become a person who is at the stage where they can become a person who is at the stage where they can become a person who is at the stage where they can become a person who is at the stage where they can become a person
But better yet, stay indoors. Then there's the issue of refuah. Is it a violation of refuah on Shabbos to use sunscreen? So it's almost definitely not. The reason is, most poskim, they talk about this in the chuvahs about brushing teeth on Shabbos also, where they say that anything that's preventative is not a violation of refuah on Shabbos. And there's very simple logic to that.
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