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Do I need a special tissue box for Shabbos?
Sometimes I just grab the box from the other room that I was previously using for my nose and then designate it as the Shabbos bathroom tissues.
I wonder if I need to get special tissues, maybe a different fancier brand, to use on Shabbat.
Many brands of tissues are attached to each other, as a mechanism of one tissue pulling the next out of the box, and tear when you take a tissue out. They cannot be used on Shabbos.
No, you don’t. I never even heard of someone doing that. Although, of course, you do have to be careful about the issue that Joseph raised. Aspen and Alpine are both fine in terms of that.
Lightbrite – In some tissue boxes, the tissues are not attached, and you are not ripping when you take one out. In some tissue boxes, all of the tissues are attached by perforated lines, and when you pull one out you are ripping.
You can check the box before Shabbos. Simply pull up a tissue lightly. If it’s attached you will see, because it will stay partially attached if pulled lightly. Also, if it had been attached and pulled off, you should be able to see the perforations at the end.
Another way to tell – if thye are folded up, I think that means they are unattached.
joseph
Lightbrite is correct. no tissues in boxes are connected they are just folded into each other forcing the next to come out.
versus roles of toilet paper or paper towel which are legally & halachicly attached although they do have lines assigned to wrip it apart
What’s an LOS? Local Orthodox Sister?
Or would that be Local Orthodox Shul?
You do have to be careful in shuls. Sometimes, they have those tissue dispensers and the tissues are (always? usually? sometimes?) attached in those things. That’s why many shuls will have ripped up toilet paper or tissue boxes on Shabbos.
MA – there are tissues that are connected – it depends on the brand. Unless they stopped making those kinds.
And I know there can be a problem in shuls because I was nichshal recently.
How can a tissue be folded into another? I don’t think that any of the brands I use work that way.
Aspen and Alpine are both fine in terms of that.
Not always. Sometimes several are connected lightly at the ends, depending on the box, and on a rare occasion the glue from the box attaches a stack of tissues. I think Alpine has a special box designated for Shabbos use. Kleenex brand seems to be completely detached.
Using tissue in place of toilet paper is not a good idea. Tissues are meant to stay together when wet, toilet paper is made to fall apart.
It’s been years since I’ve seen tissues that are connected. There may be some Brand X tissues that are, but I value my nose too much to use them.
LU: You don’t see perforated tissues anymore. What does happen, though, is that you see some brands of tissues connected at each corner. That’s also an Issur D’Oraisa of Korei’a.
Sam2 & LB – I wasn’t talking about EY. I have lived in both countries, and it was in the US that I remember seeing tissues like that. I don’t think that I’ve seen them for years, but since I stick to the brands that aren’t like that (Alpine and Aspen when I’m in the US), I wasn’t sure if they still exist or not. From Joseph’s comment, I thought they do.
But I guess he was talking about what you are talking about, Sam.
“Aspen and Alpine are both fine in terms of that.”
Kapusta: “Not always. Sometimes several are connected lightly at the ends, depending on the box, and on a rare occasion the glue from the box attaches a stack of tissues. I think Alpine has a special box designated for Shabbos use. Kleenex brand seems to be completely detached.”
Thank you for the info, Kapusta. I wasn’t aware of that. I don’t remember ever having a problem, but maybe I only bought the special Shabbos kind.
“I thought most people use tissues on Shabbos. What do you use?”
You can rip up toilet paper before Shabbos. That’s what we used to do in EY back in the day when tissues were considered a luxury and a waste of money in EY. Apparently, they also used to do that in the US, because my grandfather, a”h told me that he remembers cutting up t.p. before Shabbos when he went to his grandparents for Shabbos.
In the US, the sewage system is much weaker than it is in EY, and using tissues can cause clogging, especially in NJ, and I think maybe especially in basement apartments.
However, I don’t think it’s an issue in EY.
They also sell cut up t.p. in the stores (or is that only in EY? I can’t remember because I never buy it).
And one of the tissues brands is supposed to be safe for toilets (at least that’s what it says on the box.) I think it was Alpine.
Israeli tissues that come in bags are folded one inside the other, so when you pull one out of the bag, the next is pulled so that it sticks out. They are not glued/attached together. But you cannot open the package on the perforation on shabbos, so when we buy them, I automatically open all the packages before I put them away. The tissues are not as thick and soft as American brands (my poor nose!), and they definitely disintegrate when they are wet. Just ask my kids who like to play with tissues in the bath, and then I have to clean up all these little soggy crumbs of tissue before they clog up the drain.
We take a roll of toilet paper and a pair of gezunte scissors and cut through the toilet paper right on the roll (you obviously can’t do it in one cut, but you can easily do it in several). It’s quick but the length of the resulting strips of tissue varies depending on whether they’re from the inside or the outside of the roll.
“We take a roll of toilet paper and a pair of gezunte scissors and cut through the toilet paper right on the roll (you obviously can’t do it in one cut, but you can easily do it in several). It’s quick but the length of the resulting strips of tissue varies depending on whether they’re from the inside or the outside of the roll.”
My father uses a box cutter, it works really well. Once I got married I wanted to do it also, but my wife doesn’t like the varying lengths
I can see this burning question of the day (cut TP or tissues?) added to questions for families investigating shidduchim, right after “which brand of paper towels do they use – Bounty or Brawny?” and “do they stack plates at the table?”
We have always used ‘Interfold’ toilet tissue for Shabbos. This is the type of toilet tissue that fits in the rectangular dispenser in public stalls. It is readily available from Amazon or local Janitorial supply houses.
We also use this type of paper towels for Shabbos
The problem with the interfold TP is that it’s tiny. It’s also not sold everywhere.
Yehudayona………
Generation gap time. When I was school age, the Interfold toilet tissue was the only type one found in the stalls. Somehow, generations of American students, and the public as a whole, managed just fine with it.
I mentioned Amazon for those who don’t see it in local stores. It is also available thru Staples and Office Depot.
CTL, I’m not that much younger than you, and I don’t remember seeing interfold toilet paper except in shuls and the like. Maybe it’s a Connecticut thing, like ketchup on hot dogs is a Chicago thing.
“ketchup on hot dogs is a Chicago thing” ??
I eat ketchup on hot dogs, and have only been to Chicago once, and that was limited to its airport.
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