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Is there a concern about using bar soap to wash your hands or anything on Shabbos?
A friend said that there was, but I only use liquid soap and never thought about it. Bar soap is such hard work! Am I the only one who prefers liquid 100%?
Thanks!!! 🙂
I’m no posek but i’m 99.9 % sure that it is ASSUR to use bar soap on shabbos.
Liquid is also a problem so I recommend that you ask your LOR…bmyer is correct (100%) on both accounts
Water.
Joseph is inappropriately misleading you.
You can use shabbos soap, or your homemade thin liquid hand sanitizer.
Absolutely incorrect.
Bar soap is accepted as assur. Thick liquid soap is a machlokes, but if it’s watered down, should be okay according to at least most poskim.
Bar soap is a problem according to everyone (as far as I know). Liquid soap is a machlokes. It also may depend how thin the liquid soap is. Some will only use it if it is watered down, and some will use it the regular way. There may be a difference between dishwashing detergent and the hand liquid soaps (which are thicker).
It is possible that there are some people who would only use the dishwashing detergent (on their hands) and not the liquid hand soap, and that some will use either one, but I’m not sure.
Definitely an LOR question. And when you ask, make sure to mention that hygiene is important to you!
Yes, Joseph, you are absolutely incorrect. Most, if not all poskim are mattir liquid soap if it’s watered down. Some are even mattir it at it’s typical thickness.
Question asked:
“What do you use then to wash your hands after using the restroom?”
Answer given:
“Water.”
Which part of the answer did you fail to understand as accurately responding to the question asked?
Why must you mention that hygiene is important to you? Is it not important to every Jew? So how will mentioning that be relevant to the psak?
um..pardon my ignorance, but what’s Shabbos soap? I didn’t know that existed.
DaasYochid is still in proving mode to demonstrate he’s not my Rashi. 🤓
Or perhaps DY is still upset that RingPlus folded.
The Star-K uses 600 Centipoise (cP) as the cutoff point. SAE 40 motor oil is about 600 cP if you want to do your own testing.
What happened to my signature line?
What, the fact that you said the wrong halachah isn’t enough of a reason to dispute you?
Lol. No, but Ting was certainly a rip-off.
It’s okay DaasYochid. I still love you.
Check out Tello. Put in $10 that never expires (as long as you make one call every six months) and pay 3 cents a minute with no requirement to add more funds (2 cents/text). Use your same Sprint phones. Or they have a $15 plan for unlimited calls.
I didn’t say any halacha in this thread. I simply answered a question as to what I use to wash my hands on Shabbos with.
Probably watered down liquid soap.
If the liquid soap is too thick, it is permissible to water it down on shabbos itself. Same goes for swishing toothpaste and water around in one’s mouth in lieu of mouthwash.
OK, if DY quit, then I volunteer to be the perush on Joseph.
Joseph was being purposely, umm, well, Joseph.
Technically, his answer was correct- we all use water to wash our hands on shabbos.
His answer ignored the deeper question, which is whether and in what form are we allowed to use a micelle-forming amphipathic surfactant/emulsifier in addition to H2O to make sure our hands are clean and germ-free.
And in classic Joseph style, his omission was successful in stirring a mini-controversy.
(Joe, how did I do?)Question asked:
“What do you use then to wash your hands after using the restroom?”
Answer given:
“Water.”
Which part of the answer did you fail to understand as accurately responding to the question asked?
The questioner obviously didn’t mean “you” in that sense.
So you answered a question from a relative beginner in Yiddishkeit using word games in a way likely to mislead her, as 29 correctly pointed out.
Hope you had fun.
You know many Yidden will only use water to wash their hands on Shabbos, correct?
Greetings, Lightb!
Yes you have come up with an actual ask your LOR question!
While everyone will tell you bar soap is no good, at issue is smearing and rubbing thick liquids or lotions. Many people will water down their regular liquid hand soap or dishwashing liquid (if your LOR thinks you should do that let him advise you as to the proportion) for use on Shabbos. Like ChadG already said, you can make more watered down soap on Shabbos if you run out. I just thought I’d mention that while you’re talking to LOR about this, you might want to include other similar things in the discussion, like moisturizing lotions, cosmetics, suntan lotion, diaper rash ointments, and other things people tend to “shmeer”, as all can be problematic on Shabbos. Someday in the not so distant future when you have a baby boy and have to take care of him after his Bris on Shabbos, the Mohel will advise you exactly how to deal with using the antibiotic ointment!Squuezing the toothpaste out of the tube on shabbos is also problematic.
“The Star-K uses 600 Centipoise (cP) as the cutoff point. SAE 40 motor oil is about 600 cP if you want to do your own testing.”
I remember Rabbi Fuerst telling me anything from vegetable oil and thinner
“Many people will water down their regular liquid hand soap or dishwashing liquid”
I don’t think everyone even says you have to water it down (especially dishwashing liquid. The regular hand soap I’m less sure of).
But again, there are different opinions, so LOR in this case for sure. And mention that hygiene is an issue for you.
Hygiene is important to all Jews. So how is mentioning that halachicly relevant?
You know many Yidden will only use water to wash their hands on Shabbos, correct?
Without even debating whether is solid basis for that chumra, you do know that that’s not what (in context) you appeared to have said, correct?
Might mean this case is more of a makom tzorech than others, and if it’s meikar hadin muttar, he might not advise being machmir even if he would to someone else.
If “watering down” liquid soap seems like too much work, almost all poskim agree that foaming hand soap is okay. (And of course you can still make that on your own.)
Also, you can water down liquid soap in the palm of your hand. The idea is not to “spread” the soap befor it’s diluted.
But again, to be sure, ask your LOR. (If you feel shy, remember that it’s good practice, so you’ll feel comfortable asking a shailah when true need arises.)But what about the scent that most liquid hand soaps contain?
I checked. There is a product called Shabbos soap from Adwe. It’s easier than mixing your own.
What’s your problem with the scent RebY?
You can’t perfume your clothing, but what’s your issue with putting the scented soap on your hands?I’m not sure, but I think the shabbos soap is deliberately unscented.
This topic got no answers. I didn’t think about it much, I just remembered the old topic.
I’m so happy to hear that! I was scared that you guys weren’t friends anymore.
Actually, the way I had read it before all the peirushim were posted was that BMYer and Mod 29 wrote something that could have sounded like they meant that no soap is allowed on Shabbos. I realize that they did not say that, but one could have understood them that way, as LB apparently did based on her question.
One certainly could have understood that there are those who hold that all soap is assur (which I thought was the case, since I know people who don’t use any soap on Shabbos, although perhaps, they just don’t feel like watering it down.) In any case, BMyer’s post could have been understood in either of these ways. LB apparently understood it that way, so she asked “how can one wash his hands on Shabbos if all soap is assur (or if one holds that all soap is assur)?”
So Joseph answered that if someone holds that all soap is assur, he uses water. I have known many people who did just that, so I saw no reason to assume that Joseph meant anything else.
Joe, how did I do? And who did better – me or WTP?
Precisely! Shkoyach!
I asked a sheilah once to a well-known poseik about taking something to help me sleep at night on Shabbos (I had recently heard a recording of a shiur in which it was mentioned that it’s a machlokes.) The Rav said that it’s assur. So I asked, “but isn’t there an opinion that it’s muttar?”
So he said, “Wait a minute.” He went and looked it up and came back and told me that I can take it if I really need to (I do).
Disclaimer: I am not suggesting that one make a practice of shopping for leniencies. I am talking about those situations in which there is more than one valid opinion, and there are factors that may make if difficult for the person in question to go by the stricter opinion. They should make sure to mention those factors when asking the sheilah.
What happened to my signature line?
All signatures have been lost (at least temporarily).
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