Question:
What are the halachos regarding washing ones body on Shabbos? Does it make a difference if the water is cold or hot?
Answer:
One may not wash one’s entire body or even a majority of his body in hot water on Shabbos, even if the water was heated before Shabbos, and even if he does one body part at a time. The same is true in regard to pouring hot water over oneself. the Magen Avraham 326:2 states that the same is true for more than half of the body.
Many water heaters or boilers are made so that automatically when hot water is removed cold water is added. If this is the case, it’s forbidden to remove hot water from the water heater, even if the water heater is turned off, because doing so will cause it to heat up the cold water which is added which thereby entails a violation of Bishul – cooking on Shabbos.The sephardi minhag is to allow showering in cold water on Shabbos. Many ashkenazim have the custom not to shower even in cold water. The Yalkus Yosef 326:3 says that it is permissible to shower in cold water on Shabbos, but one should be careful not to squeeze water out of his hair or his towel. The Magen Avraham 326:8 says based on the Maharil 139 that one should not wash in a mikveh or river even in cold water because one may come to squeeze water out of his hair or towel or one may come to carry the drops of water on his body for 4 amos. Rav Moshe Feinstein is lenient in case of tzaar such as a sick person or a heat wave.
One may use water that was originally heated before Shabbos to wash his hands, feet, or face. The same is true of washing any other body part as long as one doesn’t wash majority of his body.
If one’s hands became soiled with dirt or mud, he may not clean them off by wiping them on a towel or handkerchief. However, one may wipe them one a cloth which one is not concerned about cleaning (like a napkin).It is forbidden to squeeze water out of one’s hair on Shabbos. Similarly, one shouldn’t shampoo one’s hair on shabbos.One may wet one’s hair if one does not squeeze it out. One should not shake one’s head vigorously in order to remove the absorbed water. One may not dry one’s hair with a towel by pressing the towel to the wet hair. Instead he should touch the towel lightly to the hair.Mishna Brurah (Biur Halacha 326:8) emphasizes that when going to the mikveh one should be careful not to violate sechita implies the same.One may tightly wrap a towel on one’s hair to absorb the liquid because the liquid is absorbed immediately and becomes useless. Some permit drying one’s beard on Shabbos.
One may dry off one’s body with a towel and doesn’t have to be worried that he is going to come to squeeze it out. One should try to use a towel which he doesn’t care if it is wet and therefore he knows that he won’t come to squeeze out the water.
One should try to avoid swimming on Shabbos, even in a pool in their backyard.One may not enter a bathhouse even to sweat in a steam room or the like. Some poskim say that one may not even enter to for some reason that would be permitted on Shabbos other than bathing such as to remove an item, if he may come to sweat whilst he is there even if that isn’t his intention when he entered. |