Question:
I baked a birthday cake for my friend and wrote his name with icing. On Shabbos I served the cake but my friend said that since there was writing on the cake we cannot cut it on Shabbos. Is he correct?
Answer:
Erasing on Shabbos is one of the 39 primary melachos of Shabbos, as the Mishna in Shabbos 7:2, Daf 73a. Rashi 73a writes that erasing is a melacha because the numbers written on the boards in the mishkan were sometimes erased when a board was improperly marked.
The Gemara Shabbos 75b tells us that if someone erases one letter and there’s room for two letters to be drawn in its place he is chayav.
As opposed to if you only write only letter big enough that two letters could fill its place you are patur, the gemara says this is where we see a chumra by mechika that doesn’t exist by koseiv.
The Pri Megadim raises the suggestion that even though we know that the shiur in order to be chayav for mecheika is two letters still if one were to erase one letter from a sefer that was written in error in order to fix it you would be chayav for mechika because that erasure is instrumental in order to complete the sefer correctly.The Minchas Chinuch suggests that, according to the Rambam, that you are chayav when it is on condition to be constructive one who removes a tattoo on Shabbos would be chayav because it is a tikkun.
The Rambam in Hilchos Shabbos 11:17 writes that a toldah of mocheik would be if one erases a marking, roshem, in order to fix it. The Rosh in Shabbos 7:9 however quotes a tosefta and explains it as saying that the fundamental principle to transgress mocheik is the “machshava for ksiva,” for the intent to write, and therefore one would be chayav even for erasing a blur splotch on a page.
Many poskim permit eating cake that has writing on it but forbid breaking the letters when cutting the cake, while others permit breaking the letters as well. However generally Sephardim may be lenient.
This comes from the following dispute :
The Mordechai (Shabbos 369) brings the Maharam as ruling that on Yom Tov, it is rabbinically forbidden to eat cake that has letters written on it. He explains that it only is a rabbinic prohibition because one is erasing without intending to write in the place where he just erased. (This is brought by the Rema).
The Dagul Meirvavah 340 argues that eating the cake should be permitted, since it is only a psik reisha of a rabbinic prohibition that anyway is being done in an abnormal way. He asserts that breaking letters on a cake is an abnormal way of erasing, and certainly breaking the letters in one’s mouth is unusual
The Taz 340:2 also permits because the letters are being broken for the purpose of eating, a leniency found regarding to Borer and Tochen. The Chazon Ish (O.C. 61), however, answers that since chewing and eating always involve Borer and Tochen it is permitted even immediately prior to eating. No such permission was given in the context of erasing.
The Kitzur Shulchan Aruch :63 and Aruch HaShulchan 340:23 are lenient, while the Mishna Brurah 340:17, Chazon Ish 61:1, and Shemiras Shabbas Kehilchasa 11:7 permit only breaking the letters in one’s mouth, not cutting them with one’s hands prior to eating.
With regarding to ripping open packages and tearing the writing , The Ashkenazi custom is to avoid ripping letters when opening a package on Shabbos, while the general Sephardi custom is to be lenient in this issue. The Shemiras Shabbas Kehilchasa 9:13 (quoting Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach) rules it is only rabbinically forbidden to rip through letters when opening a package, as is not considered erasing in order to write. |