By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for the Five Towns Jewish Times The head of a match is made of sulfur, glass powder, phosphorus and an oxidizing agent. When the match is struck on Yom Tov two things happen: • The first thing that happens is the friction caused by the glass powder rubbing together produces enough heat to turn a very small amount of the red phosphorus into white phosphorus, which catches fire in air. This heat starts a chemical reaction that uses the oxidizing agent to produce oxygen gas. The heat and oxygen gas then cause the sulfur to burst into flame, which then causes the wood of the match to catch on fire. • The second thing that happens is the Rabbinic prohibition of Molid is violated. What is Molid exactly, and what does it involve? May we melt ice on Shabbos and Yom Tov to drink its water? May we also make ice? To many readers, Molid has always been a difficult area of halacha to get a grip upon. Hopefully, this article will help us get a deeper understanding of it. DEFINITION The prohibition is understood to mean creating a new entity on Shabbos or Yom Tov, or making a creative and substantive change to an existing item on Shabbos or Yom Tov. PLEASE HELP A VERY CHOSHUV HACHNASSAS KALLAH SITUATION https://thechesedfund.com/zechornilah/hachnasaskallah SOURCE The Gemorah in Baitzah 33b tells us that the Rabbis forbade creating a fire on Yom Tov because of the prohibition of Molid – creating something new. It is unclear from the Gemorah, however, under which category or sub-category of Malacha the Rabbis placed this prohibition. WHICH PROHIBITION IS IT? Rashi explains that the prohibition of Molid is because “one who creates a new entity – it is close to making a new malacha.” The Ramban has a similar explanation. We will see, however, that there is another Gemorah in Meseches Shabbos in which other Rishonim give us an entirely different understanding of the prohibition The nature of the prohibition is not insignificant. How so? A brief background is necessary here. There are some prohibitions that, when discussing the preparations of food or a universal need, became permitted -for example, havarah, kindling, is permitted to prepare food. Some of these prohibitions were made permitted for other needs as well – not just for food. Thus, when smoking was not considered detrimental to health – it was permitted to light a cigarette as well – even though it was not for food. This concept is called “mitoch shehutrah l’tzorech hutrah nami shelo l’tzoech.” Getting back to the nature of the prohibition of Molid. If the prohibition is one of Makeh b’Patish then we do not implement the notion of “mitoch” – which thus would cause more things to be forbidden. MELTING SNOW, HAIL, ICE, AND CHICKEN In order to understand the halachos of melting these four items, some background is necessary. The Gemorah in Shabbos (51b) states: “It is forbidden to actively melt snow or hail so that the water will flow out, but it is permitted to place it in a bowl and there is no problem.” THREE EXPLANATIONS TO WHY NOT TO MELT ICE There are three explanations to this Gemorah that are found in the Rishonim. 1] Rashi and the Ramban explain […]

The post Understanding the Yom Tov Prohibition of Molid appeared first on The Yeshiva World.