Thought for the Day: Is It Better to Use Candles or Crayons to Decorate Your Birthday Cake on Shabbos?
Our wax candles are certainly a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור, and therefore may be used to decorate a birthday cake on Shabbos. Let's take a step back, though. Would it be better to use something else? Candy letters, for example, to spell out "Happy Birthday, Yenta Malkie." But maybe you like the "candle look"; so how about crayons?
Candies seem safest. Edible food is not even considered מוּקצֶה at all; you can move it around just for the heck of it. That is even more lenient than כלי שמלאכתו להיתר/a utensil whose main function is for a any activity that is permitted on Shabbos, which can only be moved if there is some need. That need can be as light as saving the tool/utensil from being ruined or stolen, but some need is required. Food and Holy Scripture (including halacha and gemara, whether in Hebrew or English), though, can be moved for no reason at all; just for the sheer pleasure of moving it.
On the other hand, using candy letters carry an inherent danger of transgressing the serious prohibition of erasing (at least for Ashkaneizim). Letters made of food may only be broken as an act of eating. Even breaking that "M" Malkie wants that letter, it is her birthday, after all; but little Mimi also wants it -- and she (as emphasized by the loud cries of a volume only achievable by three years old who are not getting their way) never gets anything! Which brings us to the problem of causing machlokes; which is a serious Torah prohibition. So candies are safe-ish; you've been warned.
How about those crayons? It is certainly a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור, and it sure feels more like a tool than a candle, and there are poskim who say one should be stringent about moving our wax candles at all. Hmm.... On the other hand, it takes fewer steps to transgress Shabbos with a crayon than a candle, so maybe it's worse. That is not a real consideration; the main reason according to many authorities for the stricture of מוּקצֶה was to prevent you from carrying into the public domain. (If you have to think before moving it, you are less likely to accidentally carry it outside.)
On the other hand, the reason for being so strict about our wax candles is that they have no real permitted use on Shabbos. According to that reasoning, though, crayons are even worse. Using candles is not really forbidden at all, it just that there is no way to light them on Shabbos in a permissible way. Once they are lit, however, you are permitted to benefit from using them. When it comes to crayons, though, it is the actual use itself that is forbidden. Crayons therefore seem to be in a very strict category.
Let's take a bigger step back: Should you be celebrating birthdays at all? After all, that seems to be a goyish custom -- the only source in Chumash is Paroh's birthday! Suppose you are allowed and maybe even encouraged to celebrate a birthday (which is the sense of most pokim)... but should you be using a cake an candles? From a good friend after my first TftD about birthday candles:
Bottom line: whatever you do, it cannot be without thought regarding the halachic consequences and trade-offs. That's not just for birthday celebrations, of course; that's for every moment of life in this world. Seems like a bother? Is breathing a bother? Is eating a bother? Without Torah there is no (need for) food. Without food there is (no way to continue observing) Torah. (Pirkei Avos 3:21-ish)
Candies seem safest. Edible food is not even considered מוּקצֶה at all; you can move it around just for the heck of it. That is even more lenient than כלי שמלאכתו להיתר/a utensil whose main function is for a any activity that is permitted on Shabbos, which can only be moved if there is some need. That need can be as light as saving the tool/utensil from being ruined or stolen, but some need is required. Food and Holy Scripture (including halacha and gemara, whether in Hebrew or English), though, can be moved for no reason at all; just for the sheer pleasure of moving it.
On the other hand, using candy letters carry an inherent danger of transgressing the serious prohibition of erasing (at least for Ashkaneizim). Letters made of food may only be broken as an act of eating. Even breaking that "M" Malkie wants that letter, it is her birthday, after all; but little Mimi also wants it -- and she (as emphasized by the loud cries of a volume only achievable by three years old who are not getting their way) never gets anything! Which brings us to the problem of causing machlokes; which is a serious Torah prohibition. So candies are safe-ish; you've been warned.
How about those crayons? It is certainly a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור, and it sure feels more like a tool than a candle, and there are poskim who say one should be stringent about moving our wax candles at all. Hmm.... On the other hand, it takes fewer steps to transgress Shabbos with a crayon than a candle, so maybe it's worse. That is not a real consideration; the main reason according to many authorities for the stricture of מוּקצֶה was to prevent you from carrying into the public domain. (If you have to think before moving it, you are less likely to accidentally carry it outside.)
On the other hand, the reason for being so strict about our wax candles is that they have no real permitted use on Shabbos. According to that reasoning, though, crayons are even worse. Using candles is not really forbidden at all, it just that there is no way to light them on Shabbos in a permissible way. Once they are lit, however, you are permitted to benefit from using them. When it comes to crayons, though, it is the actual use itself that is forbidden. Crayons therefore seem to be in a very strict category.
Let's take a bigger step back: Should you be celebrating birthdays at all? After all, that seems to be a goyish custom -- the only source in Chumash is Paroh's birthday! Suppose you are allowed and maybe even encouraged to celebrate a birthday (which is the sense of most pokim)... but should you be using a cake an candles? From a good friend after my first TftD about birthday candles:
I listened and... YIKES!! Birthday candles on a round cake have deeply pagan roots! Deeply rooted and deeply hidden in history, of course. I don't know anyone who would actually forbid the use of birthday candles on a cake, but it's at least a good bit of trivia.Rabbi Avrohom Weinrib (founding Rabbi of the Agudath Yisrael of West Rogers Park) gave a shiur a couple years ago at Torah and Chesed after the secular new year about Chukas HaGoyim. And I found the recording here
.He talks about the origin of birthdays at 28 minutes and 35 seconds. Birthday candles are discussed at 39 minutes.
Bottom line: whatever you do, it cannot be without thought regarding the halachic consequences and trade-offs. That's not just for birthday celebrations, of course; that's for every moment of life in this world. Seems like a bother? Is breathing a bother? Is eating a bother? Without Torah there is no (need for) food. Without food there is (no way to continue observing) Torah. (Pirkei Avos 3:21-ish)
Comments