Broken Utensils: Difference between revisions

# If a button fell off of a shirt on Shabbat, according to some poskim, if one plans on using it to sew back onto the shirt it isn't muktzeh, but not if it is a standard button that one doesn't care to save because there are many like it available.<ref> Mishna Brurah 308:35 writes that the lid of a kli that fell off on Shabbat isn't muktzeh since it can be reattached. Similarly, [http://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=41315&st=&pgnum=123 Tehillah LDovid 308:11] explains that even though it is forbidden to reattach it on Shabbat since it could be used to reattach after Shabbat it is still called a kli. He discusses whether this applies to all kelim that break or only those which are easily reattached like a door. Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach (Shemirat Shabbat Kehilchata 15:72) held that a button that fell off a shirt on Shabbat is the same as a door that fell off a container. Since it could be returned after Shabbat it is essentially a kli. Nonetheless, this only applies if it is a unique button to a unique shirt but if it is the standard one then a person doesn't usually care about saving it and so it isn't a kli. Shemirat Shabbat Kehilchata concludes that it is proper to be strict. [http://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=49531&st=&pgnum=203 Minchat Shabbat 88:2] and [http://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=880&pgnum=247 Az Nidberu 7:46] agree. He added that if there's a type of item which required a professional to reattach it then it would be muktzeh. Menuchat Ahava v. 1 p. 285 says it isn't muktzeh only if you plan to reattach it. [http://www.dailyhalacha.com/m/halacha.aspx?id=261 R' Mansour] agrees. Chazon Ovadia 3:7 and Yabia Omer 7:37:4 is lenient about a button that fell off. Shalmei Yehuda (p. 80) quotes Rav Elyashiv who questioned the proofs to be lenient.</ref> Other poskim hold that it is totally muktzeh since it isn't useful right now.<ref>Why are doors of kelim that break off not muktzeh? Tosfot Shabbat 122b s.v. adaraba explains that it useful to be reused when reattached. Ran 122b s.v. adaraba agrees. Mishna Brurah 308:35 codifies this. However, Shitah Lner 122b s.v. vaf and Meiri 122b s.v. amar imply otherwise; it isn’t muktzeh since it is currently useful for its original purpose of covering utensils.