[Avodah] Mutzkeh: Sticks, Stones, and Pets

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

I wrote:
> To understand the reason why stones are muktzeh, one must
> remember the principle on which muktzeh was based:
> Everything handled on Shabbos must be prepared for Shabbos
> in advance.

R' Sholom Simon commented:
> Well . . . except for the myriad of things which are
> considered automatically prepared, no?  S'forim (and, for
> that matter, just about anything one can read), food, keilim
> with which to eat food (plates, forks, napkins), chairs,
> clothes, games, toys, pillows and blankets, . . . . so much,
> in fact, that it almost renders your sentence useless.  If
> you want to say, however that "natural objects" fall in a
> different category, that may be useful.

Yes, indeed, being "automatically prepared" does count as "preparation" in this context.

In fact, while most people would think of the items listed by RSS here as being non-muktzeh, this is not accurate. Most of them belong to a rarely mentioned (but very real) category of muktzeh called "keli shemelachto l'heter". The halachos of this category are that the item may be moved for any purpose, but only if there is indeed a purpose; they may not be handled without a purpose. (Food and seforim, however, may be handled even for no purpose whatsoever.) - Mechaber 308:4, R' Bodner's "Halachos of Muktza" pp 18-19, and elsewhere.

So, as I see it, natural objects -- "eitzim v'avanim" -- are not a new category, as much as they are they starting point from which they enter another category. And I really mean that, both halachically and physically. Everything, even fruit and meat, starts out as a raw material, useless for anything, unprepared for Shabbos, and muktzeh. The apple begins unripe and unpicked, the steak begins unslaughtered and uncooked, the coin begins unmined and unshaped, the table begins uncut and unbuilt. Then these things become prepared for use, and enter another category.

Akiva Miller