Sabbath food preparation
In Jewish law, the seventh day of the week is called Shabbat. There are 39 categories of biblically prohibited activities which may not be performed on Shabbat, and this article will focus on the eleventh prohibited activity, that of cooking on Shabbat.
Bishul versus cooking
The eleventh prohibited activity is called bishul (בישול) and is best translated as "cooking." However, the prohibited activity of bishul is not equivalent with the English "cooking" because many actions that the average person would refer to as cooking are in fact not forbidden by the prohibition of bishul and many actions that the average person would not refer to as cooking do in fact fall under the prohibition of bishul, as evidenced by the examples below. For this reason, it is best to maintain the English transliteration of bishul rather than try to discuss the prohibited activity with a thoughful yet wholly inadequate translation.
Definition of bishul
The definition of the Hebrew term bishul as it relates to Shabbat is the "use of heat to alter the quality of an item,"[1] and this applies whether the heat is applied through baking, boiling, frying, roasting and most other types of cooking.[2][3] While the prohibition includes using heat to alter the quality of even non-food items, such as metal or wax, this article will focus on bishul as it relates to food items.
Foods subject to the prohibition
The prohibition of bishul applies to all types of food and drink, even to those foods and drinks which are edible when raw or cold.[4]
References
- ^ Igrot Moshe Orach Chaim 2:85
- ^ Tractate Shabbat 40a
- ^ Talmud Yerushalmi Shabbat 87:2
- ^ Although Maimonidies classifies the cooking foods that are edible when raw as rabbinically prohibited, the Birchei Yosef is in doubt whether this is biblically or rabbinically prohibited