Brushing Teeth on Shabbat: Difference between revisions

===Mimachaik / Mimareach===

The Mishnah in [[Shabbat]] (73a) lists [[Memachaik]] (lit: scraping) as one of the avot melacha, scraping a surface to leave a smooth remainder (e.g. sandpaper, scraping hairs off a hide of leather). The Mishnah Shabbat (146a) also discusses a toldah or derivative of mamaechaik known as mimareach (lit: smoothing), which is accomplished not by scraping down a surface, but rather by spreading a malleable substance (e.g. wax) over a surface.<ref> Rambam Hilchot [[Shabbat]] 11:5,6 </ref>

 

There are two potential memacheik concerns regarding brushing teeth on shabbat:

 

# Removing the plaque and dirt from the teeth and thereby smoothing them out (av melacha of memachaik).

## Rav Soloveitchik<ref> Nefesh Harav p. 168 </ref> said removing dirt or plaque is certainly not mimachek, just like washing dirt off of dishes is permissible.<ref>Gemara [[Shabbat]] 50a</ref> Mimachek is only when you’re removing something that is part of the essence of the object itself.<ref>In a funny anecdote, Rav Schachter recalls how one of the talmidim asked Rav Soloveitchik that perhaps brushing teeth on shabbat should be prohibited because enamel is removed via the brushing, and he responded that if that were true, then eventually you would have no tooth left from brushing, so obviously that is not the case (to any degree which the halacha would deem significant).</ref>

## Rav Moshe Feinstein says that it’s forbidden to use toothpaste due to "mimachaik", but that brushing without toothpaste is allowed, as this is just like washing the rest of your body.<ref> Sh"t Iggerot Moshe Orach Chaim, 1:112 </ref>

##Rav Ovadia Yosef says even toothpaste is allowed.<ref> Sh"t Yabia Omer 4:30. </ref>  

###This is based on the Magen Avraham (316:24), that one is allowed to smear spit on the ground since it gets totally absorbed in the ground, and is thus not considered to be smoothed out in any significant way. Similarly, toothpaste doesn’t stay on the teeth for a long time.  

###His second proof is that the Rama (Orach Chaim 326:10) prohibits washing with hard soap due to [[molid]], but does not mention anything about mimareach, presumably because the soap only remains on one's hands temporarily.

##The Tzitz Eliezer rules like Rav Moshe.<ref> Sh"t Tzitz Eliezer(7:30:8). The 39 Melachos (vol 2, pg 373) also paskens this way.</ref>  

###Brushing teeth is not subject to the same leniency as the case of the Magen Avraham. There, the whole purpose of rubbing the spit on the ground is to get it absorbed into the ground, and so that's why the smoothing is deemed insignificant. But with toothpaste, there is a purpose in the smearing itself on the teeth, even if just for a minute, and so the smearing itself is significant.

###Even though the toothpaste companies claim that the paste coats the tooth for 24 hours, he wasn’t convinced this was true. And even if it is true, an invisible coating isn’t halachically significant.<ref> Aruch HaShulchan Yoreh Deah 83:15 </ref>