You may crush or squash an avocado (such as when making guacamole) on Shabbat, but ONLY:

• Using a shinu'i (such as a spoon, knife, or spatula),
• Without using a specialized tool (such as a grinder, potato masher, or fork),
• If you eat it immediately after preparing it, and
• If you leave some pieces larger than you normally would.

 

You may redirect a light fixture on Shabbat, but only by moving it with a stick or other object (a shinu'i), not directly with your hand.

You may move a hotplate on Shabbat but ONLY if you need the space where it is located. You do not need to use an unusual method (shinu'i).
Note You may not unplug an operating hotplate. If the hotplate will not go on again, you may unplug it--but only in a non-standard manner.

You may not turn off or disconnect an operating electrical device (such as an alarm, appliance, light, oven, or any machinery) on Shabbat, even using a shinui and even if the noise will prevent you from sleeping. You may ask a non-Jew to turn it off, but you may not ask a Jew, not even a child below bar/bat mitzva age.

You may pulverize a cooked egg (such as a hard-boiled egg) on Shabbat but:

• You may not use a specialized utensil (you may use a fork), and
• You must eat it immediately.

You may slide a lamp or other light fixture to where you need the light if it is not practical to move closer to the light, but not by using your hand directly (you must use a shinu'i such as a stick or other object).

• You may not plug in the cord or remove the plug from the wall.
• You may not turn the light on or off.

 

You may not erase a name of God that is written in chalk or other concrete but non-permanent substance (and certainly not if written in a permanent substance).
However, you can ask a non-Jew to erase it using a non-conventional method (shinu'i); for example, he may pour water above the name so that when the water runs across the letters, they will be dissolved.
 

You may squeeze a tube of cream on Shabbat, but you might not be able to use the cream on Shabbat for other reasons—consult a rabbi.

Although human dignity (kavod ha'briot) cannot override Torah commandments, kavod ha'briot allows violating some d'rabanan laws in order to avoid embarrassment.
Examples

• Tearing Toilet Paper
  Situation You need to use toilet paper on Shabbat but none is torn.
  What To Do You may tear some toilet paper using any non-standard method or change from the normal way (shinu'i), such as not using your hand, or dropping something on the paper.
• Hearing Aid
  Situation You may speak to someone who uses a hearing aid on Shabbat to avoid embarrassing him or her.

As on Shabbat, you may squeeze a tube of cream on Jewish festivals, but you might not be able to use the cream on the Jewish festival for other reasons—consult a rabbi.

Food preparation forbidden on Jewish festivals includes these forbidden melachot:

• Preparing soil for planting (choreish)
• Causing plants to grow (zorei'a)
• Harvesting (kotzeir)
• Gathering (mi'ameir)
• Threshing (dash; such as milking a cow into clean container or squeezing juice for drinking)
• Winnowing (zoreh)
• Selecting (boreir) (for exceptions, see Introduction to Jewish Festivals: Selecting/Boreir)
• Grinding (tochein) (Grinding may be OK with a shinu'i; ask a rabbi for specific cases)
• Sifting (merakeid).

However, you may do all food preparation necessary for baking or cooking food for that day--from kneading dough (kneading, or lash) to cooking and baking (ofeh) from an existing flame.

You may not do “expert” or “professional” work of certain types on chol ha'moed, and some types of expert craftsmen/women may not do their trades on chol ha'moed.
Examples

• You may sew or lay bricks or other such labors, but not if you are an expert or professional in those fields and you are doing expert work.
• Skilled writers and artists may not do their professional writing, calligraphy, or drawing (even for free!) on chol ha'moed. They may not do calligraphy or sofer work (Torah, tefilin, mezuza), but they may write normally.
• If you are not a professional writer or expert craftsman/artist, you may write on chol ha'moed but the preferred practice is to use a shinu'i --an altered method of writing, such as:
  • Using your other hand,
  • Holding the pen/pencil differently from normal, or 
  • Writing diagonally across the paper.

Muktza (“set aside” in one's mind) is an item that normally has no permissible use (or no use) on Shabbat. Muktza items may not usually be moved by hand on Shabbat—even if your hand is gloved—except for certain Shabbat needs, such as you need the space or the item. However, it is ALWAYS OK to move muktza items with any other part of your body.
  Chazal instituted muktza rules to make Shabbat special by requiring that actions be done differently on Shabbat than on weekdays. The basis for the idea of muktza was when Moses/Moshe instructed the Children of Israel in the wilderness to prepare the mun for Shabbat in order to eat it on Shabbat. Chazal extended the idea to prohibit moving by hand on Shabbat anything that was not prepared in one's mind before sunset on Friday.
The several categories of muktza vary according to their purpose and their permissibility to be moved. Purpose Item whose normal purpose is forbidden to be done on Shabbat.
Permissibility To Be Moved You may move this item by hand, without using a shinu'i:

• If you need the space where it is resting, or
• For a permissible use.

• Using a hammer to open a coconut.
• Using pliers to crack open nuts.
• Using a portable radiator to prop open a window.

No prior preparation or thought before Shabbat is required.
Note You may not move it just to protect the item.

Muktza Machmat Gufo: No Use
Purpose An item that has no use. This item is not normally ever designated for use; for example, a rock or stone. However, an item in this “no use” category is rendered non-muktza and usable on Shabbat as long as you had intended--before Shabbat or the festival began--to use it for a permitted purpose. As long as you intended that, you do not even need to use a shinu'i. If you did not intend, before sunset on Friday, to use this normally unusable item, then you may only move it using a shinu'i.
Permissibility To Be Moved Unless you prepared before Shabbat to use it for some permitted purpose on Shabbat, you may not move it by hand even for a permitted use and not even in order to use the space where it is resting.
Note You might need to use the item regularly for the non-standard purpose because for just a one-time use, it might not be permitted. Consult a rabbi.
Exception Garbage has no use. You may move garbage within your house (example: push the garbage across the room with your foot), but if you want to dump your garbage outside and you have a private domain or an eruv, you may pick it up and carry it outside.

Muktza Machmat Chisaron Kis
Purpose A valuable item that you are concerned may be damaged.
Examples Passport, porcelain china, or other expensive and fragile or difficult-to-replace objects.
Such an item may not be moved except for its designated purpose and you may not move it once you have finished using it. But once you are already holding it, you may take it to a place where you want to leave it and you do not need to drop it where it is when you finish with it.  

Basis L'Davar Ha'Asur

Purpose Muktza item resting on a normally permitted item makes the lower item muktza too.
Example A candlestick will render the table on which it stands muktza (unless there are one or more other items that are more valuable than the muktza item, in which case the table does not become muktza).
Situation There are multiple objects; some are permitted and some are not—for example, in a drawer.
What To Do If the permissible objects are more valuable than the non-permitted objects, you may open the drawer.

Non-Muktza on Top of Muktza
If you want a non-muktza item that was left on top of a muktza item from before Shabbat started, you may use it without restriction.

 

Situation

You discover you have coins in non-patch pockets of your pants that you will wear on Shabbat.

What To Do

You may empty coins out of non-patch pockets if you need to use the pants, but not by taking the coins out: you must dump them out of the pockets.
Note If you have coins in a patch pocket, the whole garment is muktza, unless you forgot that the coins were there or if you intended to remove the coins before Shabbat began but forgot to remove them (in which case you may shake the coins out of the pocket and the garment is not muktza).

Non-Patch Pockets

Situations

Pants with muktza items in the pockets are on your bed and you want to sleep on Shabbat afternoon.

What To Do

You may move the pants off your bed using any body part including your hands; no shinu'i needed.

Item that Becomes Muktza
If you are holding a permissible item and it becomes muktza, you may put it in safe place; you do not need to immediately drop it or put it down where you are.
Example You are holding a pot from which you dispense all of the food. The empty pot is now muktza, but you may take it to the kitchen to put it down.

For More Information about Muktza

To see the TorahTots article on muktza, click here.

The International Dateline (IDL), which is 180 degrees away from Greenwich, England, crosses the Pacific ocean from north to south and divides a region of safek/doubt as to which day is Shabbat. This region's eastern boundary is a line 180 degrees east of Jerusalem, which lies between Hawaii and the US mainland; the western boundary is east of Shanghai. All countries in this region of IDL safek/doubt are island countries.
 
In a region of doubt, such as Tasmania, keep normal Shabbat (Shabbat d'rabanan) on local Saturday and keep Shabbat d'oraita on:

• West of mainland USA, but
• East of the IDL, and
• Not attached to the mainland.

• West of the IDL, but
• East of Shanghai, and
• Not attached to the mainland.

Note In all cases, you must still observe regular Shabbat on Friday night/Saturday.
Situation
You are in a place near the International Dateline (IDL) in which you are not sure which day of the week it is halachically: Shabbat or, if you are east or west of the IDL, Friday or Sunday.
What To Do
On the Friday or Sunday in question, there is no shvut (d'rabanan prohibitions, including muktza), so you may do all melacha d'rabanan WITHOUT a shinui. You may:

• Ask or tell a non-Jew to do anything, including a melacha d'rabanan or d'oraita.
• Ride in a cab or car driven by a non-Jew.

• Use electricity--except for heat or light—including turning on a fan or air conditioner (heat and light are forbidden by the Torah).
• Use the telephone. (Using a cellphone may be permissible--ask a rabbi).

• Carry from a private domain (reshut ha'yachid) to another private domain, even through a public domain (reshut ha'rabim); but you may not stop walking in the public domain and you may not put the object down in the public domain unless you use a shinui.
• There is no practical way to light candles, even using a shinui, but a non-Jew may light them for you and and you may say the blessing on the candles.
• Swim, surf, scuba dive, climb, and play all games that do not use melacha. You may not wring out clothes and if you are swimming or scuba diving, your swimsuit or wetsuit must be clean.
• Walk any distance (there is no techum Shabbat d'oraita).
• Kinyan. You may acquire items.

• Fly, including check in and getting on plane if:
  • The pilot is non-Jewish, and
  • You don't do any melacha d'oraita (including any writing) without a shinui.
• Use a computer if it automatically goes to sleep after less than 24 hours of not being used.
• Shower. However:
  • You may not use an “instant on” hot water system in which the water is heated as you use it; you may only use the hot water if it has a holding tank.
  • You may use only liquid soap; hard soap is forbidden.
• Ingest medicine (but you may not smear it on skin).
• Use some make up, such as rouge, mascara, eye shadow. You may not use lipstick.
• Open a refrigerator with light (and all other psik reisha d'la neicha lei).

• You may buy necessities on Friday or Sunday as long as:
  • The store owner is not Jewish (or if he/she is Jewish, does not write or print a receipt),
  • You do not write, and
  • There is no reshut ha'rabim.

You may also do melacha d'oraita if:

• You use a shinui (non-normal way of doing that action--this is forbidden d'rabanan on Shabbat but is allowed on the Friday or Sunday in question), OR
• Two or more people do the melacha together.

 
D'oraita, you may not:

• Cook food.

• Turn on lights (but you may turn them off).
• Carry from domains.
• Boneh – building any permanent structure.
• Write two or more letters of the alphabet.
• Drive--there is no practical way to drive using a shinui.
• Shave--there is no practical way to shave using a shinui.
• Use toothpaste (but you may use tooth-cleaning powder).
• Use skin cream--you may dab it on without smearing it.

However, you may do these following actions with a shinui on the Friday or Sunday in question, as follows:

• Cook food. You must put food in the cooking utensil first, then turn on the heat with shinui. You may turn off the heat even without a shinui.
• Turn on lights (such as with your elbow).
• Stop along the way when carrying from a private domain (reshut ha'yachid) to another private domain, even through a public domain (reshut ha'rabim). As a shinui, you may carry the object in your mouth (as long as it is not food), etc.

Note Carrying something in your pocket is NOT a shinui.

• Tear paper (such as putting toilet paper across knees and moving the knees apart).
• Write (such as with the opposite hand).

Flying East From Australia on Sunday If You Cross IDL from Friday into Saturday