Nshei Women's Corner

Seeing What Can Be Seen, Right After Forgiveness

Because Shabbos falls out during Chol Hamoed this year, we set aside the regular weekly parsha and instead read a special selection: Moshe asking to see Hashem's glory, Hashem revealing the Yud Gimmel Middos HaRachamim (the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy) as Moshe stands in the cleft of the rock, and the covenant being renewed with a fresh set of luchos. It's the same passage that carried us through Selichos all of Elul — now read again, in the sukkah, as an answered prayer rather than a plea.

Ashkenazi custom also reads Megillas Koheles this Shabbos. Shlomo Hamelech's refrain — "hevel havalim, all is fleeting" — lands differently sitting in a hut with a roof of leaves than it would in a permanent home. Koheles isn't teaching us that nothing matters; it's teaching us to hold onto what actually lasts (Torah, mitzvos, relationships) a little more tightly, precisely because the sukkah reminds us how temporary everything else really is.

Everything Is Temporary — That's the Whole Point

הֲבֵל הֲבָלִים אָמַר קֹהֶלֶת הֲבֵל הֲבָלִים הַּכֹּל הָבֶל

"Utter futility, said Koheles, utter futility, it is all futile" (Koheles 1:2). It's a strange line to read during Zman Simchaseinu, our happiest time of year — until you realize it's not a downer, it's a filter. Once you truly internalize that the money, the status, and even the walls of your house are temporary, you stop chasing them so anxiously and start noticing what was actually solid the whole time.

A short thought to share at the table: our sukkah only stands for a week, on purpose. Chazal wanted us to feel, once a year, what it's like to live without the illusion of permanence — and to notice that even then, surrounded by nothing but s'chach, we're still safe, still fed, still together. That feeling is meant to travel back inside with us when the walls go back up.

Is the Lulav Muktzeh on Shabbos Chol Hamoed?

כֹּּל הַּיּוֹם מִצְוָת לֻלָב חֻץ מִן הַּמִקְדָּש

Every day of Sukkos we take the daled minim and shake them in six directions — except Shabbos, even when Shabbos falls in the middle of Chol Hamoed like it does this year. The Gemara (Sukkah 42b) explains this isn't a Torah-level exemption; the mitzvah of lulav technically could apply on Shabbos too. Chazal held it back for one practical reason: they were concerned that someone not yet expert in the mitzvah might carry his lulav through a public domain on the way to a rav or teacher to learn how to shake it properly, forgetting in the moment that carrying itself is forbidden on Shabbos — the same underlying concern that keeps the shofar silent when Rosh Hashana falls on Shabbos.

Because the mitzvah doesn't apply that day, the Rama (Orach Chaim 658:2) rules that the lulav becomes muktzeh machmas gufo — muktzeh in its own right, the way a hammer or a pen is muktzeh on an ordinary Shabbos. A lulav has no other function; once its one job is off the table for the day, there's no permitted use left to justify picking it up. Practically, this means the daled minim should be set somewhere out of the way before Shabbos begins, since they may not be moved or handled once Shabbos starts, even just to clear space on the table.

One important exception: the esrog itself may be moved on Shabbos as long as it wasn't designated only for the mitzvah — if it's also fit to eat (many poskim are lenient here since an esrog is technically edible), it can retain food status and be moved like any other fruit. The lulav, hadassim, and aravos, which have no other use, remain fully muktzeh for the day. As always, the honey dish this year sits comfortably alongside a lulav that simply gets a well-earned day of rest.

Sourced from Sukkah 42b, Shulchan Aruch and Rama Orach Chaim 658:2. This is a general overview for learning purposes — for any specific situation, please ask your own Rav.

Tochen: Breaking Something Down Into Smaller Pieces

Tochen follows right after Borer in the Torah's bread-making sequence: once the kernels were sorted clean, they were ground into flour. The purpose of this melacha is taking something whole and breaking it down into smaller, more useful pieces — grain into flour, spices into powder, produce into a fine puree. It's easy to picture this only as literal milling, but the definition is broader than a millstone.

Food that grows from the ground and needs further preparation before eating is the classic case of Tochen; food that's ready to eat as-is generally isn't included, which is why slicing a block of cheese or shredding already-cooked meat by hand isn't a problem. What does raise a concern is using a tool designed specifically to grind or grate — a grater, a food processor's grinding blade, a mortar and pestle — even on food you're about to eat immediately, since the tool itself is what defines the act as Tochen rather than ordinary cutting.

Practically, this is why many families keep a plastic or glass grater set aside as "Shabbos-only" for foods that are permitted to be finely cut by hand (like grating a hard-boiled egg with a fork, or mashing a ripe avocado), while a metal cheese grater or garlic press stays off-limits. Crushing ice for a drink, grinding fresh pepper from a peppercorn mill, and running fresh herbs through a food processor are all classic Tochen concerns that come up at a Yom Tov table more than people realize.

Sourced from Halachipedia's Tochen entry as part of Halachipedia's full Index of the 39 Melachot. This is a general overview for learning purposes — for any specific situation, please ask your own Rav.