Torah · Halacha YomitNursing on ShabbatRabbi Uri Nahum · October 25, 2026 · 39 Melachot-15Play+30Position0:00—Save⌄ShareTranscript0:00Good morning, rabotai. We are in the middle of the melachah of dash,0:05and we said the practical halachot of dash is in the toladah called sechitah, which is squeezing.0:12Part of sechitah is also milking a cow.0:16So, chet a cow, that means going to a cow, pulling out milk from the cow,0:21is an issur de'oraita of dash, which is0:25sechitah. This is, like I said, dash. So dash is also0:30issur de'oraita. The same thing would be by a human being.0:33Pumping milk on Shabbat is also0:36an issur de'oraita, same thing as a cow; it's de'oraita also by a human being.0:41So if a woman also wants to pump milk on Shabbat, it will be0:45an issur de'oraita. Now the question is, how do we feed babies?0:49Not because it's sakana, not sakana, put that on the side.0:52Even if the kid has formula, and you're not one of those organic people0:55that feels that if it's formula, the kid is gonna, you know, die one day earlier than, you know, 120.1:02We're talking about that people, you know, the kid could eat; you can still nurse the baby. Why?1:06We learned last time is that when you squeeze a grape or a lemon on top of the food,1:12it's going me'ochel le'ochel, u'mutar, because it never turned into a liquid.1:17It only turns into a liquid when it hits a surface,1:20and the surface that it hit was a food, and goes into the food. That's called ochel1:24me'ochel. The Gemara says the same thing also: when a baby is nursing from his mother,1:27when the baby is eating from his mother, it's going from ochel to ochel.1:31It never turned into a solid, and that's why it's mutar to nurse a baby on Shabbat.1:37But if it's not the case, the case is where a person is, a lady is pumping milk to put it in the bottle.1:45Of course she's planning to give it to the baby,1:47even if she's planning to give it to the baby immediately, but it's going into the bottle first,1:50that would be an issur de'oraita of sechitah on Shabbat.1:56That's a very important thing, and a lot of people are not aware of that.1:59So the big question is, but they need, you know, sometimes they need to pump,2:03they need to go, they have to go to a seudah, they have to do other things.2:06The issur is an issur d'Oraita. Now you got to figure out what to do with the2:10שבת. That's important. The issur is an issur d'Oraita to pump.2:13Now, there are cases where a lady would be able to pump, but not to save the2:19baby. That means a lady was pumping and putting it in the bottle, like we said, that's an issur2:24d'Oraita. What if a lady is pumping and the milk is going to waste,2:28right? It's going to waste. So the halachah of sechitah is that you want the liquid.2:32In the case we're doing it, when you get rid of the liquid,2:35it's not an issur d'Oraita; it would be an issur derabanan. It gets a little bit lighter.2:39So that means if a person is taking grapes and he's just squeezing it on the floor,2:43he's not really keeping the juice. He's doing an issur; it's hitting the2:48floor, but it's not going to be able to stay. So that becomes an issur2:52derabanan; it's not an issur d'Oraita. Now, why in the world would a person want to pump, would a lady want to pump, to get rid of her milk?2:58It's very valuable. The answer is sometimes it's excess milk, and it causes a lot of pain.3:04When there's excess milk and it causes a lot of pain,3:08bimkom tzaar, chachamim were allowed in an issur3:12derabanan, and this is a tremendous tzaar. It's a tremendous amount of pain for a3:15woman, so therefore she's allowed to do it. So how does that work?3:18So how do you make sure it goes3:19to waste? Because the moment it goes into a bottle, it's ra'ui, you could drink it,3:21so it's already an issur d'Oraita. How does it turn3:24derabanan? So poskim bring down that if you put in the bottle a detergent,3:27something that when the milk hits it, it's not going to be ra'ui l'achilah, you can't eat it.3:33So, for example, you put a little bit of soap. You put whatever it is you put in the bottle.3:37The moment she pumps into the bottle, so the milk is going to waste right away.3:41It's relieving her; she doesn't have the pain, and there will be, like we said,3:47although it's an issur derabanan, but because there's makom tzaar, it will be3:51mutar. This is a very, very important halachah, very relevant3:55halachah, and I didn't even get to talk about the types of pumps, electric or manual.4:00I didn't even talk about that. A lot of people get so stuck on that.4:04I'm talking about more of an issur of4:07deraita, derabanan, sechitah. The pumps, the type of pumps, we'll discuss it shortly tomorrow, be'ezras Hashem.