Q. Someone removed in Shabbos a stain on his jacket by rubbing it with a wet towel, he did this intentionally because of being ashamed of having a stain on his clothing. Since he did a melacha bemezid (intentionally doing prohibited work) on Shabbos, can he use this jacket in the future? Should he maybe after Shabbos place again a similar stain and then remove it, so he won't be profiting from a melacha done on Shabbos?
A. Rav Poalim (O.H. 3: 16), Ben Ish Chai (Vayechi 19) rule that one should abstain from using the clothing he washed intentionally on Shabbos forever, as one is forbidden from eating food that he cooked during Shabbos. (O.H. 318: 1).
In Ben Yehoyada (1: 13) he rules in the case of borer (choosing done in a prohibited form) that when done intentionally, it will also prohibit further use of the results of the work done. The above applies even if the selected object was returned to the mixture and therefore there was no resulting gain from the work done on Shabbos, it would still remain prohibited. He argues that the same will apply to the clothing even if it was stained again. He explains that it is different from a plant that was harvested in Shabbos that can be replanted, since that is considered as a new plant.
Horav Shlomo Miller's opinion is that it is improbable that the removal of the stain would be considered as a mezid or intentional melacha, since he likely thought it was permitted because of kavod habriyos or maintaining self respect.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit"a
Important Numbers
