In your answer to question #5 (d), you say...
"Mud on a cloth sheet may be rubbed off with a rag (on no account may one pour water on it).? One may however, pour water on a leather sheet."
We learned that the reason for the prohibition of pouring water on a item made of cloth is that it is considered "libun" (or, perhaps it's more correct to say that putting water (soaking) any cloth item also in the category of k'visa (laundering) and also asur for that reason.)
However, we only say that wetting *cloth* is k'visa, but this would not be true of leather. Leather certainly doesn't absorb the water, and simply soaking leather will have no effect on any dirt which is on (or *in* the leather). Since wiping a cloth item is permitted, I didn't understand the reason that we're *not* permitted to *wipe* a leather sheet with a wet rag on Shabbos?
warm regards,
Jeff Ram,
Jerusalem
There are three levels of washing, going in order from the most lenient to most stringent: (1) wiping off the mud with a rag, (2) pouring water on the dirty item, (3) scrubbing the item vigorously.
The first level (1) may be done to a dirty cloth sheet, but not the second and certainly not the third, because the third level is considered real laundering. The second level (2) may be done to dirty leather, and certainly the first. The third (3) may not be done to leather, because even soft leather can be laundered and therefore it is prohibited.
This is the intention of RASHI (DH Nosen Alehah Mayim).
Y. Shaw