I was in a machloket on Shabbat. My friend says that it is ok to wash ones body on Shabbat, if it was a hot day, like it was that day. I went back after Arvit ,and was reading the Daf and it really didn't give a answer on the subject, just said it was issur to wash with any kind of hot water. Then I went to the Shulchan Aruch 326:1, and I think I have an answer, but not sure. I think that it is ok, but its not a good idea, do to the fact that he might perform different melachot while washing, like pulling out hair and ringing out the wet towl and others alike. Can you pleace help me sort things out.
Nechemyah D, Riverside, USA
This is how I would summarize the Halachos of washing on Shabbos (see Tur, Orach Chaim 326 with the commentaries of the Beis Yosef and the BA"Ch, Shulchan Aruch and Mishnah Berurah, op. cit., Shemiras Shabbos k'Hilchasah, ch. 14): Washing with water that was heated on Shabbos is never permitted; washing with water that was heated on Erev Shabbos is permitted but only one limb at a time and not a majority of the total surface area; washing in cold water is permitted, but the Minhag of Ashkenazim is not to bathe the whole body in cold water, even in a natural body of water because of issues of Sechitah (ringing water out of the hair), Tiltul (moving the excess water around in a Karmelis), and swimming.
Is this the conclusion you reached?
Kol Tuv,
Yonasan Sigler
This is not Psak Halachah.
I thought of several possibilities as to what you might be referring to:
1) (14:1) It is permissible for a Mitztaer to bathe his entire body in warm water that was heated Erev Shabbos.
2) (14:3) Water that was heated up on Shabbos with no human intervention is considered like water that was heated on Erev Shabbos.
3) (14:3) It is permitted l'Chatchila to heat water on Shabbos in the sun in order to wash a part of the body.
4) (14:11) It is permissible for a Mitztaer to shower in cold water.
I did not consider any of these points to be part of a concise summary of the Halachah as it is formulated in the Gemara and the Rishonim.
Kol Tuv,
Yonasan Sigler
This is not Psak Halachah.