Shulchan Arukh Orach Chayim · Siman 334

Shulchan Arukh Orach Chayim 334 — English translation

Translation: Sefaria Community Translation. Section numbers match the Hebrew text above.

1. 1The Laws of a Fire on Shabbat. Contains 27 Seifim: If a fire starts on Shabbat, if it is at night before the meal, one can save enough food for three meals: that which is appropriate for a man for a man and that which is appropriate for an animal for an animal. If the fire starts in the morning, one can save food for two meals, in the afternoon, food for one meal. This refers to the members of the household in which the fire is because there is concern that because they are panicked, while they are saving food they will forget that it is Shabbat and will put out the fire. However, nearby houses that are worried that fire will reach them are permitted to save as much food as they want.
2. 2There are some who permit carrying money and other things that are muktzeh in order to save them from the fire or from bandits coming to rob them, because in a case of financial loss, we do not worry about the prohibition of muktzeh. There are those who forbid this. There is even one who forbids telling a non-Jew to carry business items that will be destroyed by the rain. (See above Chapter 307 Paragraph 19.)
3. 3If one saves bread made of fine flour he cannot go back to save bread made of course flour (meaning bread whose splendor is gone, meaning bran-flour bread), but the opposite is allowed [meaning that if he saved course bread, he can return to save the fine bread.]
4. 4We save food from a fire on Yom Kippur for Shabbat, but not from a fire on Shabbat for Yom Kippur or a Festival, nor do we save food from a fire on Shabbat for the next Shabbat. However, we save one meal's worth of food from a fire on Yom Kippur for after Yom Kippur.
5. 5We save the same amount of food for a sick person, an old person, and a glutton as we do for an average person.
6. 6The three meal limit is limited to when you would use multiple containers to increase the number of meals, but one is allowed to save even one hundred meals if it is in one container. One is allowed to use his garment and fold it to collect multiple things as long as he takes it all out at once.
7. 7It is permitted to save objects that he needs that day, such as cups and flasks.
8. 8He may wear as much as possible, take it out of the house, and undress, return, dress, remove, undress. There is one who says that he can only do this once.
9. 9He can tell others, "Come and save three meals for yourselves." They are permitted to wear everything that they can wear. If they want, they keep the ownerless goods as he told them to save them, and if they do not want to keep them but want to return them for a price, they are allowed to and it is not considered a salary for work done on Shabbat [which would be forbidden].
10. 10Everything discussed regarding saving objects from a burning house only applies when the yard outside is enclosed, but not if it is not enclosed. Rem"a: Some are lenient and apply it to a non-enclosed yard (Sma"g and Hagahot Mordechai).
11. 11Some say that all of these rules only apply to a yard or entrance adjacent to the public domain that have no roof and are therefore similar to the public domain. Therefore, we are only allowed to save three meals and necessary utensils. However, to a different house that is within an enclosure, one is permitted to remove as much as he wants. Regarding removing things to a courtyard, the restrictions only apply to removing things to another courtyard, but his own courtyard requires no eruv and he is permitted to remove as much as he want to it. Some reject this distinction.
12. 12In these days, all holy scriptures are saved from a fire and read from [publicly], even if they are written in any language and even if they are written with dye or red paint (meaning types of paint) or anything else. Similarly, a set of blessings that the Sages established [i.e., a siddur] should be saved from a fire or from any "turpah" (meaning an open and vulernable place). Similarly, a translation written in Hebrew like "Yagar Shahaduta" [Genesis 31:47] or "Thus shall you say to them" [Jeremiah 10:11, in Aramaic], or Hebrew written in Aramaic or in another language that the people are proficient in, or a Torah scroll that has 85 letters part of full words or has the name of God; all of these are saved.
13. 13There is one who says that the Book of Esther, because it has no names of God, if it is not written in Assyrian script on skin with dye, it has no holiness and is not saved from a fire.
14. 14Amulets that have verses in them are not saved from a fire, and some say they are saved.
15. 15We save the bag of the book along with the book, or the bag of the tefillin along with the tefillin, even if they also contain money. This is also true of other holy scriptures.
16. 16If he put his tefillin in an arnaki (meaning a wallet) full of money, he can save it from a fire or from thiefs and robbers to a place that tefillin can be saved. There is one who limits this to when he put them there on Friday.
17. 17Some allow one to save a pouch full of money from the fire or from burglars and robbers by putting it on a loaf of bread or a baby. This can only be done to the private domain but not to a non-enclosed courtyard (books may be saved even to a non-enclosed courtyard) or to an entrance (meaning a place where people enter courtyards) that are not adjoined. There must be three walls and a stake serving as a fictitious partition.
18. 18It is written in the name of a gaon that it is permitted to tell a non-Jew to save books from a fire even through the public domain.
19. 19If one is permitted to save something from a fire, one is also permitted to save it from water or from other damaging agents.
20. 20One does not save the top and side margins and the blank pages between sections and between pages and at the beginning and end of the books.
21. 21Regarding apikorsim, those who cling to idol worship, and those who convert from Judaism who write sacred texts: their texts should not be saved, and on weekdays we burn them with their Divine Names.
22. 22If a chest has caught on fire, one is permitted to spread goat's skin on the other side so that it will not burn. Additional, one is permitted to make a wall of objects to stop the fire from spreading, even clay jugs full of water that will definitely explode when the fire reaches them, as indirectly putting out a fire is permitted. Rema: in the case of monetary loss (Mordechai in Perek Kol Kitvei).
23. 23If a garment has caught on fire, one may spread it out and cover himself with it and needn't worry that it will be extinguished. There is one who says that he must not intend for it to go out. Rema: It is permitted to put a dish over a candle so that the beam will not catch fire (Tur. And see above Chapter 277 Paragraph 5).
24. 24Some say that one may not put drinks [on a garment that is on fire] so that the fire will go out when it gets to them. There are also some who permit this with all drinks except for water, because water would be like washing the garment, [which is forbidden]. And there are some who allow even water. The second opinion appears reasonable.
25. 25If a non-Jew comes to put out the fire, it is not necessary to stop him. However, if a child comes to put out the fire, it is necessary to stop him.
26. 26One is permitted to say in front of a non-Jew "Whoever puts out this fire won't lose!" Even if the non-Jew isn't there, he may be summoned, even though it is certain that he will put out the fire when he comes. This holds for all similar situations of damage, like if a wine barrel is cracked, one may call a non-Jew even though it is certain that he will fix it when he comes. Rem"a: All of the laws regarding a fire only apply to their day, but in our day when we live surrounded by non-Jews and there is potentially fatal danger, the Rishonim and Acharonim z"l wrote that one is permitted to extinguish a fire on Shabbat because lives are in danger, and one who hurries to do this is praised. In any event, everything is by the situation, for if it is certain that there is no danger, it is forbidden to extinguish. But if there is a chance of danger, it is permitted to put out even a fire in a non-Jew's house, and such is the practice (Trumat Hadeshen Chapter 58 and Hagahot Ashr"i Perek Mi SheHotziuhu in the name of the Or Zarua). This applies specifically to putting out the fire, which is work not done for the sake of the object on which the work is being done and there is danger if you do not put it out, but it is forbidden to desecrate Shabbat in order to save (money), and if one sinned and desecrated, he must fast forty days on Monday and Thursday, and he may not drink wine or eat meat, and he should give eighteen pshitim to charity in the place of a sin-ofering. If he wants to avoid the fast, he must give twelve pshitim to charity for each day (Piskei Mahara"i Chapter 60) and see the Tur Yoreh Deah from the Laws of Niddah Chapter 185.
27. 27If a coal is situated in a place where many can be damaged, it is permissible to extinguish it, whether it is made of metal or wood, but the Rambam forbids this if it is wood.

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