Halachot and Customs
Is it permitted to apply lip balm for dryness on Shabbat
Question
Hello, honored rabbi.
I asked the rabbi whether it is permitted for me to put on Vaseline (lip balm for dryness) on Shabbat, and the rabbi said that I may apply it - but when I spread the lip balm, am I not violating a prohibition? How can one apply it without spreading? And on Rosh Hashanah, will I be able to apply it? And how?
Thank you very much in advance!
Answer
To the questioner,
From what I have been able to clarify at present, there are a minority of poskim who maintain that when one spreads a substance into the skin so that it is entirely absorbed into the skin immediately, it is permitted. According to their view, the reason this is not the prohibition of smoothing applies specifically to a substance that will remain in the world, not to something that is absorbed and disappears completely. Perhaps that was the rabbi's reason for permitting it - and if he is your family's rabbi, you may rely on his view in halacha even if it is only the view of a minority of poskim.
Some say that it is permitted to apply it in a way that does not involve smoothing, by placing only dots of it and letting it spread on its own.
But for medical purposes it is forbidden, like other forbidden medical needs.
Apparently, the same laws of smoothing apply on Yom Tov as well.
With blessing,
Rabbi Nachum
