Moving Muktzeh

Prepared for print by Faigy Peritzman

On Friday night, I went to take out the dessert from the freezer and saw that a package of raw meat had accidentally been placed on top of the dessert pan. What can I do?

Your question assumes that raw meat is muktzeh (which is debatable), and that the dessert pan below, which “supports” the package of raw meat is, therefore, a base — bosis — which also may not be moved (even if for some reason the muktzeh item is no longer present).

In this case, the dessert pan doesn’t become a bosis for two reasons: 1) A base can only become a bosis if the muktzeh item was intentionally placed on it; in your case it was placed accidentally. 2) Even intentionally placing the meat on the pan wouldn’t render it a bosis, since the pan isn’t “supporting” the meat package; the package is actually being “supported” by the freezer rack directly below the dessert pan.

Either way, since the pan isn’t a bosis, you can carefully lift the pan in a manner that will allow the meat package to slide off onto the freezer rack, without touching the meat package with your hands, and then remove the dessert pan from the freezer.

I use my cell phone as an alarm clock on Shabbos. May I move it if the ringing is bothering me?

A standard flip phone isn’t a delicate item and is classified as a kli she’melachto l’issur —Limited Muktzeh — which means that it may be moved directly if it’s being moved for “a permissible activity.” It is, therefore, permitted to directly move the phone if the ringing is bothering you (assuming that no light or display is activated by the move).