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Painkillers on Shabbos

Can a person take tylenol pm for general pain and sleeping on shabbos? It would interfere with ones oneg shabbos if one has differculty sleeping?

Answer:

Tylenol is a medical pill, and it cannot be taken on Shabbos unless the pain is severe enough to render a person unable to function normally, and basically to a degree where one has to lay down in bed.

For discomfort alone, it is not permitted to take painkillers on Shabbos.

Sources: See Orach Chaim 328:17, and commentaries.

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1 Comment

  1. Most people who learn Hilchos Refuah in Kollel come out to to be machmir. However in general among gedolei hora they are rather makil. A person who has pain or who is unable to function properly or to sleep properly is v’dei b’geder “tzar gadol” which the SA HaRav puts in the category of a Choleh Shain bo sacana which is allowed to take medicine on Shabbos. This together with the Katzos HaShulchan who says that the gezera is similar to that of cli shir which we are also not bucky in fixing therefore more kulo-dik in regards to those dinim. As well the pain relievers are not “b’geder refuah” a difficult savarah to understand. But more than often when a person who has pain is asking to take a pain killer it’s because it takka bothers them a lot.

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