Question:
B”H Thank you for your help. Regarding permissible activities on chol hamoed:
1. May a person move/ sort/ organize boxes of papers/ books/ items stored in order to beautify a room in the house (essentially moving boxes of things not needed for the holiday from one room to another) for the purpose of making the original room cleaner, which could increase simcha…(also this room is a room used for praying and it would be nice for it to be cleaner…)
2. May a person have another Jew take pictures of them for purposes of joining a kosher dating website during Chol Hamoed, or should this be delayed?
3. May someone type a Jewish learning curriculum on their computer if this is enjoyable to them?
4. May we launder items needed for Shabbat on this Friday even though it is during chol hamoed (like napkins for the table, etc…)
Thank you so much! I really appreciate your help!
Answer:
1. In general we should avoid doing things that involve excessive exertion on chol hamoed. This reason being is that excessive exertion, is not in the spirit of chol hamoed. Therefore we don’t move apartments etc. during chol hamoed unless it is needed. Your case seems to be gray area in this regard, if it considered excessive ticha or not. Additionally, the question has to be asked, why do you specifically want to do this during chol hamoed? If you were saving these days to do this work, because you are off then anyways, then it should not be done on chol hamoed. This is called mechaven melachto l’moed- saving work in order to do it on chol hamoed.
2. It depends why you want to do it specifically now. If the reason you want to do it on chol hamoed is because there is a lot of volume of people visiting these sites during chol hamoed then it would be permitted, because not dong so would be considered a loss. However if the reason is just for convenience, and it isn’t needed for the week of chol hamoed, then it should be avoided.
3. I need to know more about why it is enjoyable to you to make the curriculum, in order to answer you.
4. There is a special prohibition not to do laundry during chol hamoed. The reason is in order that all laundry will be taken care of before yom tov. This is even if it is being washed for Shabbos
Sources:
- M:B 540-4.
4. 534-1, M:B 534-6.
