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Downgrading shabboss clothes

Question:

Hi,

I have a pair of shoes that I bought and wore and shabbos for over half a year. I have now bought a new pair. Is it permitted to downgrade my old shoes to a weekday pair or do they remain ‘sanctified’ for shabboss.

Also I recently bought a pair of nice shoes for my daughter, who is only 2, with the intention she will wear them on shabboss. We decided afterwards that we dont want to buy her another pair for the week as she will grow out of them quickly and it is expensive. Can she wear the pair we bought all the time even though they were intended for shabbos?

Thanks

 

Answer:

It is nice to see that you have such honor for Shabbos.

The reason we wear special clothing for Shabbos is in order to show that Shabbos is special to us, that we are putting on special, nicer clothing for it. Another reason is in order that we should remember that it is Shabbos and not accidentally do melacha. Although we are using the clothing for a mitzva purpose, the minhag is that after one’s Shabbos clothing are replaced with other ones, that they are used for regular weekday use. The clothing that we wear for Shabbos is not essentially holier than the weekday clothing, and it is permitted to wear to a wedding etc. This we see from Rus, who changed her clothing when she went to Boaz, even though it wasn’t Shabbos. Similarly, the special food that we eat for Shabbos, is not holier than weekday food, rather it is special food that we are using to honor Shabbos, and we are allowed to eat the Shabbos food during the week.

Best wishes

Sources:

Shabbos 113, M:B 262-5, Rema 301-16, Talmud Yerushalmi Peah 8-7, L’binyamin Amar in the name of R’ C. Kanievsky shlit”a pg. 34.

 

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