Walking Your Dog on Shabbat

1:25What about if you want to carry things that you need? For example, you need to carry your tallit to go to the beit knesset? So logically, you should be allowed to carry the tallit to go to the beit knesset because you need it. What about the house key? Logically, you should be able to carry the house key too, because you're not going to leave your house open. People are going to rob your house, right? Logically, you should be able to carry your house key. The answer is, Rabotai HaYekarim, is no to either one. You're not allowed to carry neither the tallit nor the house key. Why? Because there's no eruv. Carrying them is an issur from the Torah. It's violating Shabbat, plain and simple. And if you have an issue with carrying a tallit, then you must make arrangements. What are the arrangements? Leave the tallit in the beit knesset the night before. Leave it at the kehillat beit ha'keneset, and that way you won't have any issues. Whatever you need, leave it in the beit ha'keneset, no problem. What about the key? So there's a kehillah in France that thought they had a way around it. What did they do? They invented a belt. Originally, they were putting it on their neck. Chachamim said it's not allowed to put it on your neck. Shulchan Aruch says, it's not allowed to put it on your neck.

2:52So they said, okay, so Shulkhan Arukh says now we have to put the key around your neck. We're not going to leave our house unlocked. So what are we going to do? We have to bring the key. How are we going to bring the key? We can't put it in our pockets; it's the same thing. Pocket, neck. It doesn't make a difference. So what are we going to do? We're going to come up with an invention. What did they make? They made an invention of a belt where the key became a part of the belt. The key actually became a part of the actual belt. And they said, listen, it's a part of clothing. The fact that it happens to also be a key to my house is also nice too. And they thought, okay, this should be allowed because I'm allowed to carry my belt, meaning because I'm wearing it. I'm allowed to have shoes, a jacket. I'm allowed. So if the key is part of the belt, no problem. They came to Rabbi Ovadia, and Rabbi Ovadia told them, no, it's not allowed. even though you need it, even though it would be dangerous not to lock your house, and so on and so forth, that's your problem. It's not Hashem's problem. Meaning, you have to either live in an eruv, live in a community that's in an eruv, which is the case for most Jewish communities today, or you have to make arrangements to live with the circumstances. This means you cannot carry on Shabbat, even if you're thinking that you're making a mitzvah.

4:15Going to the Knesset on Shabbat while carrying things, or when you think you're performing a mitzvah by taking your family out to the park, and you know, pushing the baby stroller for your wife feels like doing her a favor. In reality, you're both violating Shabbat when you don't live in a community with an eruv. Without an eruv, you cannot do much outside on Shabbat; you have to stay in the house, with the exception of walking without carrying anything. Even your baby, you can't carry. In fact, for all those people that have dogs, I was actually looking for a heter, a leniency, for someone recently. to see what happens because they didn't know, but they're moving into a community that does not have an eruv. What do you do if you have a dog? This is a nightmare. Why? Because now you have to walk the dog. You can't leave him in the house. If you leave him in the house, then your house is going to turn into a dog house. So what do you do? So it's looking for leniency, looking through, you know, something reliable that we can rely on, say, okay, at least walk the dog. Because even when there is an eruv, walking the dog is difficult on Shabbat. Number one, you cannot pick up after him because it's considered muktzeh. The waste is considered muktzeh. In Israel, they don't even practice this because nobody picks up anyway in many places. But in America, everybody's politically correct. If you don't pick up, people look at you like, give you five looks like, you're not going to pick up after yourself? No, you can't pick it up if you want. But anyway, people have a dog, they have to deal with this, especially if it's a big dog where you can't miss it.

5:44So, what do you do? Now, you can't pick up. On top of that, the leash has to be very short. Because if the leash is long, it drags, and it's as if you're carrying the leash. It's not good. So now, if you live in a place where there's no Eruv, what do you do? The answer is, after we looked and we looked and we looked, you're not allowed to walk your dog with a leash. You can walk your dog without a leash, but then you're making a different problem for yourself. You're not allowed to walk your dog without a leash outside. You're not allowed to do so because it could actually lead to Chilul Hashem. It could lead to Chilul Hashem if your dog is rowdy, if your dog ever scares somebody. Even if it's a little dog and it doesn't have to be a big dog, it could be problematic. A little dog that runs up to a child playfully could still cause the child to be frightened.

6:45That's not good; you have a serious problem with the Torah at that point. If your dog scares people, you have to let it go. You're not allowed to have a dog that scares people, unless it's kept within your fenced yard and doesn't roam outside. People who walk around or let their dogs roam without a leash, especially if it's a big dog, are causing Chillul Hashem, and it's also a sakana. It's an irresponsible danger for other people. I was a dog owner for 16 years, and I can tell you that even though you love your dog, you adore your dog, and your dog is the best, and you know all your friends like your dog and everybody likes the dog because of him and all that stuff, strangers don't care about any of that stuff. When I walk around on Shabbat and I see a dog unleashed, in my opinion, any dog without a leash is a stray dog. I see a stray dog, and that is sakana, a danger for my kids. To me, that's a sakana for my kids. That's a danger for my kids. I'm going somewhere else. I don't care if he's friendly or not friendly. He can be a movie star for all I care. It doesn't make a difference. You don't take risks with other people's kids. You want to take risks with your own kids? Enjoy. But you're not allowed to take risks with other people's kids. No, no, no, but I'll watch him. Oh, you'll watch him? You know exactly when he's going to lunge at somebody? I was a dog owner for a long time. Don't tell me that you know better.

8:08It's not something against dogs. The reality is against people. The dogs are good. The people aren't, because people train their dogs sometimes to do things that other people don't find funny. So it's very, very important to know how to be a responsible dog owner. It's very important to know how to be a Jew. It's very important to know how to do both on Shabbat. Because if you have a dog and you don't have enough room, you have very serious problems. Now you have to find one of a few options you have. Number one, you have to let the dog go if you have maybe a backyard or some fenced area like a balcony. You have to pretty much let them stay over there. Two, let them destroy your house. I don't think many people will choose choice number two, but still, I have to give it to you guys. Three, give the dog away to somebody for the weekend, which will become very, very annoying to everyone after a while and expensive if you're giving it to a service. But again, that's the price of owning a dog. Four, give away the dog permanently. That's the other option. I actually have a couple of students who did that.

9:24Point being about it is that the Torah doesn't tell you that you're not allowed to do everything. It tells you you're allowed. You're technically allowed to do almost everything you want. As Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach used to say, he told a group of soldiers that all of their desires that they have, he has them also. The only difference is they'll go to Gehinnom, and he'll go to Gan Eden. Why? Because the Torah is not an instruction set that tells you you're not allowed everything. Everything is allowed, technically. There's just a way of how it's allowed. There's a way to do everything. You're allowed to eat; it has to be kosher food. You're allowed to be intimate; it just has to be with your wife. You're allowed to get clothes; they just have to be modest. You're allowed to do a lot of things; there's just a way to do them. The Torah gives you an instruction set of how to do things and how to do them right. And when you don't care about anyone but yourself, then you're a danger to yourself as well as to society. So, with that being said, I think you guys have a few questions relating to the issue. Go ahead.

10:49Yeah, if a person uses a dog for medicinal reasons, whether it's for blindness, stress, or something like that, it's not a problem as far as having the dog is concerned. They're allowed to have the dog, but they're still not allowed to use it in a place where there's no eruv. Meaning, even if it's a halacha, even if they're blind, even if the person is blind—which means a blind person, you know, many of them, the majority of them have some type of service dog, like a seeing eye dog—even then, the halacha does not give any leniency. This means if there's no eruv, they should not walk around outside. You don't have to go outside in such circumstances. And if it's a matter of life danger, you don't need the dog anyway; you need to call 911. Understand, so let's not, you know, try to fool the system. If the person has some type of medical issue and they need a dog, it's not a problem to use the dog. But it has to be in an eruv; if there's no eruv, then it’s the same situation, in essence, as any other dog owner.

11:54if there's any hope they could take it with them wherever they need to take him with them if it's not any hope, then they don't have to keep them in the house. And if they live in a house that has a yard or something, they could let them in the yard, no problem. But in general, a person that has some medical problem has to know that they need to bring a doctor. Because even though legally in America you're allowed to do it if it's a medical dog, if it's a... Service dog, I call it. Technically, it's forbidden for anyone to tell you that you are not allowed to bring your dog anywhere. It's forbidden, for example, if you want to bring your dog to the airport or on the airplane itself. Not in the cargo where many of them, unfortunately, die. I'm talking about inside the cabin, in a seat. They have to let you in, no matter how big or small the dog is, if it's a service dog. America. Same thing if you want to go to any building. It can be a government building; it can be any building. If it's a service dog, a legitimate service dog, which today is very easy to become a service dog—it's just one big scam. But anyway, they have to allow you to bring the dog anywhere. Which means that, by default, the synagogue also has to let you bring the dog anywhere. But I can tell you that if you do that, Hashem is not going to like you.

13:14If you bring your dog to the Beit Knesset, Hashem's not going to like it. The kehillah may not mind. The kehillah themselves may not mind. They may be very, very liberal and open to it and say, "Oh, he's so cute. Oh, I'm just doing Kaddish. No, say Amen. Say Amen, the dog says Amen." They may like the dog. The rabbi may even like it. They may even pet him. Hashem's not going to like it though. Hashem's not going to like it. For sure Hashem's not going to like it. Why? A dog is tamei. To bring a tameh (impure) animal inside a Beit Mikdash is a chilul Hashem (desecration of God's name). Bringing such a thing is awful. We're not even allowed—it’s written in the pesukim (verses) in the Torah—that the dog is not even something that you're allowed to sell to make money, and then use that money to buy a korban (offering) to bring to the Beit Mikdash. Because it's an impure animal. You can have it in your house if you want. You can play with it. You can do whatever you want with it. But the reality is that to bring it to a Beit Knesset, which is a mini Beit Hamikdash, is a horrible, horrible idea. Yes? Absolutely. Every time you touch your dog, you have to do netilat yadayim (ritual hand washing). As a matter of fact, you're not allowed to touch your dog on Shabbat. I forgot to mention that. That's also halacha. Because the dog is muktzeh.

14:32The dog is muktzah, you're not allowed to touch him on Shabbat. So if you have one of these little dogs, these little chihuahua dogs, that wants to sleep in your arms like a real baby, get a different dog. Or train him not to jump on you. You're not allowed to touch him on Shabbat. Yes.