Chapter 28
A Miscellany Including Stationery, Clocks, Noises, Baby Carriages, Remuneration and Advance Preparations
PRODUCING MUSICAL AND OTHER SOUNDS ON SHABBATH OR YOM TOV
36.a. One may not produce a musical or rhythmic sound, even if one uses not an instrument or other object, but merely one’s own limbs, as where one claps one’s hands or snaps one’s fingers.
36.b. By way of exception, one may produce such a sound with one’s limbs
1) in celebration of a mitzva or
2) in a manner which one does not usually adopt on a weekday, as where one claps one hand on the back of the other.
36.c. One may clap one’s hands, even in the usual way (but not to a specific rhythm), where the aim is, for example,
1) to wake up someone who is sleeping or
2) to silence a talkative assembly.
37. One is allowed to whistle even a tune through one’s lips (unaided by any instrument) on Shabbath or Yom Tov.
