Chapter 27
Laws Relating to Animals on Shabbath and Yom Tov
MILKING
46.a. Subject to the exceptions to which reference is made below, it is forbidden to milk an animal on Shabbath.
46.b. It is forbidden to milk even directly into food.
46.c. 1) One may have an animal milked by a non-Jew, in order to save it suffering.
2) Indeed, the surest way to avoid a desecration of the Shabbath, in the event that one has to milk an animal, is to have it done by a non-Jew, rather than to adopt the other possible methods described in the following paragraphs.
3) See Chapter 30, paragraph 28 for further details regarding milking through the agency of a non-Jew
46.d. 1) Milk which has been extracted on Shabbath, even in a permitted manner, whether by a non-Jew or by means of a milking machine or as described below, may not be drunk on that Shabbath and is in fact muktzeh. (See further on this subject Chapter 20, paragraph 32 Chapter 33, paragraph 6 and Chapter 37, paragraph 3.)
2) It may, however, be drunk as soon as Shabbath has terminated.
47.a. In the absence of a non-Jew, one should milk to waste, that is to say in such a way that the milk will not be drinkable, for instance
1) into a receptacle which would give one an aversion to drinking its contents,
2) into a receptacle containing paraffin or some similar substance which spoils the milk and which
one has had ready since before Shabbath or
3) onto the floor.
47.b. As mentioned in the preceding paragraph, the resulting milk is muktzeh.
47.c. One should not milk into an ordinary receptacle, even if one’s intention is to pour the milk away afterwards.
47.d. Although one may find it difficult to throw money down the drain as it were, one should trust the Almighty in His goodness to compensate one for sacrifices made in the course of upholding our holy Torah.
