Setting Up Raw Food Before Shabbat To Cook On Shabbat

Setting Up Raw Food Before Shabbat To Cook On Shabbat Day: Tuesday Date: June 3, 2014 Parshat: Beha'alotcha Source: Yalkut Yosef: 318 The prohibition against cooking on Shabbat is not only against cooking raw food. Even if the food was partially cooked when Shabbat started it may not be put onto a plata on Shabbat. The Hachamim forbade causing a melacha to happen by doing a "grama" or, a "cause" on Shabbat. When it comes to cooking on Shabbat, one may think that since one only puts the food on the fire and the food gets cooked on its own, it may also be a grama and only be on the level of a Rabbinic prohibition (and therefore have certain leniencies in certain situations). However since that is how cooking is done, and there are no further steps to take, that itself is considered to be cooking and therefore that itself is the prohibition mentioned in the Torah. Furthermore, since the Torah's prohibition is only against putting the food on the fire, one may put raw food on the fire before Shabbat in order for it to cook on Shabbat. The DSH is brought to you in memory of Rabbi Mordechai ben Daniel. Please visit us online at sephardichalacha.org