Month: September 2016

Despite its name and its hechsher, the Sabbath mode oven does not necessarily offer the most convenient means of heating food for Shabbos. The hotplate/blech can, under the right conditions, be used to heat foods ON Shabbos; the oven can ONLY be used for food inserted beforehand.

The advent of the ‘Sabbath mode’ ovens - manufactured under leading brand names some years ago - came as music to the ears of many housewives. Gone are the days of hot plates and slow cookers clogging the kitchen worktops. But are these ovens really the ultimate halachic solution for warming our Shabbos food?

“If a bird’s nest chances before you on the road, on any tree, or on the ground, and [it contains] fledglings or eggs, if the mother is sitting upon the fledglings or upon the eggs, you shall not take the mother upon the young. You shall send away the mother, and [then] you may take the young for yourself, in order that it should be good for you, and you should lengthen your days.