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We have finished Klal 22, and have a few points to clarify. We learned that there is no melacha of melabein involved in soaking leather, and the concern only begins if one rubs the leather. However, one must be mindful of the stitching of the item, which is not leather, as melabein would apply to them. We learned from Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach that synthetic materials which function similarly to natural materials receive their chumros, so even if the stitching is synthetic, since it functions similarly to fabric material, melabein may apply to it.
If one uses a knife to remove dirt from leather, Chazal were concerned that one may come to scratch off a layer of the leather, which is the melacha of memacheik. In the mishkan, this melacha was related to removing hairs from leather, but Chazal extended it to any scenario of smoothing something out.
We learned that rubbing a garment is assur, even if the garment is leather. If one is washing dishes with rubber gloves, there is no concern for melabein, because it is a davar she’eino miskavein. After one is finished with the dishes, if the gloves are dirty, they can run them under water, as we have learned. However, it would be assur to rub the gloves together, as we have discussed. Some poskim are concerned that if we allow one to rub the gloves even lightly they may come to rub the gloves vigorously, and therefore one should not even rub the gloves together. On the other hand, Rav Shlomo Zalman and Rav Moshe suggest that since these gloves do not absorb water at all, maybe there is no concern at all, and they are more akin to dishes rather than leather. (Leather does absorb eventually, albeit slowly.) Nevertheless, they do not pasken l’kulah. Therefore, one can run them under water but should not rub them together.
Summary
- Although there is no issur melabein in soaking leather, one must be mindful of the stitching
- One cannot use a knife to remove dirt from leather
- Rubber gloves can be run under water to clean them, but should not be rubbed together to be cleaned.
