Am I allowed to drink tea/wine/water in the bath

debsey

Mon, Feb 16 2015, 12:02 am

It is an AYLOR. In terms of the "ew" factor, to me, it sounds quite relaxing - drink some wine while soaking in some bubbles. I love to read and take a long, hot bath. I can imagine drinking a glass of wine would enhance that somewhat. You'd have to make the bracha while clothed and have in mind to drink in the bathroom. I can totally see why someone would want to do this. Ask a posek - it is not a weird shayla at all.

imasoftov

Mon, Feb 16 2015, 5:09 am

This is not a halachic answer because we don't make halacha directly out of the Gemara, but on Shabbat 41a, Rabbi Zeira goes to hear one last thing from Rav Yehuda before making aliya and one of the things he hears is him telling those with him at the bathhouse to drink the bathwater.

amother

Mon, Feb 16 2015, 3:19 pm

Quote:

telling those with him at the bathhouse to drink the bathwater

I am quite sure their toilets were not in the bathhouse - more likely in the outhouse.

As far as music, I once used a nice mikvah in BP which had music piped in. I don't know if it was to relax the ladies or so as not to hear ladies in the other rooms.

However. For that you ought to have instrumental music (which they did) but it can't be a tune which is associated with a posuk, in my opinion. Because anyone who knows the song is now thinking pesukim in the bathroom, and that is quite inappropriate, and probably ossur.

Of course many of fancy bath caddies (I'm on my 3rd, finally got teak because the others had metal that rusted!) have a place for a candle and a drink. So far I don't use either. They also have a book rack which is okay for a hardcover (should you be willing to risk one - I've had a few land face down) but doesn't work as well for a paperback or magazine.

Anyhow I have trouble getting the caddy close enough for reading (there's the small or not so small matter of my excess abdominal adipose tissue) and thus I end up holding my reading material. However, I also have an extra bath pillow that didn't do so well for adhering to the tub (and resting one's head thereupon) but is perfect for placing on the aforementioned tummy and thereby having a dryish place to rest the book (Or crossword puzzle. Or sudoku.)

Now, OP, would you like to switch the thread title to "Activities while Bathing" or should we start a new thread for that?