Camping on Shabbos, is it ALLOWED?

Happydance

Fri, Jun 18 2021, 6:26 am

We do it and love it!

It does require a lot of planning on someone’s end (getting a minyan, Sefer Torah, building eruv etc) but it’s an awesome hands on experience. How many times have your kids built an Ahron kodesh from scratch to house a Sefer Torah? Last summer my son was learning mishnayos eruvin and then got to be a major part of the building and putting up of the eruv. It was incredible learning experience.

We go with other people who have the shabbos camping experience down pat.

You should try it!

shmoosh

Fri, Jun 18 2021, 7:08 am

I don’t think it’s common to camp out on shabbos, but it’s definitely okay done right and regular mainstream ppl do it. We just did it recently- we had a minyan and built an eiruv.

bigsis144

Fri, Jun 18 2021, 7:20 am

agreer wrote:

Sounds AWFUL.

Mainstream frum people don't do this because it's not kavodik to shabbos. No minyanim, no sefer torah? It's definitely not l'chatchila.

Not Shabbos, but look at these totally normal frum people who went in a group large enough to bring a Sefer Torah

No pictures on Shabbos, obviously, but they did build an eruv and go in a group large enough for a minyan.

#troop360

causemommysaid

Fri, Jun 18 2021, 7:36 am

animeme wrote:

What do you do if someone needs to bring things along to the bathroom? How do you see at night in the tents if you need to?

And how to realistically avoid all the muktzah and melachah problems (playing with sticks and rocks, catching frogs and bugs, taking the kids outside of your eruv to entertain them or going for a walk without water or snacks, being able to take things and throw them, etc)?

I went camping on Shabbos as a child and these are the main problems I remember. We were helped by the fact that we went as a group and one family brought a camper and left their lights on.

We went camping over shabbos. We put items in the bathrooms beforehand. We left a lantern on in the tent and it was fine. We made our own eruv around the campsite and played games inside the eruv. We had warm food friday night and kept an urn running over shabbos. There were electric hookups.

The muktzah stuff is the same as any other shabbos. Kids always play outside so they learn at a certain point to be careful.

Walks are fine. We took a drink before and when we came back. Living in a community without an eruv looks the same.

essie14

Fri, Jun 18 2021, 8:27 am

bigsis144 wrote:

Not Shabbos, but look at these totally normal frum people who went in a group large enough to bring a Sefer Torah

No pictures on Shabbos, obviously, but they did build an eruv and go in a group large enough for a minyan.

#troop360

♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️

motherhood613

Fri, Jun 18 2021, 10:49 am

I feel like although it could be done, it's not bekovidig to Shabbos (as a few other posters mentioned).
If there was no eruv you would have major issues - how would you even carry plates? Everything would have to be left overnight outside (which also presents other issues - like animals or weather fluctuations), food would have to be non-perishable. You couldn't even bring your hot food from some sort of makeshift blech to the table.
If there was no communal bathroom, you would either have to set up a bathroom tent (which could end up smelling, and couldn't be spilled because anything inside the toilet would be muktzeh and a zoreah issue).
Not having a sefer Torah would also be a concern.

Obviously, I'm not a Rabbi. But I can't imagine many Rabbonim being thrilled with the idea of camping on Shabbos. If you had a big group of people doing it though (minyan), a sefer Torah, made an eruv, and did tons of planning in advance, I think it's definitely possible. But without an eruv, forget it.

zaq

Fri, Jun 18 2021, 2:37 pm

animeme wrote:

And how to realistically avoid all the muktzah and melachah problems (playing with sticks and rocks, catching frogs and bugs, taking the kids outside of your eruv to entertain them or going for a walk without water or snacks, being able to take things and throw them, etc)?

Puhleeze. People growing up in neighborhoods with no eruv manage to go for walks without carrying along snacks and water and playthings to entertain their children. And children don't HAVE to catch frogs and bugs just because they're in the woods. The same way children learn not to switch on lights and not to pick up the Playskool xylophone on Shabbat, they learn not to pick up sticks and rocks and other muktzeh stuff.

T'chum Shabbat would be a new concept if you live in an urban or suburban area where you could walk all day and never reach an uninhabited area, but this is hardly an insurmountable problem.

causemommysaid

Fri, Jun 18 2021, 3:02 pm

motherhood613 wrote:

Why isn't it kovod shabbos? The jews kept shabbos in tents for fourty years in the midbar.

PP31419

Fri, Jun 18 2021, 3:11 pm

Yes it’s allowed. I personally would probably not enjoy it because I don’t like to rough it but for those who enjoy it l, why not?

We actually had friends who did this with a few families but I would call it “glamping” more than camping lol. They slept in fully furnished RVs that had electricity, running water, bathrooms, etc. they just ate together outside with a campfire and stuff. In other words they had the best of camping while having all their comforts. Not authentic but who cares?

shabbatiscoming

Sat, Jun 19 2021, 10:39 pm

agreer wrote:

Sounds AWFUL.

Mainstream frum people don't do this because it's not kavodik to shabbos. No minyanim, no sefer torah? It's definitely not l'chatchila.

Just because YOU may not do this does not mean other FRUM jews will not.
Please try not to generalize and be so disparaging about this.

Have you never heard of frum jews who vacation in places that have no jewish community? Why is camping any different?