Prayer and Blessing in Rooms with Jacuzzis

I just got to this super fancy hotel in Dubai and guess what? There's a jacuzzi right in my room! It’s so cool here! I was just wondering, can I say my prayers and blessings here, or is my room considered a bathroom? Thanks for helping me out!

  The Answer:

You may recite blessings and prayers in the room, however, in the actual jacuzzi it is forbidden.

The answer explained:

Beis Merchats:

A Beis Merchats is a bathhouse that was used throughout the generations for people not only to clean themselves but also it was a sort of hot room where people would come to relax and revive themselves.

Nowadays, we are used to having hot water available at all times, twenty-four hours a day, and we do not even associate it with any dangers. However, in the times of the Talmud, the bathhouse was considered a dangerous place due to its primitive heating method. Beneath the pool, there was a room on the lower floor where a fire would be lit, heating the floor above where the bath was located. With no thermostats to control the temperature, the floor would have to be reinforced to prevent it from collapsing because of the intense heat.

The Gemara, in tractate Brachot, (Page 60a) writes that once a Rabbi entered the bath and the floor beneath him started to collapse. Miraculously, the area where he was standing remained intact, and he was able to hold the other bathers from falling until help arrived.

Therefore, due to the dangers that existed the rabbis initiated a special prayer for those entering the bathhouse, asking Hashem for protection and that any pain which they might have while in the bathhouse should serve as atonement for their sins. Upon exiting, one would recite a prayer of thanks to Hashem for protecting him while he was there.

In the bathhouse, there were three rooms:

It's interesting that in the history books, we find that there were three rooms in the bathhouses.

The frigidarium – is the cold room, the tepidarium – is the warm room, and the caldarium – is the hot room. 

Same too we find le’hlacha there is a difference between each of these rooms.

A. The actual room where the bath was situated, one may not recite any form of prayer even if people are fully dressed the Shulchan Aruch adds that even mentioning words of kedusha is prohibited.

B. The middle room, is where people would enter after the bath and get partly dressed. In this room one may not recite any prayers or put on tefillin, However, one may enter with tefillin. (Although there is a debate in the Poskim in a case where everyone is dressed if one may recite prayers there.)

C. The other room is where everyone is dressed, and it is permitted to recite prayers there.

The reason to this prohibition:

The reason why it is forbidden to recite prayers or any divrey kedushah in a bathhouse is disputed by the Rishonim:

Rashi’s opinion is, that since it is a place where people are not dressed, it is not a place that is respected to say divrey kedushah.

רש"י מסכת עבודה זרה דף מד עמוד ב

אין משיבין - דברי תורה במרחץ לפי שאדם עומד ערום.

Rashi Tractate Avodah Zarah 44b:

We do not respond - matters of Torah in the bathhouse, because a person stands there not dressed.

The Kesef Mishneh Hilchot Kriat Shema, Perek 3: writes in the name of Rabbi Manoach:

כסף משנה הלכות קריאת שמע פרק ג

דעיקר איסור המרחץ אינו אלא משום איסור זוהמא והבלא דאית ביה על ידי שתשמישו בחמין

The main reason is, that in the bathhouse there is a lot of steam and sweat because of the hot water, so its not a respected place to recite prayers or divrey kedushah.

Jacuzzi in the bedroom:

So according to the above, one could argue that since the jacuzzi, is situated in your room, it is like the inner room of the bathhouse and it should be prohibited to recite prayers in such a room.

However, Hagaon Harav Fried Shelitah writes that since the main purpose of the room is to be a bedroom, therefore we consider it as a bedroom, and one may pray and recite blessings there, except in the actual jacuzzi where it would be considered as a Beis Merchats and forbidden.

Gemara, Tractate Brachot, Page 60a

Rashi, Tractate Avodah Zarah 44b

Kesef Mishneh, Hilchot Kriat Shema, Perek 3

Hagaon Harav Fried Shelitah: Shimushah Ve’limudah page 602