When one may return a pot onto the hotplate

Rabbi, on Friday night, I mistakenly took the wrong pot off the hot plate, thinking it was the chicken soup. After realizing my mistake and placing it on the counter, I was unsure whether I was allowed to return it to the hot plate. Could you clarify if this action was permissible?

Thank you for your question.

In Hilchos Shabbos, besides the Torah prohibitions of performing a melacha, there are also rabbinical prohibitions designed as a safeguard to prevent transgressing the melachos of Shabbos. One such case is returning an already-cooked pot of food onto the hot plate, which is indeed a rabbinical prohibition.

I would like to explain the reason behind this issur, the situations in which it is indeed prohibited, and the situations in which it is permissible to return it onto the hotplate. Understanding these details is important since generally when holding the pot one doesn’t have the time or ability to consult a rabbi.

Placing the pot for the first time on the hot plate:

It is prohibited to place a pot on the stove on Shabbos even if the food is hot and fully cooked the reason being, according to the opinion of the Ran, (Tractate Shabbos, page 40b) is, because it appears to others as though one is beginning to cook. Tosafot, (Tractate Shabbos page 38b), writes that when one places a pot full of food on the stove, one generally stokes the coals to heat the pot just placed. Therefore, on Shabbos, if one were to place the pot on the stove, he might forget and instinctively stoke the coals.

Returning a pot of food onto the hotplate:

However, if the pot was on the hot plate from the start of Shabbos and then one takes it off, say to serve the food, and then decides to return it to the hot plate so that it will be hot when he wants to eat from it later, it is permissible to return it on the hot plate but only with certain conditions which are;

1. As long as it is not on top of an open fire for example a hot plate where there is no open fire and there isn’t the possibility of increasing the heat. (If the fire is covered with a “blech” there are some Poskim who are lenient to consider it as covered fire. However, some are more stringent since the fire itself is still burning like normal, not like the case of the Shulchan Aruch (קטומה) one spreads earth on the fire before Shabbos in order to cool it down).

2. The food has to have been fully cooked.

3. When one took it off the hotplate one had in mind to return it soon after.

4. According to the Ashkenazi custom one needs to hold the pot the entire time it is off the hotplate, whereas according to the Sephardi custom even if one left it on the chair it is enough to be able to return it, since placing the pot on a chair is not considered as having intention to keep it there the whole time. However, there is a difference of opinion amongst the Sefardi Poskim if placing the pot on the kitchen counter can be considered as placing it on the chair: Some are stringent and say that since the counter is a place that one keeps the pot then it cannot be considered like a chair, and one may not return the pot. Some are lenient and allow one to return it even if it was on the counter. Some place e.g. a towel under the pot and then one may return it onto the hot plate. However when using this idea of placing a towel under the pot, it should be with the intention to recognize that I intend to return the pot to the hot plate. If however my intention is in order to protect the counter then this idea won’t help. The same would be if one places a pot on the table the above solution would help.

5. If there was liquid in the pot, for example, soup, it has to still be hot; according to Ashkenazi custom, it is sufficient that the soup is just hot enough to enjoy the food. According to Sephardi custom, it must be as hot as "Yad soledet bo.

In your case since you took it off by mistake to eat the food at the table since this was not the food you intended therefore it called “mistaken intent” therefore one may return the pot to the hot plate as long as all the above requirements are adhered to.

Shulchan Aruch 243 seif 2

Mishnah berurah ibid