23 Jun SHAATNEZ IN MATTRESSES AND CUSHIONS

And the sash of fine
twisted linen, blue
purple and crimson
yarns, done in
embroidery, just as
Hashem commanded
Moshe.

Shemos 39:29
Introduction
A woman purchased a mattress for a cot in a
frum department store. Four years later, she
noticed that some of the stuffing was coming
out of the mattress. A friend of hers
recommended that she have the stuffing
checked to see if it was shaatnez, and, in fact,
it turned out that there was a mixture of wool
and linen in the stuffing. She returned to the
store, told the owner what transpired, and
asked for her money back, as she never would
have purchased the mattress had she known
that it contained shaatnez. Is the owner
obligated to refund her money? Is there an
issur to sit or lie on a mattress or couch that
contains shaatnez, or is the prohibition limited
to clothing? If there is an issur, is the store
owner obligated to check to ensure that his
mattresses do not contain shaatnez, or to at
least warn his clients that they should have
the mattresses checked upon purchasing
them?
The Source
The Gemara in Beitzah (14b) teaches that min
HaTorah, one violates the issur of shaatnez
only if he wears it, since the Torah uses the
words, “Lo ya’aleh alecha,” “You shall not
place it upon you” (Vayikra 19:19), which
excludes a case of placing oneself upon the
item. However, the Chachamim decreed that
one may not sit upon cushions that contain
shaatnez:
But it was taught in a beraisa: [The verse
says,] “It shall not come upon you”—but you
may spread it beneath you. However, the
Sages said: It is forbidden to do so, lest a
thread wraps around your flesh. And if you
say that something intervenes between you
and it, did not Rabbi Shimon ben Pazi say in
the name of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi,
quoting Rabbi Yosi ben Shaul, who said in the
name of the holy congregation of Jerusalem:
Even if ten layers of bedding are placed one
atop the other, and kilayim (a prohibited
mixture) is beneath them, it is forbidden to
sleep on them, as it is stated, “It shall not
come upon you.”
Although the Gemara seems to give an
explicit reason for the gezeirah, the Ran
(Beitzah 7a, s.v. lemeimar) explains that there
are two underlying reasons to forbid sitting
on shaatnez. The first is, as the Gemara states,
that we are concerned that a strand of shaatnez

might find its way on top of the person who is
sitting on the cushion. The second is that we
are afraid that one will be cold and might
place some of the cushioning on top of
himself to warm up.
According the Gemara’s explicit reason, if
there is no concern that any of the shaatnez
threads will end up on top of the person, such
as in a case in which there is something
separating the shaatnez fibers from the person,
there is no reason for concern. If, however,
we are afraid that one will place the cushion
on top of himself, sitting on the cushion
would be prohibited even if there were a
barrier between the shaatnez and the outside
of the cushion.
Applying This to a Mattress
In the case of a mattress, it would seem that
neither reason applies. The fibers inside a
mattress are covered by the outside of the
mattress, and even if they were to become
exposed, mattresses are almost exclusively
used with a sheet on top of them, thus
alleviating the concern that one might end up
with some fibers on top of him. Furthermore,
the concern that one might place the cushion
on top of himself is not relevant, as it is
unlikely that one will decide to warm up by
lying underneath a mattress.
Nevertheless, it seems that the issur may still
apply to a mattress regardless of the
abovementioned logic. The Rambam (Hilchos
Kilayim 10:12) codifies the Gemara’s
statement that even if there are ten cushions
stacked upon one another, if the bottom one
contains shaatnez, one may not lie down on
top of the pile. It seems that the Rambam
understands that this gezeirah is a lo plug; we
make no exceptions, even when the reason
does not apply.
The Shulchan Aruch (YD 301:1) accepts the
Rambam’s opinion and forbids lying on a pile
of mattresses even when one is completely
separated from the mattress containing
shaatnez.
Rav Yaakov Yeshaya Blau notes in his sefer
Malbushei Yesha that the Shulchan Aruch
(based on the aforementioned Ran) rules that
the gezeirah does not apply to hard cushions
that cannot be wrapped around a person.
Thus, the Rambam’s ruling applies only when
it would have been possible for one to wrap
the shaatnez around himself, had it not been
separated by the other mattresses in the pile.
Rav Blau cites the Minchas Yitzchak, who is
machmir regarding mattresses, and writes
that one should be concerned for this opinion.
However, he adds that there is ample room to
be lenient as well. First of all, the issur is
rabbinic, since on a Torah level, the wool and
linen fibers must be spun together and woven

into the fabric in order to qualify
as shaatnez. Second, the entire
issur of sitting and lying on top
of shaatnez is miderabbanan.
Third, it is possible that
mattresses fall under the heter of
hard cushions, as there is
virtually no one who will place
such an item on top of himself.
Nevertheless, Rav Blau
recommends being machmir
lechatchilah and avoiding the
issue entirely.
Additional Room for Leniency
One can argue that one is permitted
lechatchilah to use a mattress containing
shaatnez. Nowadays, the stuffings that are
used inside mattresses consist mainly of
synthetic fibers. In general, the stuffing is
made using the leftovers of threads and other
items used to make clothing, which is then
ground up and put together into the stuffing.
The vast majority of the stuffing is synthetic
and is certainly mevatel any shaatnez fibers
that it might also contain. As long as the wool
and the linen do not constitute a significant
minority or an essential part of the stuffing,
they have no independent status in halacha.
This fact, coupled with the abovementioned
heterim, certainly leaves plenty of room for
leniency.
Ruling on the Question at Hand
It is clear that the seller has no obligation to
check the mattress for shaatnez, as the halacha
requires checking only when there is a miut
hamatzuy, a significant minority, which is
generally assumed to be around ten percent.
Certainly, fewer than ten percent of mattresses
contain shaatnez. The buyer is also exempt
from checking, but he can certainly do so if he
chooses.
If one checks and finds that the mattress does,
in fact, contain shaatnez, does the buyer have
a claim against the seller? In the scenario in
which the woman who purchased the mattress
wants her money back, does she have a claim?
Perhaps she might argue that she follows the
opinion of the Minchas Yitzchak, who rules
that one is not permitted to lie on a mattress
containing shaatnez, and she therefore has no
use for such a mattress.
In a parallel case, there is an obligation to
check the vital organs of a slaughtered animal
to determine whether it is a tereifah. Although
there are many possible tereifos, we check
only the lungs, since there is less than a ten
percent chance of finding a siman tereifah in
any of the other organs. Nevertheless, if one
does find a siman tereifah on another organ, is
the seller obligated to reimburse the buyer for
having sold him a tereifah?

The Shulchan Aruch (CM 234:2-3) rules that
if the meat is assur mid’oraysa due to the
siman tereifah, the buyer can demand to be
reimbursed even if he already ate it. If the
meat is assur miderabbanan, the buyer can
return it if it is still in existence, but if the
buyer already ate it, he cannot receive his
money back. The Nesivos HaMishpat
explains that when one violates an issur
d’oraysa beshogeg, the necessity for kapparah
to atone for his inadvertent sin outweighs the
benefit he received from eating the meat, and
he thus must be reimbursed. However, one
who violates an issur derabbanan beshogeg is
not in need of kapparah and is considered to
have received the full benefit of the item that
he purchased, even if he would not have
bought it had he known it was assur
miderabbanan.
Based on this, if the mattress contains
shaatnez miderabbanan, the buyer has no
claim on the benefit that she already received.
The only possible reimbursement would be
for the remaining value of a four-year-old
mattress. But even that is only according to
the view that there is an issur derabbanan to
use such a mattress, following the Minchas
Yitzchak. As presented above, one can argue
convincingly that this mattress is completely
mutar and the buyer can continue to use it.
The seller can therefore claim that he owes
nothing.
An Important Note
In this scenario, as in all cases involving a
monetary dispute, a rav or a beis din cannot
issue a ruling without being in the presence of
both litigants. In fact, the Gemara in Shavuos
(31a) and the Shulchan Aruch (CM 17:5) rule
unequivocally that a beis din that hears the
claims of one litigant when it is not in the
presence of the other litigant is in violation of
the mitzvah “midvar sheker tirchak,” as it
fails to sufficiently distance itself from
falsehood. Thus, in our case, a rav can only
advise either party regarding whether they
should go together to present their claims to a
reputable beis din. In this case, one should
advise the woman to avoid going to beis din,
as she would likely receive no compensation.