Chapter 89 : Laws Concerning a Base For a Prohibited Object

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§1

If you intentionally placed a muktzeh object upon your vessel on Friday and you intended that it be there at the onset of Shabbos, the vessel is considered a base for a prohibited object [muktzeh]. Even if the muktzeh object was removed on Shabbos; nevertheless, since it lay there at twilight, and the vessel then became a base for a prohibited object, it is forbidden to be handled afterwards for the rest of the Shabbos day even if you need the object itself or the space it occupies.

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§2

If at the onset of Shabbos, a permitted object was lying there too, making the vessel a base for both a prohibited object and a permitted object, if the permitted object is more important to you, you may handle it [i.e. the base vessel]. But, if the prohibited object is more important to you, you are forbidden to handle it. It is, therefore, best to place the challos on the table before twilight, so that the tablecloth and the table become a base for [both] the candles and the challos, and it will be permissible to handle them. If you did not do this, then the tablecloth and the table become a base solely for a prohibited object and it is forbidden to handle them. However, having done so, if there is an important need, such as if a [burning] candle fell on the table and it must be shaken off, you may rely on the poskim who rule that the rule of base does not apply unless you intended that the muktzeh object remain there for the entire Shabbos day, and since it is customary to have the candlesticks removed in the morning by a non-Jew, it does not become a base.

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§3

If you had money in your pocket you may handle the garment, because the entire garment is not a base, only the pocket, and the pocket is subordinate to the garment. However, you may not wear it even in the house, lest you inadvertently go out into the public domain. However, if a table drawer contains money, it is forbidden to move the table, because the drawer is a vessel unto itself and not subordinate to the table.

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§4

Nothing becomes a base unless the muktzeh object is lying there at twilight. However, if it was not there at twilight, but was put there afterward, it does not become a base and the vessel may be handled even while the muktzeh object is on it. You may, therefore, shake the table or tablecloth [to remove] bones and peels, provided the table and tablecloth have not become a base as a result of the candles, as was discussed above, paragraph 2.

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§5

[The vessel] does not become a base unless you intentionally placed [the muktzeh] to remain there at twilight. But, if it was left there as a result of forgetfulness or if it fell there on its own, [the vessel] does not become a base.

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§6

It does not become a base unless the vessel belongs to you. But, if you placed a muktzeh object on a vessel belonging to someone else, it does not become a base, because you cannot cause someone else's object [to become forbidden] without his consent.