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The question title says it all. In what sorts of cases, if any, could an item be muktzeh to one adult Jew but not to another?

If you designate something for your own use before Shabbos, I think it may be not-muktzeh to you, but indeed muktzeh to others, for one thing. Also, medication that is essential for you but not others might be permissible to you, but not them. The only other example I could think of--not knowing the laws of muktzeh very well--was an animal, which may not be muktzeh to its owner(s) but almost certainly is to others.

But then I started to think: would animal feed also fall into this category? What about, l'havdil, certain people (someone else's baby? Others?)? I imagine there are probably other, less absurd examples, too. Are there? What are they?

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    in the medicine example, poskim say if it is useful for someone else in the vicinity it isn't muktzeh.
    – mevaqesh
    Commented Mar 8, 2017 at 6:10
  • how would a baby be muktzeh? lets not mix purim torah and real torah...
    – mevaqesh
    Commented Mar 8, 2017 at 6:11
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    I believe the gemara mentions that shards are not muktzeh since they are consumed by ostriches. I believe the sense is that the case is not only involving ostrich owners. Also, I believe there is a more contemporary ruling that even those who keep the prohibition of reading newspapers on Shabbath are allowed to move them because of those who do read them.
    – Loewian
    Commented Mar 8, 2017 at 15:28
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    Some people allow opening soda cans on Shabbat; others don't. Would that be an example?
    – DanF
    Commented Mar 8, 2017 at 18:56
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    Perhaps a case where one makes food on shabbos, according to some opinions, the food is asur to the 'chef' but can be consumed by others.
    – Rafael
    Commented Jan 15, 2019 at 3:59

1 Answer 1

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Mishnah Berurah 308:170 quotes Taz Orach Chaim 308:25 that small scraps of clothing are not muktzeh for a pauper, but are for a rich person (unless he lives in the pauper’s household).

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