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Is there anything halachically wrong with entering a hot tub on Shabbat inherently? Not for hygiene just leisure purposes, and not adjusting the temperature, just entering it?

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  • I'm not sure I follow the word "inherently", even with your examples. Does it mean d'oraita?
    – Rabbi Kaii
    Oct 12 at 20:50
  • yeshiva.co/midrash/20959
    – Shmuel
    Oct 12 at 20:56
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    @rabbikaii I mean if there is any halachic prohibition on it, as opposed to it being technically allowed but not in the spirit of Shabbat (like ping pong)
    – Kirk
    Oct 12 at 21:04

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Our Sages prohibited bathing one’s entire body – or the majority of it – in hot water1 [on Shabbos], whether the hot water was in a container or [collected] in the ground,2 even if [the water] was warmed on Friday.3 [This prohibition was instituted as a safeguard] because of bathhouse attendants who would heat [water] on Shabbos and say that they heated it on Friday.4 True, Jews are not suspected of willfully desecrating the Shabbos.5Nevertheless, [the attendants] would [build a fire by] placing wood under [vats of] cold water while it was still day [on Friday], just before nightfall, and [the wood] would burn the entire Shabbos, heating up the water above it. [Doing so] is forbidden because [of our Sages’] decree: lest one forget and stir the coals after nightfall.6 Therefore, [our Sages] prohibited any person from bathing with hot water even outside a bathhouse cared for by an attendant. [It is] even [forbidden] to pour [hot] water over one’s body to rinse oneself,1 even though this is not the manner in which one bathes in a bathhouse, for in a [bathhouse] one submerges his body and limbs into the water, [and in this instance, one is pouring the water over his body

https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/3776040/jewish/Shulchan-Aruch-Chapter-326-The-Laws-Governing-Bathing-on-Shabbos.htm

Based on the reason provided the distinction of being for leisure vs hygiene would not matter. On the other hand for tevilla in a mikvah going into hot water would be permitted. See this link for a discussion of being for a mitzvah... https://outorah.org/p/60560/

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  • Can you wash your hands with hot water from the sink?
    – Curious Yid
    Oct 13 at 0:19
  • @CuriousYid see the link I mentioned in the comment-section: [...] According to this approach, all three Tanna’im permit pouring cold water over oneself on Shabbos, if one did not first warm himself.
    – Shmuel
    Oct 13 at 11:22
  • @CuriousYid no as water from a sink would involve heating up water on shabbos which is an av melacha and prohibited on a Torah level
    – Dude
    Oct 15 at 13:27
  • I see, so this would even apply to an electric hot tub? I believe almost no poskim hold electric heating is fire @Dude
    – Kirk
    Oct 15 at 16:00

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