Tradition soup on shabbos

Question

Are you allow to make (just put hot water) a Tradition soup (pre-made soup) on shabbos? Is it considered cooking? And why

Answer 1

This exact type of instant noodle soup is addressed by Rabbi Yoni Levin here

Ultimately, there are two potential pitfalls that making such soup on Shabbos would present:

1. Bishul - cooking
2. Makeh B'Patish - 'The final hammer blow' i.e. making something fit for purpose.

So, he walks us through both potential melachos and how to avert any chilul shabbos.

Bishul - if all the items are already cooked then there would be no problem because of the halachic dictum of 'ein bishul achar bishul' and therefore there would be no problem to pour hot boiling water into the cup. However, if we assume that not all items are not cooked e.g. aside for the soup mix there is also vegetables like peas and corn present inside, at first glance if this is the case, you should pour the water using a keli sheini. BUT, although we don't normally say there is bishul with a keli sheini, when it comes to kalei habishul (i.e. things that are cooked very easily e.g. tea) you can argue that the items in the tradition soup are indeed kalei habishul and a keli sheini would not suffice. Rav Moshe Feinstein is meikel that when making tea one can use a keli shelishi - and thus if you hold like this, a keli shelishi would work to make these tradition soup.

Makeh B'Patish - There is a halachic discussion as to whether this melacha is applicable to foods. The Shulchan Aruch 318 says you can't pour hot water on a raw fish as the action helps to complete the food - "והדחתן היא גמר מלאכתן".

The Rema there adds:

וה"ה כל דבר קשה שאינו ראוי לאכול כלל בלא שרייה דאסור לשרותו בשבת דהוי גמר מלאכה

This rule applies to all hard foods that cannot be eaten without first marinating them. Therefore one may not soak them (in hot water) on Shabbos, as it is a completion of a Melacha.

Rav Wosner zt"l in Shevet HaLevi, cheilek 8, siman 63 concludes on this Rema that we do say גמר מלאכתן on food. Rav Wosner over there is specifically speaking about cubes of soup mix that would be considered makeh b'patish. So arguably, even if we consider all the ingredients as being cooked, plus using a keli shelishi, we would still have to say that the hot water is transforming it from an inedible object to a now edible food i.e. it is now ראוי לאכילה (fitting to eat).

He says that we can argue that not everyone holds this way, so we don't have to rely on this Rav Wosner. Although he notes that Rav Shechter is machmir and says that we do say makeh b'patish applies to food. However, he says that Rav Shechter counters that these Tradition Soups in their initial state are actually edible and therefore he feels that Makeh B'patish would not apply to these soups.

Obviously, best practise is to ask your LOR.