Using Snow to Keep Food Cold During a Shabbat Blackout

Three major poskim, three different reasons, and a practical ruling for food that’s actually about to spoil.

Q. We had a lot of food which would spoil during the electric blackout. Could we have collected snow to cool it and prevent spoilage?

If there’s an eruc, there are three opinions on the question. R. Sh.Z. Auerbach felt that snow isn’t muktza for it’s not considered as if it was created (“nolad”) on Shabbat, but he prohibited gathering snow for snowballs or snowmen because the Rambam may have included it in his definition of constructing (“boneh”) on Shabbat which is to gather and consolidate particles. Conversely, R. Moshe Feinstein felt the exact opposite: that it’s no problem of boneh for that unit created is clearly temporary and not “construction”, and also, water isn’t considered “buildable”. Nevertheless he defined the snow which falls on Shabbat as “nolad”. Accordingly, he allowed making snowballs only with snow that is considered by the owner as “prepared” (e.g. it fell in one’s yard) before Shabbat, (Masoret Moshe, p. 68). The third opinion is that of R. Dov Lior (Dvar Chevron ch. 322), who holds that neither issue is problematic and allows even making snowballs on Shabbat. Being that we’re talking about rabbinical prohibitions, to enable enjoying the Shabbat food, and preventing a significant financial loss, one can rely on the leniency. On the other hand, being that two great poskim prohibit, albeit for opposite reasons, it would be good to refrain from gathering newly-fallen snow just for fun, but one need not prevent other children from doing so, for they have on whom to rely to be lenient.