THE BAIS HAVAAD HALACHA JOURNAL: Volume 5776 Issue XXI Ki Sisa Sleeping Over Food Eating food on an airplane that was stored beneath the seat. By: Rabbi Tzvi Frank

Background The Gemara (Pesachim 112a) states, a ruach ra’ah, an evil spirit, descends on food and beverages underneath a bed even if covered by iron. This sakanah prohibition due to danger is codified in Shulchan Aruch[1] . The Toras Chaim (Bava Basra 51) explains the source of this malevolent spirit as follows. Sleep is considered 1/60th of death[2] . When your neshama leaves, while you sleep, it creates a vacuum of kedusha to which these evil spirits are attracted. So in effect we have a pseudo-corpse positioned above the food thus conveying a type of tumas ohel / ruach ra’ah to the food.[3] Others disagree[4] and say that this is not a sleep induced ruach ra’ah, rather this is just an area where these evil spirits habitually lurk. Similar to outhouse and churva type spirits found in chazal, underneath a bed is yet another area where these spirits congregate. There is quite literally, a monster under your bed. The difference in halacha between these two positions will be discussed later.