Tearing paper

Question

My father is in the sanitary papers business. Years ago we opened about twenty different boxes of different brands of tissues to reveal that lo and behold: the sheets are attached and perforated no differently that toliet paper. (we showed this to a number of Rabbis and our Rav ruled for his kehillah that it was okay to just use regular TP at that time). We found that only one brand at the time (Puffs) was actually separate sheets. I just repeated this experiment last week with five different brands of tissues and found that all were attached in one long sheet with perforations no different than toilet paper. (Cut open the box) I know that there must be brands that are still single sheets, but we could not find one. If the tissues are perforated and attached in one single sheet in the box, no differently than the toilet paper (when you pull out the tissue you tear the sheet), should we be using them on Shabbat if we should not be using regular toilet paper? Also tissues are not made to biodegrade quickly in water like toilet paper (put a sheet of each in a glass of water and see for yourself) and disposing of them in large quantities in the toilet (which they are not made to do) will often cause plumbing problems. (We are a large family with B"H many guests usually and have found in the past that using Kleenex where there are septic tanks meant a lot of Sunday calls to a plumber ($200) to snake out the clogged lines). As far as we know if one wants to avoid tearing paper on perforations on Shabbat (aside from tearing between the perforations) one has the choice of finding a c-fold sanitary sheet or using the big rolls that commercial restrooms use that have no perforations at all. Or sit down and cut up the TP by hand. Maybe the future will be for OU certified perforation free tissues for Shabbos use. Meanwhile, should we be avoiding "tearing" the paper on Shabbat on the perforations (almost all tissues and regular toliet paper) or is it enough to avoid the perception of tearing (and therefore just use tissues like the rest of the frum world)??? Thank you again for the truth and honestly that you restore to the Jewish world.

Answer

Answered by Aaron Abadi

Avoid it whenever possible. Cut toilet paper before Shabbat, as many people do. AA