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I had a Lubavitcher classmate in high school who used to spill off from his cup whenever he would drink anything. He claimed it was a minhag.

What is the reason/source for this practice?

Scimonster
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Moshe
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1 Answers1

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It's from the Gemara, Chullin 105b (bottom):

ואמר אביי: מריש הוה אמינא האי דשדי מיא מפומא דחצבא - משום ציבתא; אמר לי מר, משום דאיכא מים הרעים

"Abaye says: I used to think that the reason people pour out some water from the lip of a pitcher [before drinking from it] is because of floating bits [Rashi: twigs and straw that are floating on the water]; but my teacher [Rabbah] told me that it's because of 'evil waters' [Rashi: a shed (demon) may have drunk from it, and this corrects the problem]."

Alex
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    This doesn't follow for two reasons. First many meforshim(the Ben Ish Hai in Benayahu Ben Yehoida, as well as the Arizal in Maamre Hazal), state that this is only for drinks that have been left uncovered and unsupervised- from whence is derived a minhag to cover one's drinks.

    Second, as this is reportedly a Chassidic custom, and the Baal Shem Tov(in Chassidic thought) banished the remaining Shedim from this world, what would be the hava mina amongst Chassidim to continue a custom that contradicts their own belief?

     – Rabbi Michael Tzadok Nov 11 '10 at 06:21
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    If the drinks were uncovered, wouldn't there be the problem of מים מגולין, which are outright forbidden because of danger (that a snake may have drunk from it and injected venom)? It is true that many posekim say that this doesn't apply nowadays since snakes are not commonly found in most places, but that would have been a consideration in Abaye's times. – Alex Nov 11 '10 at 16:28
  • Re your second point - you're right, I don't know why we would keep this custom as compared to a lot of other shed-related ones that we don't. – Alex Nov 11 '10 at 16:29
  • My understand was that מים מגולין only applied to drinks left uncovered overnight, that was also the Ben Ish Hai's psak unless I am much mistaken.

    My unerstanding of Abaye's problem was that the drink was left uncovered while he was learning or otherwise distracted our out of the room for a brief time. I know from experience that the Sephardi Mekubalim often cover their tea with cling film for this reason.

     – Rabbi Michael Tzadok Nov 11 '10 at 19:47
  • How could the Baal Shem Tov have permanently banished all Shedim from the world if the Shpoilyer Zaide had at least one story I know of involving Shedim? – Yahu Nov 12 '10 at 00:34
  • Um... I'm Sephardi, so I don't get it, however I have encountered this belief numerous times in Chassidic thought. Rabbi Kaduri talked about it once(but I digress). How it works, and how their are Chassidic stories afterward about Shedim, I don't know. However I do know that it is an actual Chassidic belief. and off the top of my head one source for it is the Minchas Elazar's sefer Divrei Torah 9:89. – Rabbi Michael Tzadok Nov 12 '10 at 01:05
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    @mekubal: per Rambam, Hil. Rotze'ach Ushemiras Nefesh 11:11 (from Terumos 8:4 as explained in Chullin 10a), מים מגולין don't need to be left uncovered overnight to become forbidden; simply leaving them open long enough for "a snake to come out from under the handle of the container, drink, and go back into its hole" is enough. – Alex Nov 12 '10 at 16:57
  • @Yahu: See the comments on this answer for further discussion: http://judaism.stackexchange.com/a/777/603 (I left off the link last time) – Menachem May 13 '12 at 01:08
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    This is brought in Shulchan Aruch Harav as well, Hilchot Shmirot Guf V'Nefesh U'Bal Tashchit: http://chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/adhaz/sh/sh6/12/1/4 - He says that this even applies these days. – Menachem May 13 '12 at 01:12