Sakana - Food Storage Under Chairs

QUESTION: Does the concern of ru’ach ra’ah apply to food placed under a chair?

ANSWER: Sefer Binyan Olam (siman 33) writes that due to the concern of ru’ach ra’ah, the Vilna Gaon forbade eating food that had been placed under a chest that that someone had slept on. According to this, it would seem that one should be stringent and not place food under the seat of an airplane or the passenger seats of a car since these are places where people commonly sleep. However, Rav Shternbuch (Teshuvos V’Hanagos 1:8 and 2:316) writes that in practice one may be lenient. In the words of Chazal we only find reference to rua’ch ra’ah emanating from a bed, and the seat of a car or a plane would not be referred to as a bed, since its primary purpose is for sitting. He writes that it is possible that the chest that the Vilna Gaon was referring to was one that had been used in place of a bed, not that someone happened to fall asleep while sitting on this box. 

Some poskim allow placing food under a bed (and certainly under a seat) so long as no one is currently sleeping on it. The Toras Chaim (Bava Basra 58a) writes that the since sleep is considered to be one sixtieth of death, food placed under a person sleeping is susceptible to ru’ach ra’ah. However, the Vilna Gaon was stringent not to place food under a bed even if no one is currently sleeping in it. 

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