– Q. Can we cover the wheelchair of a guest visiting our home for a Shabbos meal with a plastic sheet when it is raining outside?

A. Horav Aharon Miller Shlit”a adviced that to avoid making an “Ohel” or tent prohibited during Shabbos, one should be careful to push the plastic cover towards the inner side of the chair, thus living no empty hovering space inside, that may qualify as an even small prohibited “Ohel.” (a space of a “tefach” about about 10cm.).

One could also place the chair inclined next to an outside wall in an angle that would make it now unfit for any inner use to place objects there, and thus no “ohel” would be created.

Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by, Horav Yaakov Hirschman, Horav Dovid Pam, Horav Aharon Miller, Horav Chanoch Ehrentreu and Horav Kalman Ochs Shlit’a