Q&A: He Drove to Family on Friday Afternoon and Got Stuck in Traffic — What Should He Do?
He Drove to Family on Friday Afternoon and Got Stuck in Traffic — What Should He Do?
Question
Have a good week, Rabbi,
How should a person act if he drove to relatives on Friday and got stuck in a traffic jam, during which the Sabbath is about to begin, and he has no chance of reaching his destination? What should he do?
Best regards,
Answer
Find a place to spend the Sabbath on the way. A hotel. If that’s not possible, then go into some synagogue and speak with the sexton.
Discussion on Answer
I have no advice. It’s forbidden to drive on the Sabbath.
During twilight (after sunset) it’s possible to travel by means of a non-Jew.
Ask your non-Jewish wife to drive all through twilight until you reach the city.
Following up on this question: wouldn’t it be permitted to keep driving on the Sabbath until the nearest town משום pikuach nefesh? (I assume that in the usual case a person doesn’t have enough water in the car to get through the Sabbath on the side of the road without risking dehydration.) And if his children are with him in the car, maybe not having enough food could also put them in the category of pikuach nefesh?
It doesn’t seem to me like pikuach nefesh. But if it is, then of course it’s permitted.
Hello Rabbi, why don’t the commandment of kiddush over wine, the Torah reading, and all the other Sabbath laws override the prohibition of driving a car?
Because that’s not at the same time, and it carries karet and stoning.
And also a positive commandment.
Let’s assume for the sake of discussion that this really isn’t pikuach nefesh. But in today’s reality, spending the Sabbath without water, food, bathrooms, in the heat or cold outside, on the side of the road, sounds to me completely unreasonable. Maybe in ancient times, when living conditions were much worse, that would have been the right instruction, but nowadays it sounds wrong to me. Can one say something here like “it just doesn’t fit”? Sort of like what you say about turning to secular courts nowadays?
It doesn’t sound reasonable to me.
I’ve noticed that halakhic decisors nowadays tend to stretch the boundaries of the concept of pikuach nefesh quite a lot in the laws of the Sabbath — even in cases where any sensible person understands that there isn’t really pikuach nefesh there. I think what’s behind this is the understanding that even things that aren’t actually pikuach nefesh but do involve great suffering justify desecrating the Sabbath (maybe it’s a kind of expansion of “and live by them”). In your opinion, would it be correct to broaden the boundaries of “pikuach nefesh” in the above case in order to prevent great suffering?
It’s possible there are halakhic decisors who would permit it.
What should he do if the traffic jam is on Highway 6, meaning not near a synagogue or a hotel?