Q&A: Remember
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
Remember
Question
I read in this Sabbath article that Rabbi Yaakov Ariel holds that it is forbidden, for example, to operate an iRobot on the Sabbath, since someone who does so violates the commandment to remember the Sabbath. I wanted to ask what your opinion is on the matter. Innocently, I thought that precisely the fact that one activates it by means of a Sabbath timer actually causes the Sabbath to be remembered.
Answer
See column 275.
I would only note that your argument regarding remembering the Sabbath is problematic. You are assuming that the consideration is how I myself will remember that it is the Sabbath. But it may be that the consideration is what the overall atmosphere looks like (and not what is going through my mind at the moment of activation).