Q&A: Electricity on the Sabbath – Shabbulb
Electricity on the Sabbath – Shabbulb
Question
Hello,
About a month ago I asked a question on the site under the title “Electricity on the Sabbath as Building.”
We argued briefly about the position of the Ben Ish Hai as you presented it in an audio lecture on the site.
This week I came across the following product: http://www.shabbulb.com
Beyond the weak halakhic justifications on the site, the idea is amusing, but following up on our conversation it seems to me that according to the logic you presented in the name of the Ben Ish Hai, this invention should be forbidden.
What do you think?
Abraham
Answer
I don’t remember the argument, nor the Ben Ish Hai.
But what’s wrong with it?
Discussion on Answer
What I meant, of course, was: here electrons are flowing and there photons.
There is a very big difference. When current flows in a device or in a bulb, that is a change in the object itself, and therefore the Hazon Ish writes that there is an issue here of building, since it changes it from death to life. Rotating the holes in order to reveal or conceal the light does not make any change in the thing itself. It is exactly like placing a curtain in front of it, and therefore it is obvious that there is no problem with this at all.
Hello,
The discussion then revolved around the question whether pressing a button and sending current into a device constitutes completing its construction. Is a fan that is turned off still a fan?
As for this case, this device is an LED bulb in which the LEDs inside the bulb are mounted on a disk with holes. You move the perforated disk and that is how you “turn on or off” the bulb.
What I’m really asking is whether, according to your approach, rotating the disk and exposing the LEDs or covering them is not equivalent to turning it on with an electrical switch. In both cases, in order to produce light you have to perform an action, one electrical and one mechanical. There’s a video there that shows exactly how it works.
It seems to me that even if the current is flowing, if the LEDs are covered, then until you manually move the disk, the bulb is lit only potentially. In other words, here electrons are flowing and there photons… what’s the difference?
Best regards,
Abraham