Q&A: Electricity on a Jewish Holiday
Electricity on a Jewish Holiday
Question
With God's help,
Hello Rabbi,
Is it possible to turn on an oven or an electric kettle on a Jewish holiday?
If it falls under the category of fire, then why shouldn’t we say that this is merely transferring a fire?
And if it falls under the category of creating something new or building, then perhaps food-preparation devices are permitted.
Answer
Halakhic decisors generally define this as kindling, not transferring. In truth, for quite some time now I have felt that there is considerable room to discuss this.
It needs analysis whether the prohibited labor of building was permitted for the sake of food preparation (and likewise creating something new, which is rabbinic). Seemingly, here we are dealing with an action that is usually done for that purpose, but perhaps we follow the definition of the prohibited labor itself rather than one particular application of it.
I would not permit it without looking into it more carefully.
Discussion on Answer
Even when transferring a fire, the new fire is created from nothing. The new candle was unlit and now it is lit. Though you are right that with electricity, initially there was no fire in the sense of glowing heat (except insofar as on an electric stovetop this can be seen as fire).
From the standpoint of building and creating something new, the doubt is not about the parameters of the labor, but about whether building and creating something new were permitted for the sake of food preparation.
When electricity is discussed as fire, there’s something a bit unclear about it. After all, if we look at the micro level, the electrons passed from one to another, and it would seem more accurate to call that transferring fire, not kindling. But if we look at the macro level, where is there any fire here at all? The only possibility is to view the heating element as fire, although it’s not clear whether it glows red-hot (if that matters?), and then indeed suddenly it looks as though a fire has been created here.
As for building, that is a dispute, and so too with creating something new; especially since creating a complete utensil is forbidden. So those who usually classify these labors as building generally do so because they think one is infusing life into it and actually creating a complete utensil, no?