Q&A: Crosswalk on the Sabbath
Crosswalk on the Sabbath
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I’m currently abroad, and there’s an interesting phenomenon here: most crosswalks require pressing a button in order for the pedestrian light to turn green, especially on busy main roads.
Jews who observe the Sabbath are accustomed to waiting for a short break in traffic and then crossing against the red light at a light run.
The button that requests a pedestrian crossing is of course not automatic, and it seems similar to a kind of indirect causation: you press it, and after some amount of time that varies (tens of seconds), traffic stops and the light turns green. I assume there is some algorithm that takes the traffic and the crossing requests into account and switches to green in order to balance between them.
I wonder what the right balance is: reckless crossing with some degree of risk (at least at certain hours), or pressing an electrical button—which can also be done in an unusual manner—that after a short time will turn the light green.
Abraham
Answer
A difficult question. It seems to me that as a general guideline—and this is clearly a question that is relevant not only to you—one should press the button. According to most opinions, electricity is forbidden only rabbinically, and even if it is Torah-level forbidden (which is what I tend to think), there is here a kind of indirect causation with a delay (at least according to some opinions that see a delay as indirect causation). Set against that are danger to human life affecting the public, the law of the land, and desecration of God’s name.
Discussion on Answer
Not true. For eating pork there is another way. “No other way” applies when you are doing something permitted and in the course of it you end up doing something forbidden. Eating pork is itself a prohibition.
As for crossing the road, that would be a decree the public could not abide by—that everyone should remain trapped in their homes all Sabbath. “Let no man leave his place…” Therefore, in my opinion, it is correct to permit this.
But doesn’t the press immediately affect the state machine of the traffic light’s control center?
I assume this is something that happens inside the traffic light itself (or in a system connected to it), and some calculation is done internally. The final result that is visible to the eye appears only after a delay, and that is what matters.
What stands against that is simply not crossing roads on the Sabbath. Jewish law also permits making life harder, and even eating pork is allowed if there is no other way.