Q&A: Possible ways to permit an electric oven on a Jewish holiday, turning it off and on. Does this hold water?
Possible ways to permit an electric oven on a Jewish holiday, turning it off and on. Does this hold water?
Question
A woman who apparently does not keep all the commandments wants to observe Rosh Hashanah properly. But it seems strange to her to leave the oven on for two straight days. And a Sabbath timer is not relevant there.
Is it possible to permit this by combining several leniencies?
- The labor of kindling and extinguishing for food preparation on a Jewish holiday is forbidden only rabbinically.
- Electricity on the Sabbath and on a Jewish holiday is subject to dispute whether it is Torah-level or rabbinic; even among those who hold it is Torah-level, some say that is because it is the labor of kindling, which on a Jewish holiday is only rabbinic.
- Leave it on a low heat, and when they want to cook, raise it to a higher heat, and when it is ready lower it again while the food is still in the oven so it should not burn. In some electrical appliances, setting 1 means a certain wire and a certain heating element; when you raise it to setting 2 it means: (a) the wire and heating element of level 1 are turned off, and (b) another wire and another heating element are turned on, and that is level 2. And similarly, if it is lowered again to setting 1, the heating element and electrical wire of system 2 are turned off and the heating element and wire of system 1 are turned on. But there are types where wire 1 remains active and heating element 1 remains active, and when you raise it to 2, more electricity flows through that same wire and the same heating element simply produces more heat; and when you lower it again, less electricity simply flows and there is less heat in that same heating element [the only one there is]. If so, that is really like adding oil or gas to an existing flame, or reducing it so that the food will not burn. I am unsure whether her oven is of the first model or the second. Because of that uncertainty itself, it would again be only a rabbinic prohibition.
- By telling a non-Jew to turn it off or on, another level that is rabbinic.
- On the second festival day.
- She lives in the Land of Israel, and according to the view of the Rif one should not observe a second festival day here, not even on Rosh Hashanah.
- Whatever they do, they will do with an unusual manner, using the other side of the fingers or the teeth or with a spoon, which is again rabbinic.
Is there any possibility, with all or part of these 7 points, to permit it? If so, which of them?
Answer
If she wants to observe the holiday properly, then she should observe it properly. If it seems strange to her (not that I understood what is strange about it), then she should get over it. And doing it with her teeth or with a spoon does not seem strange to her? Forgive me, but this is a bizarre question.
Discussion on Answer
So it does not seem strange to her; rather, she is concerned about her money. But money must be spent in order to keep Jewish law. This is not considered wasting money.
If there were a real halakhic permission, then of course it would be her decision whether to rely on it or not. But in my opinion there is no real halakhic permission here, and there is no room to permit a prohibition in such a situation.
What you raised are reasons why the prohibition is relatively minor (that can help in pressing circumstances, and this is not a pressing circumstance), but not actual permissions. There is only one isolated point that raises a doubt about the prohibition itself (the Rif. By the way, as I recall, he speaks only about Rosh Hashanah), and it has no real force to permit. Custom and Jewish law were not ruled in accordance with him, although in my opinion there is certainly room to reconsider it, since the whole thing is rather absurd. In any case, this applies only to the second day of Rosh Hashanah.
Therefore, whatever she decides to do, she will of course do, but I do not think one can give her a halakhic permission. This is Rabbi Ilai’s statement that when a person sees that his inclination is overpowering him, he should go to a distant place, wear black, and do what his heart desires. At most, that is a kind of allowance for the person himself, not something to instruct him as Jewish law. And the Rif and the Rosh in Moed Katan ruled that the law does not follow him (and Maimonides and the Tur/Shulchan Arukh also did not bring this).
One more correction: the Rif writes explicitly that on Rosh Hashanah one observes two days in the Land of Israel. His student, Rabbeinu Ephraim, and the Ba’al HaMaor disagreed with him and held that here one observes one day.
The waste seems strange to her. The question is whether the several rabbinic-level factors as above, or some of them, can permit it.