Q&A: Operational Command Post on the Sabbath
Operational Command Post on the Sabbath
Question
Hello Rabbi!
I sometimes spend the Sabbath on duty in the operations room.
There is one option where I stay right next to the emergency phone in the same room, without going to prayers, without going outside, and without going to the dining hall (in the best-case scenario I can ask someone to bring me food from the dining hall; in the less ideal case, I can keep food with me from Friday).
And there is another option, which some of the yeshiva guys by us follow, that it is possible to forward calls (there is such a technical option, and halakhically it is like dialing another cellphone) to the officer’s phone during prayer times and meals; that is also what is done on weekdays. Their reasoning (based on their rabbis) is that since this is the normal mode of operational activity on a day-to-day basis, there is no need to change it on the Sabbath.
Operationally, this kind of call forwarding could be done for short periods and not for the entire Sabbath.
My question is whether, in the Rabbi’s opinion as well, it is permissible to forward calls by pressing the phone buttons for the sake of prayers and meals, or whether, since one can manage even without the prayers and meals in the dining hall, it is forbidden to do this.
I hope I was clear.
Thank you very much!
Answer
I think it is forbidden. It is permitted to answer a call, but it is forbidden to perform an electrical action without necessity. Perhaps it would be permitted by telling a non-Jew, because that is a double rabbinic prohibition for the sake of a commandment. (And even that is assuming this is only rabbinic. My personal opinion is that electricity on the Sabbath is Torah-level, because of building. See column 397.)