Q&A: Telephone on the Sabbath
Telephone on the Sabbath
Question
Hello Rabbi. For a long time I’ve been wrestling with the issue of electricity on the Sabbath, and I haven’t managed to be convinced that using a telephone on the Sabbath is forbidden. All the approaches that have been suggested on this matter seem to me completely beside the point. It really seems obvious that people view it as a rabbinic prohibition because we couldn’t find a good reason to forbid it under one of the primary categories of labor, so they say it’s rabbinic without explaining what exactly makes it into a prohibition that the Sages enacted to forbid it (two thousand years ago?). The prohibition because of creating something new also seems somewhat forced to me, and you can really see the desire to forbid it at all costs. Likewise, the prohibition because of weekday-type activity also doesn’t get out of that same category of a basket of prohibitions that have no real basis. After all, it’s no different from so many things we do on the Sabbath that look like weekday activity, like a Sabbath timer. (The category of weekday-type activity is empty of content, because whatever you want to forbid you put into it, and whatever you don’t want to forbid you take out.) Only the prohibition because of custom could convince me, but in my opinion this is a custom that arose without reason and is based on a fundamental mistake, and since there is no basis to forbid it, this is not one of those shaky areas of Jewish law where I should follow the custom.
I know I’m bursting through an open door. Even so, I want to ask two questions. Has the Rabbi been convinced by one of the reasons to forbid it, and why? And second, if I haven’t been convinced, may I rely on my own opinion in practice according to Jewish law? Thank you
Answer
You’re conflating telephone and electricity here. Regarding electricity, I wrote about this here in column 397, that in my view it should be forbidden under the category of building. You are right that sometimes the motivation to forbid comes before the reason, but I don’t think anyone claims that it is rabbinically forbidden without specifying which decree forbids it. That is why they brought in creating something new and the like.
As for weekday-type activity, that really is a problematic prohibition and very hard to define, but the fact is that it exists in the halakhic arsenal. I think that if there is such a prohibition, then electricity or a telephone on the Sabbath is an excellent candidate for it.
The custom here is not foolish at all. That very point you wrote—that the halakhic decisors felt it should be forbidden even before they found a reason for the prohibition—is itself a good reason to accept a custom that forbids it.
You can always rely on your own opinion in practice according to Jewish law, assuming you are competent. I recommend consulting before making a decision.
Discussion on Answer
So in your opinion, what is the prohibition involved in texting on the Sabbath?
Beyond custom and weekday-type activity as above, it really seems that there is no kindling and no building here. What remains are rabbinic prohibitions such as creating something new.
There is room to discuss it from the angle of writing, but that is a complicated question.
Why is there no building here? How is this different from any electrical device?
Turning on the telephone is building, but writing on it is not. The writing doesn’t turn it into something else; it is an operating device.
In your opinion, what is the prohibition involved in texting on the Sabbath?