Q&A: Kosher Electricity at the State’s Expense
Kosher Electricity at the State’s Expense
Question
Recently we were informed that the Electric Company will invest 100 million shekels in storing electricity in batteries in a neighborhood in Bnei Brak.
Some of the Haredim do not accept the permit to use electricity that was produced on the Sabbath, and now that there is a fully full right-wing government, they want the state to provide them with extra-stringent electricity with no concern whatsoever, funded by the public.
As I understand it, the permit to generate electricity on the Sabbath is based on the fact that the electricity is produced for the needs of saving life (hospitals and the like), and the general public is secondary in that regard.
A. Is there a real problem with this permit, something essentially different from all sorts of halakhic procedural mechanisms like prozbul and a heter iska, or once you’ve found a halakhic solution is it kosher?
B. If someone wants to be extra stringent about electricity with no concern whatsoever, is it legitimate to be extra stringent when others are financing that stringency?
Answer
As I understand it, there is something distasteful about this. One does not do enhancement of a commandment with charity money. From the state’s perspective, of course, there is no obligation to provide this, but it also isn’t forbidden. There are budgets of a similar character: providing mikvehs, synagogues, theaters, and the like.
Discussion on Answer
Setting up storage facilities is needed even apart from the question of using electricity on the Sabbath.
They are thinking of using the already-existing need for a storage facility for Sabbath purposes as well; it’s just bad public relations and biased media that turn it into “electricity for Haredim at the public’s expense.”
It is fitting to tyrannize the secular so they will finance all our nonsense
Sabbath acronym: On secular people, the Sabbath will extort or tyrannize, or through electricity drive them crazy
There is an argument about the importance of energy storage for emergency situations, and that it can reduce costs over the long term as well, such as charging at night.
But I don’t know the details.