Q&A: Bicycles on the Sabbath
Bicycles on the Sabbath
Question
Can one rely on a minority opinion in order to ride a bicycle on the Sabbath?
The minority opinion of the Ben Ish Chai Rabbi Yosef Chaim of Baghdad, in the responsa Rav Pe’alim (1:25), permitted riding a bicycle on the Sabbath, because in his view we should not institute new decrees on our own, and therefore there is no concern that one might repair the bicycle or go beyond the Sabbath boundary. Regarding the carriage that in the Land of Israel is called a “sakel” (= bicycle), which people ride on the Sabbath.
Answer
One should not rely on a minority opinion, nor on a majority opinion. If you are knowledgeable enough, then you should do what you think is right. If not, choose a rabbi for yourself. To rely on a minority opinion according to whatever suits you is not proper conduct (taking the leniencies of this one and the leniencies of that one).
Discussion on Answer
It seems the Ben Ish Chai is right.
If even the prayer of “He Who blessed” for the welfare of the soldiers who are now defending our lives is something we are forbidden to compose today, and God forbid to dare pray for them,
how can we be so brazen as to invent a prohibition that was never prohibited? What power do gnats like us even have?
If I remember correctly, at the beginning of Eruvin (page 3, I think) it says that one may not follow the leniencies of Beit Shammai and the leniencies of Beit Hillel, but only when the leniencies contradict one another. But to rule leniently in a systematic way when they do not contradict one another is not a problem. Again, I’m saying this from a vague memory, but what is the Rabbi’s view?
Indeed, which is why I didn’t write “wicked,” only that it is not proper to act that way.
Thank you for the answer!
Do the many later authorities (Acharonim) who wrote that in their opinion this also does not involve weekday-type activity, but since the custom has already been to prohibit it, it is forbidden—does that carry weight in the Rabbi’s view? And does the Rabbi hold that there is reason to suspect a problem here under the category of weekday-type activity, and why? Thanks in advance.
I don’t understand the claim. You are arguing that there is a custom to prohibit it, and therefore it is forbidden by force of custom. There is something to that, since indeed that is not the practice. But custom is not really law, and it can be changed. Weekday-type activity is due to a category that I don’t know what to say about. I have discussed this in several places in the past (for example, in the column about a smart home).
So practically speaking, what does the Rabbi rule?
I don’t think there is any specific prohibition here, because we should not institute decrees on our own (I think I already wrote this in the past about bicycles). In practice, it is not advisable to act this way because of weekday-type activity (whose parameters I do not understand) and because of the custom.
You answered well!
That really is the disease of the Mizrachniks, for the most part.
Mediocrity as an ideal leads to abandonment!
No matter how much you try to be different, you’re a convinced [refined] Litvak. Fortunate are you, and good is your lot!