Q&A: Washing Machine on the Sabbath
Washing Machine on the Sabbath
Question
I have a washing machine at home with a built-in Sabbath timer. Can I set the timer so that the machine will run on the Sabbath, according to the author of the Shulchan Arukh in section 252, subsection 5, who is not concerned about noise being made by millstones on the Sabbath?
It seems to me that this is worse than a machine that was started before the Sabbath and continues operating into the Sabbath.
Answer
I saw someone who wrote that there is a problem here because you are cooking the water up (indirectly, or under the law of "his fire is because of his arrows"). But the same would apply to turning on a lamp by means of a Sabbath timer. And the same would apply to operating a machine from before the Sabbath, which halakhic decisors permitted according to the author of the Shulchan Arukh. On the face of it, it seems that for one who is not concerned about making the matter publicly noticeable, in accordance with the author of the Shulchan Arukh, there is room to permit it.