Q&A: Turning Off an Electric Water Urn After Candle Lighting
Turning Off an Electric Water Urn After Candle Lighting
Question
A woman lit Sabbath candles, and after the lighting but before the 18 minutes had passed, she noticed that the electric water urn had not been switched to Sabbath mode. She hurried and switched the urn to Sabbath mode within that time.
Is it permitted to use water from the urn during the Sabbath to make coffee?
Answer
Good question. I think it is permitted, because this is a rabbinic prohibition during twilight. True, ideally they forbade doing this, but to also forbid the resulting product under the law of a Sabbath violation seems to me too far-reaching. I have now found a similar responsum here: https://www.yeshiva.org.il/ask/80861
Discussion on Answer
True, and still I wrote what seems right to me.
Shouldn't one distinguish between actual twilight and the period between candle-lighting time and sunset?
That makes it even easier.
By the way, why is this act only a rabbinic prohibition according to your view, when electrical actions are Torah-level building?
Because this is not turning it on, but changing its mode.
Many times, changing that mode includes turning on an indicator light for Sabbath mode. Even in that case, is it still only a rabbinic prohibition?
I'm not sure. The indicator light is not a device in its own right, so I'm not sure that turning it on counts as Torah-level building. But there is room to hesitate about that.
The answer the Rabbi brought
says that in an extreme case of Sabbath enjoyment it is permitted to turn on the light; if it is dark at the celebration, a great many people will be affected.
Here too, coffee and tea are indeed part of Sabbath enjoyment, but you can live without them.