Q&A: Laws of the Sabbath
Laws of the Sabbath
Question
Hello Rabbi, two questions –
Is it permitted according to Jewish law to play children’s games on the Sabbath? For example, board games, ball games, Lego, blocks, and also spontaneous games with the children such as games involving sticks and stones?
The second question – I saw that some are lenient about riding a scooter on the Sabbath, in contrast to riding a bicycle, which is forbidden, because it is built differently. What is the Rabbi’s view on the matter?
Thank you
Answer
The question is too general. Each game has to be considered on its own merits. Sticks and stones are muktzeh.
Riding a bicycle or a scooter on the Sabbath is customarily forbidden. However, the prohibition is that it does not fit the atmosphere of the Sabbath, not a defined prohibition. Some wanted to forbid it out of concern that one might come to repair it (and this applies mainly to bicycles, not scooters), but in my opinion there is no basis for this, since nowadays there is no authorized institution that can create new prohibitions.
See surveys here: https://ph.yhb.org.il/01-24-07/
and here: https://www.yeshiva.org.il/midrash/14678
Discussion on Answer
Rabbi, I never understood what “weekday-like activity” means. If it isn’t forbidden, then it’s permitted on the Sabbath, and then it isn’t weekday-like activity. How is that different from walking on your feet? People do that on weekdays too. Maybe we should build a special carriage for the Sabbath and only go around on it, because walking on your feet is weekday-like activity…
It just seems like an excuse by the halakhic decisors to forbid whatever doesn’t look right to them. What does the Rabbi think?
I’m completely with you. I wrote about this here in the past, and you can search for it.
In one moment the Sabbath became something very depressing
To Avrech – instead of getting depressed, just designate before the Sabbath whatever you want to play with. See here. https://www.yeshiva.org.il/midrash/50955
I have now discovered that in Rav Pe’alim he wrote as I did, and Rabbi Ovadia and Rabbi Ben-Zion Abba Shaul agreed with him (and only forbade it on the grounds of weekday-like activity). See here: https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%A8%D7%9B%D7%99%D7%91%D7%94_%D7%A2%D7%9C_%D7%90%D7%95%D7%A4%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%99%D7%9D_%D7%91%D7%A9%D7%91%D7%AA