Q&A: Electricity on the Sabbath as Building
Electricity on the Sabbath as Building
Question
Hello,
I listened on the site to the lesson about electricity on the Sabbath.
There you “defend” the Ben Ish Chai’s claim, who rules that it is forbidden because of building. I’m not sure whether you arrive at the same conclusion on the basis of the same arguments, but that’s not the point of the question.
You use the example of the fan: until it is turned on electrically, it is only a fan in potential. It seems to me that this is true theoretically and functionally, but in the world of complex utensils this empties the law of building of its content. Take, for example, an old-fashioned brick oven. Building it requires actual construction work, and in the end there is an oven with a significant interior space whose purpose is of course to bake. It doesn’t seem reasonable to me to claim that until you light a fire in it, it is not an oven, since that is a different prohibition, namely kindling. a0
In the case of the oven, or any other device that requires energy, it seems clear to me that building/assembling it is forbidden because of building, while operating it is forbidden, for example, because of kindling, not building.
Basically, it seems hard to me to argue that activating or using any energy source = continuing or completing construction. And if the fan had a manual alternative in the form of a crank that you turn and it operates the fan, then electricity contributes nothing to realizing the potential of the device, and so it is hard to argue that it is part of building.
These are just thoughts that I’m not sure I’m formulating with the same precision in the terms you usually use. What do you think? a0
What would you say about a wind turbine that I set up, and if the wind is strong enough it reaches enough output to power a light bulb?
Happy holiday,
Abraham
Answer
You yourself write that there is a difference between operating an existing device (like a brick oven) and passing current through and activating an electrical device (like a fan), where this changes the device itself and does not merely produce something from it. It is like putting a soul into a body. In your opinion, would that not be considered building because the body already exists?
Discussion on Answer
From your question at the end, it seems to me that I wasn’t understood. Obviously operating a fan manually is not building, because the fan itself has not changed. Now one is producing an action from it. Electrical activation changes it from death to life (= the expression used by the Hazon Ish), like putting a soul into a body.
The claim that this can be done again and again does not seem important to me, although I understand your reasoning. The change is significant each time, and therefore even if it could be turned off and on, it seems to me that there would still be an issue of building here. See Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 47 regarding a collapsible bed, where the amoraim disputed whether it is permitted to connect it on the Sabbath even though it is normally taken apart and reassembled. True, in practice it was ruled that this is permitted (Tur and Shulchan Arukh, sec. 313), but it is explained in the Talmud that according to everyone, if one fastens it tightly it is forbidden (because that is actual building, and not merely returning or activating something that already exists), and so all the halakhic decisors ruled (see there). Returning a soul to a body is like fastening tightly, not like a loose connection.
Hello, and happy holiday,
As for your question, it seems to me that it would not. A person without a soul is not a person; he is a lump of flesh. But with respect to a human being, the only way to make the flesh functional is the soul, and this is also not a device that has on/off states that can be switched between (more than once – a device is indeed meant to be in an on/off state, and therefore turning it off is also part of its essence).
By contrast, any device that you have finished assembling is hard to define by one energy source out of many. Again, if our imaginary fan were operated manually by a crank that you turn, would you then also forbid using it on the Sabbath because of building?
Abraham