Q&A: Electricity on the Sabbath
Electricity on the Sabbath
Question
Following a question from a friend: what is your opinion about the prohibition on electricity on the Sabbath? From what I remember from looking into it, it is not really like kindling a fire, but rather more like "infusing" life into a device. But on the other hand, the property of devices turning on and off, or electricity flowing through them in general, is part of their internal function, so in my humble opinion you are not really creating something new when you turn on the television (it is not like the last screw in a table that you are building).
I would be glad to know what you think about this.
Answer
Electricity on the Sabbath appears in several different forms. There are electronic devices, lightbulbs and heating devices (such as an oven), and more. In some cases there is room to discuss it in terms of kindling; regarding devices, some discuss it in terms of the final hammer blow, since activating it by means of electricity is as though one has completed its preparation for functioning. I tend to agree with your reasoning that there is no final hammer blow here in the sense of completing a piece of work.
The prevalent view is that in most cases this is a rabbinic prohibition (almost always because of generating a current, and perhaps other factors in different cases). In any event, it is not recommended to operate such devices on the Sabbath, if only because of the custom that the Jewish people have accepted not to operate them. This is a proper and worthy custom, for it is clear that if the Sages were alive today they would prohibit the use of electrical devices (this is also what he writes in Igrot Moshe, in his well-known responsum about a Sabbath timer, although in practice he is not inclined to prohibit on the basis of this consideration alone. But he agrees with the assessment that the Sages indeed would have prohibited it had they lived today. Therefore, when this is combined with an existing custom, there is certainly room to prohibit it).
Discussion on Answer
Hello Arik.
To the best of my judgment, there cannot be any prohibition regarding electric current in the Talmud itself. I assume there is also no prohibition there regarding nuclear fission or cold fusion.
But there definitely are prohibitions in the Talmud of generating something new (such as creating fragrance and the like), and applying them to electric current (I think the source is in the responsa of Beit Yitzchak) does not sound far-fetched to me at all. Clearly, kindling or building do not seem any more convincing, and certainly no less apologetic. It should be noted that prohibitions of generating something new do not appear in most of the central halakhic decisors, and people have already wondered about that.
Admittedly, I am not familiar with the arguments of Rabbi Shlomo Zalman and Rabbi Moshe Levi, and they need to be seen firsthand.
As for apologetics regarding Sabbath prohibitions, specifically there the matter does have justification, since according to at least one version at the beginning of Bava Kamma every significant labor is a primary category, and there is room for the reasoning that today this is considered a significant labor.
If the prohibition does not exist in the Talmud, then even if that is for the technical reason that electricity had not yet been invented, there is no authority to prohibit it. I really was not convinced by the prohibition of generating something new. We are talking about a tiny movement of invisible electrical particles that are already present inside the material. It is hard to force the prohibition of generating something new onto that. If I turn on a battery-powered fan, I do not understand what the prohibition is. Not to mention turning electricity off, where there is not even an initial thought to prohibit it (generating a stoppage of current?!). I am careful about the prohibitions on electricity because I do not particularly mind, but why not inform the public that there is no formal prohibition? At least in pressing circumstances there is no need at all for the pathetic halakhic-technical solutions, in my view, of the Tzomet Institute and the like, but simply to rely on the law of the Talmud that it is permitted. What one does need to be careful about is when there is a Torah-level prohibition, like writing on a computer or doing laundry in a machine, or a rabbinic one, like turning on a radio; but there is no authority to make a decree because of that concern.
What does it mean that the prohibition does not exist in the Talmud? A car that hits someone and causes damage also does not appear in the Talmud, so is there no obligation to pay? Nor does cold fusion. So is it permitted today to do that on the Sabbath? The claim is that the prohibition does indeed appear in the Talmud, as a prohibition of generating something new. Current is only one example, while there are several others that do appear there.
And I find it surprising that writing by means of a computer seems simpler to you. To my mind, the connection between that and the prohibition of writing is much more remote than the connection to generating something new.
As for the actual question of generating something new, this is not the place to go into detail, but the fragrance that you generate in a garment is also not visible, only perceptible, and the Talmud prohibits it. In that sense, electricity too is perceptible, and in my opinion even more so.
It seems to me that you are being a bit too stubborn.
What about devices that work by changing frequency? There there is no generating something new.
I am not familiar with what you are describing. If you describe it more fully, perhaps it will be possible to think about it. Is the change in frequency not done by our own activation, meaning an electrical action? Why would that not count as generating something new?
Beyond all this, there is room to discuss it in terms of building as well (what above is called "infusing life" into the device).
There is no prohibition of generating a current in the Talmud; this is an apologetic attempt to find a halakhic basis for the prohibition. If I remember correctly, already in Me'orei Ha-Esh by Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach and in Menuchat Ahavah by Rabbi Moshe Levi, they proved quite correctly that there is no connection between electricity and generating something new.