Electricity / Electronics / Electric Cars (6) – Electricity on Shabbat (Part 2)

In our last post, we looked at the idea that electricity is forbidden on Shabbat because it is like fire. This week we will look at some other explanations that have been given for this prohibition.

BUILDING: Boneh:

R. Abraham Karelitz, known as the Hazon Ish [20^th century, Israel] argues that turning an electrical circuit on and off is forbidden under the categories of Boneh (building) and Soter (destroying). The logic is that by closing a circuit you are ‘building’ it (a circuit is only a circuit when it is complete) and when you break the circuit to turn an appliance off – you are destroying it.

This argument has been refuted. An electric appliance is made to be turned on and off. When you flick the switch, you are not building the circuit – you are just changing the position of the switch. If adjusting something so that it would be useful counts as ‘building’ – then turning on a water tap would count as ‘building a pipe’ and opening a door would be ‘breaking the wall’. This is obviously not the case as these activities have always been permitted. So this is certainly not a reason to proscribe the use of electricity.

FINISHING and OBJECT: Makeh B’fatish. (Striking a hammer blow).

Any action that completes a labour is included in this prohibition. The argument is like the above position regarding building – that by switching an appliance on you are completing it; bringing it to it’s working state. A kettle is only a kettle when it can be used to boil water.

The refutation is also similar – electrical appliances are made to be turned on and off. They are completed when they come of the production line – not every time they are used.

MAKING SOMETHING NEW: Molid: (making something new).

The Talmud [Beitza 23a] forbids spilling perfume on a garment on Shabbat to infuse it with a sweet smell as this would ‘permanently change the garment’. Thus, even a small change can turn something into something new. R. Yitzchak Schmelkis [19^th century, Ukraine] argues that when electricity flows through an appliance it ‘changes’ it – giving ‘birth’ to a new thing. This argument was rejected by later authorities because electric appliances are designed to be regularly turned on and off. They are not permanently changed by the electricity flowing through them and they do not become a new thing.

Over the years other arguments have been put forward to suggest that the use of electricity is Melakhah – a forbidden category of work on Shabbat, such as Mitakein Mana, Preparing a Utensil or even Bishul – cooking. None of these arguments is convincing and the simple conclusion is that using electricity isn’t an Issur Melakhah – an activity prohibited on Shabbat because it is a form of work.

That doesn’t mean that the use of electricity is permitted on Shabbat. The reason that Rabbis tried to find a way to prohibit the use of electricity on Shabbat was because they intuitively felt that electricity has, in our society, assumed the role fire played in the past. Throughout much of history, fire was the main form of energy that powered life; providing light, heat, powering the economy. In our world, electricity has taken over those functions. This brings us back to the challenge we posed in the first of this series of posts. In order to preserve Shabbat in modern society it is necessary to develop a new way of viewing Shabbat prohibitions that addresses the use of electricity.

Such a category already exists in the laws of Shabbat. There is a separate prohibition that is used for those things that are similar to the forbidden acts on Shabbat – even if they are exactly the same as them. This prohibition is called Shvut – and we will dedicate a future post to explain what Shvut is and why it is relevant to our question. 

Based on: A New Responsum on the Sabbath. Rabbi Mordecai Schwartz and Rabbi Chaim Weiner and  The Use of Electrical and Electronic Devices on Shabbat. Rabbi Daniel Nevins. CJLS 2012