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The prohibition is on doing work generally, with a specific prohibition on kindling a fire, which was quite a lot of work millennia ago. Does using a device th

The prohibition is on doing work generally, with a specific prohibition on kindling a fire, which was quite a lot of work millennia ago. Does using a device that allows you to avoid walking up many flights of stairs really violate the spirit of a law prohibiting work on the sabbath?

moduspol 5y ago
And for that matter, where is the line drawn? The other workaround I had heard for this is to have a non-Jew hired specifically to stand in the elevator and push buttons on behalf of Jews on the sabbath. But they'd still have to speak the floor so the attendant would know what button to push, right? If so, what if an elevator had basic voice recognition? Speaking the floor number to a machine is no more work than speaking it to an attendant, right? Maybe this rule interpretation was originally made back when elevators generally had attendants and did require some expertise to operate (e.g. to stop at the right spots)? And then didn't get rolled back when it became essentially trivial?
- bellyfullofbac 5y ago
  If speaking isn't allowed, a hack* would be for the elevator to start counting, and tell the passenger to nod or lift their head up after their floor number is mentioned. Or even just walk to the activation corner. * I asked Yahweh, he said this is legal.
  - krapp 5y ago
    >* I asked Yahweh, he said this is legal. Seems legit.
hawk_ 5y ago
if the idea is to not work then pressing a button isn't going to change anything. if the elevator is being taken to do some work, again pressing the button has nothing to do with it.
ars 5y ago
"Work" is a bad translation. A better translation would be "creative activity". Fire is a problem not because it's work to light, but because you are creating heat from wood.
LegitShady 5y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/39_Melachot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/39_Melachot It’s not quite as you say. There are more specifics involved than just ‘work generally or kindling a fire’ - but few people except religious Jews would care about the details.

moduspol 5y ago

And for that matter, where is the line drawn? The other workaround I had heard for this is to have a non-Jew hired specifically to stand in the elevator and push buttons on behalf of Jews on the sabbath. But they'd still have to speak the floor so the attendant would know what button to push, right? If so, what if an elevator had basic voice recognition? Speaking the floor number to a machine is no more work than speaking it to an attendant, right? Maybe this rule interpretation was originally made back when elevators generally had attendants and did require some expertise to operate (e.g. to stop at the right spots)? And then didn't get rolled back when it became essentially trivial?

bellyfullofbac 5y ago
If speaking isn't allowed, a hack* would be for the elevator to start counting, and tell the passenger to nod or lift their head up after their floor number is mentioned. Or even just walk to the activation corner. * I asked Yahweh, he said this is legal.
- krapp 5y ago
  >* I asked Yahweh, he said this is legal. Seems legit.

hawk_ 5y ago

if the idea is to not work then pressing a button isn't going to change anything. if the elevator is being taken to do some work, again pressing the button has nothing to do with it.

ars 5y ago

"Work" is a bad translation. A better translation would be "creative activity". Fire is a problem not because it's work to light, but because you are creating heat from wood.

LegitShady 5y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/39_Melachot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/39_Melachot It’s not quite as you say. There are more specifics involved than just ‘work generally or kindling a fire’ - but few people except religious Jews would care about the details.