על דא ודאי קבכינא
I have no standing to suggest - much less institute - this, but we should put into place a national daily seder in Sidduro shel Shabbos. Also at http://www.daat.ac.il/daat/vl/tohen.asp?id=148 and http://books.google.com/books?id=C5ZBAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
is already divided into portions by weeks of the year.
Rabbi, Do you think that the e-revolution will at some point force orthodoxy to recognize the possibility of reevaluating electricity on shabbat?
ReplyDeleteThere is almost no doubt in my mind that certain things will change in the coming generations regarding the use of technology on Shabbat. I am referring more to the use of passive technology that will be found in every home someday, and less to active technology like texting, etc. Your home will know where you are at all times and will adjust the lights and temperature appropriately. I can't say that it will happen in 10 or 20 years, but it will happen sometime during our children/grandchildren's lifetime.
ReplyDeleteI think there may be room for re-assessing electronics (not electricity. But that would not be helpful. Just as my generation knew intuitively, growing up, that watching TV on a Shabbos clock was a failure to experience Shabbos properly - regardless of any technical "heter" - so too the use of any electronics will constitute such a failure, no matter how many "heterim" we can adduce.
ReplyDeleteR' YGB-
ReplyDeleteI have not gone through this sefer before, but on a similar note, the English version of R' Shimshon Pincus' Nefesh Shimshon on Shabbos is one of the most unbelieveable seforim I have ever read. It totally changed my life.
OTOH, access to rare seforim like this on Shabbos is itself a reason to find ways to permit e-readers on Shabbat & Yom Tov.
ReplyDeleteSure, watching TV on a timer is unShabbosdic, but is it unShabbsodic because it's inherently assur, or because it's uvda dechol? Remember, the TVs of our youth were effectively incandescent lights - you heated the filament to glowing inside the picture tube, even if all the other electronics were transistor-based.
And there were Orthodox families (maybe more MO than yours) who listened to the radio on Shabbos, turning the volume up & down, but not turning it on & off.