[Avodah] Security Cameras & Sattelites on Shabbas

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' Harvey Benton (welcome to Avodah!) asked:
> Are we allowed to go outside on Shabbas if a Sattelite is
> overhead (or even may be overhead)... it records our
> movements ... If it is allowed, then would being on a
> conference-call on Shabbas be permitted? (if the call was
> initiated before Shabbas, and all one did was talk on it??)

A telephone is VERY different than a camera.

When one speaks, and his voice is carried by the phone, his voice affects the electric current. We can debate the degree of directness or indirectness, and we can debate what melacha occurs when the electric current is affected by the voice, but I don't think anyone can claim that he is not doing anything. Rather, he *is* doing something, and there is a real problem that needs to be considered when one's voice is picked up on Shabbos by a telephone or any sort of voice recorder or amplifier.

In sharp contrast, I can't figure out what melacha a person might even be accused of when a security camera takes pictures of him (regardless of whether it is film or electronic photography).

I'm not talking about a friend, relative, or newspaper photographer who takes a picture of me on Shabbos. In such a case, *he* is operating the camera, and *he* might be accused of mav'ir/burning or boneh/building or some other melacha for an electronic camera (or other melachos for a film camera); and *I* could be accused of helping him to do that aveira (michshol and/or mesayea).

But when an automatic security camera takes these pictures, I don't see any melacha or other issur which the subject is actually doing. The most one can say is that "If I was not standing there when the pre-set camera took the picture, a given portion of the picture would have been this color, but because I *was* standing there, a different color (or picture) is there."

But I did not *put* my image onto the picture. I was totally passive, and the camera automatically took a picture that I happened to be in. This is not a direct act; this is not an indirect act; this is not even mis'asek; I don't see how it is an action at all.

Akiva Miller

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