[Avodah] water and electricity

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' David Riceman asked:
> The question came up over Shabbos whether Rabbi Karelitz,
> who prohibited opening and closing (as they say in modern
> Hebrew) an electrical circuit on Shabbos because of binyan
> and stirah, said the same thing about a water circuit (e.g.,
> opening or closing a tap in the sink).  We could think of
> no logical distinction between the two cases.

I have a suspicion (and I've mentioned this on Avodah previously) that when the Chazon Ish connected electricity to binyan/stirah, he was not talking about flipping the switch, but rather about plugging the device into the wall.

The reason I say this is because of the phrase "binyan u'stirah" as opposed to "tikkun mana". Binyan has something to do with the building in which one is. Turning a switch on and off is the regular operation of the device; from a binyan/stirah perspective I don't see how it is different from opening up a folding chair, or indeed, from opening a water faucet.

I am willing to accept evidence that I am mistaken in the above. A good way to prove this would be if someone could find that the Chazon Ish said that a battery-operated flashlight would be a binyan/stirah problem.

But let's get back to RDR's question, where he asked what the difference is between the switch which allows electricity to flow and the valve which allows water to flow. My simple response is to ask if there is any difference between the valve which allows water to flow, and a window which allows air to flow.

Akiva Miller

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