[Avodah] Electricity

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, May 17, 2009 at 10:16:53AM -0400, Michael Mirsky wrote:
: The final conclusion he came to is likely only turning on 
: incandescent bulbs is a malacha de'oraisa becase of heating the 
: filament to a very high temperature which is "aish".  But in reality, 
: fluorescent lights, LEDs etc would be OK, but as had been discussed, 
...

The problem could be havarah or bishul, as per the earlier machloqes
about glowing metal. I would also include flourescent bulbs, which also
heat a filament until it glows, that's how the electrode throws elextrons
fown the tube. The heat of the electrode is also used to boil mercury,
to raise the conductivity of the gas inside. That appears to me to be
a clear case of bishul, and a melakhah shetzrichah legufah to boot.

But then there are the other problems: makeh bepatish, whatever the CI
meant by "boneh", tiqun keli (assuming that's not an extension beyond the
original kelei zemer to include a radio or a computer that can produce
audio), etc... which still would apply to solide state devices.

: initiation of use of electricity on Shabbat has become assured by the 
: rabbanan so it's a moot point le'chatchila.  And a possible sevora is 
: a kind of a syag - people would get confused - I can turn this on, 
: but not that - and eventually turn on the wrong thing.

This is stronger than RSZA's notion of a minhag having already emerged
based on the same rationale.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

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