[Avodah] Electricity on Shabbos

[Marty Bluke]

Not using electricity on Shabbos is becoming more and more of a
problem. These days it is a big problem to stay in a hotel for Shabbos
because almost all hotels have switched over exclusively to electronic
keys. Electronic keys use electricity and therefore are prohibited to
use on Shabbos for whatever reason electricity is prohibited (there
are a number of reasons given including the opinion of the Chazon Ish
that creating a circuit is Boneh min hatorah, RSZA holds that there is
no issur whatsoever however, it is prohibited based on minhag). The
bottom line is we assume that electricity on Shabbos is prohibited at
least m'drabbanon.

The advice that I got was to tape up the lock and leave the door
unlocked on Shabbos when I go out, I did this and while it worked it
made me very nervous. R' Willig told me that if you get locked out you
can ask a non-Jew to open it as it is a shvus d'shvus b'makom kitzva.

This illustrates the problem that electricity poses for us and is
going to pose for us in the near future. Everything is going
electronic. Soon it will be very hard to find anything that doesn't
have some kind of electronic sensor on it. If you go to a hotel you
can see some of them for example:

Electronic keys
Motion sensors which shut off the lights and air conditioning if there
is no movement
Faucets that go on and off based on motion sensors
Toilets with sensors
Automatic doors
Security cameras
...

Household appliances are changing as well. New refrigerators all have
sensors that are put into action when you open the door etc. (even if
you tape down the light switch). Modern burglar alarms have sensors on
the door and register when the door opens even if the alarm is off.
There are surveillance cameras everywhere.

The point is that electronics and sensors are becoming ubiquitous,
they are going to be everywhere. It will soon reach a point that we
will not be able to do anything without causing some reaction in some
sensor.

The question is what will the reaction from the poskim be? RSZA
opinion that there really is no issur seems to be very well reasoned
and I believe is generally accepted. The question is will anyone have
the courage to run with it and say that in the modern world where
circumstances have changed we need to allow certain things (like
electronic locks, refrigerator sensors etc.) The fact is that in the
next 10 years the incandescent light bulb will go the way of the dodo
which will remove the only issur doraysa related to electricity. I
know that there is a very fine line it is clear that we don't want
people using computers, tv's, mp3 players on shabbos, on the other
hand we are rapidly reaching a point where we will be unable to do
anything on Shabbos in a modern home. The poskim need to come up with
some kind of balance, given what is going on in the Jewish world I am
not optimistic.