[Avodah] West Hartford Doctor Challenges GE On `Sabbath Mode' Oven

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, Jun 01, 2012 at 07:00:03AM -0400, Prof. Levine wrote:
> There has been some controversy regarding the use of Sabbath mode ovens. 
> See http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/article.php?p=19228  Does the article 
> below add more to this controversy?  YL

I don't think so.

And I like the way TYW turn the quoted posqim's mention of Star-K relying on
qulah into an incorrect claim of "daas yachid".

> From http://tinyurl.com/849nzd3
> A two-year-old gas oven sits, like new, in the kitchen of a residence
> retired pediatrician and neonatologist

It looks like he's not complaining that GE sold a "Shabbos mode" oven
without saying it is only valid according to some posqim. (And if he were,
I don't see how that's legally worse than selling kosher food where the
hashgachah relies on kulos others don't. But that's an Areivim question)

The buyer simply didn't read what "Shabbos mode" meant:
    .... An oven with a Sabbath mode bypasses the automatic 12-hour
    shut-off circuitry built into modern ovens for safety. He also assumed
    the Sabbath-compliant oven he bought had a time-bake feature that
    could be set before the weekend Sabbath to turn on automatically to
    reheat the pre-cooked food.

    "That assumption," he says, "ultimately proved wrong."

No one claimed it had a timer allowing someone to passively perform
chazarah. He believes it was implied. I don't see it.

In any case, I don't see any new Torah material in this case.

As for "Shabbos mode", it provides two services, even though the news
story only discusses the first:

1- The oven stays on longer than 12 hours.

2- The pushing of buttons on the control panel is reduced to a gerama.
The question is whether or not gerama applies when the assur result is
the intended one, and whether pushing the button is maqeh bepatish even
when there is no visible result right away.

I should point out that most of the rabbanim signing on to the letter
saying that #2 doesn't help do sign on to a number of Machon Zomet
geramah-based inventions. I'm curious to know the difference between
the cases. Why is Zomet's delayed causation of a desired result gerama,
but this isn't?

:-)BBii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             You are where your thoughts are.
micha at aishdas.org                - Ramban, Igeres Hakodesh, Ch. 5
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