[Avodah] If you have an electronic water meter, can you turn on your faucet on Shabbos?

[Zev Sero]

On 1/08/2012 5:49 PM, Simon Montagu wrote:
> With reference to the question of whether adding to one's water bill
> is niha leih or not, perhaps the end of the first Mishna in AZ is
> relevant:
>
> "Rabbi Yehuda 'omer nifra`in mehem mip'ne shehu metzer. 'am'ru lo --
> af al pi shehu metzer achshav, sameah hu le'ahar miken".
>
> It's not exactly the same case, but maybe similar.

It seems relevant.  This shows that paying ones debts is distressing;
one would rather never pay them, if that were possible.  Therefore in
our case, adding to the bill is a tzaar.  The Chachamim acknowledge
that this distress exists, but say that it's balanced with a greater
relief one feels that the debt no longer has to be paid.  That doesn't
apply in our case, since the alternative to the meter running is that
the meter will *not* run, and one will never have to pay for the water.


-- 
Zev Sero        "Natural resources are not finite in any meaningful
zev at sero.name    economic sense, mind-boggling though this assertion
                  may be. The stocks of them are not fixed but rather
		 are expanding through human ingenuity."
		                            - Julian Simon