[Avodah] The Kosher Switch: A Response from the Tzomet Institute’s Rabbi Yisrael Rosen

[Prof. Levine via Avodah]

 From http://tinyurl.com/ptcfckt

The rabbinic world and blogosophere (see, for 
example, here) has been abuzz about the propriety 
of the Kosher Switch, which its producers claim 
allows one to halakhically turn on and off lights 
on shabbat.  Attached here is the Hebrew response 
of Rabbi Yisrael Rosen, the prominent engineer 
who heads the Tzomet Institute, which includes 
(signed) clarifications of the positions of Rabbi 
Avigdor Nevenzahl and Rabbi Yehoshua 
Neuwirth.  It is was sent on Tzomet stationery to 
Rabbi David Mescheloff, and is reprinted here with permission.

Below is a rough English translation of the first 
page, which does not include some of the halakhic 
argumentation provided on the 2nd page of the 
original Hebrew.  For all scholarly and halakhic 
purposes, and purposes of citation, only the 
original Hebrew letter should be seen as the 
authoritative writing of Rabbi Rosen.

<Snip>

D. And here is the main part of my remarks: 
Yesterday I went to my teacher and rabbi HaGaon 
Rabbi Yehoshua Neuwirth, Shlita, and I asked him 
whether he permitted to use this switch to 
activate electricity on Shabbat for the purposes 
of Oneg Shabbat, etc
 He was really shocked and 
said he never permitted that.  When I showed him 
the endorsement letter, he added in his 
handwriting: “Only for medicine and security” 
(see photo in attached Hebrew article). Rabbi 
Avigdor Nebenzahl Shlita, who signed a similar 
letter, also told me yesterday that he does not 
recall ever signing anything like that, and 
expressed the opinion that there is no place for 
this and was puzzled about the whole thing.

I suppose that whoever managed to get the 
signatures of important rabbis ‘sold’ them an 
invention that is a kind of a complex Gramma used 
for the purpose of medicine or security, and 
succeeded in skipping this condition when they signed.

E. With regard to the claim, written in their 
accompanying halachic responsum, that it is 
permitted to use this Gramma switch to minimize 
the prohibition of those who willfully the 
violate the Shabbat, we have never heard of such 
rabbis who permit this. I am sure that those who 
‘agreed’ did not see this argument, and this is 
an argument that should not be stated.

See the above URL for more.  YL

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