[Avodah] Zilzul Shabbos

[elazar teitz via Avodah]

RMicha Berger wrote:

>Among the arguments that came up in the discussion of the Kosher Switch
was that it's zilzul Shabbos.

>>The thought hit me, though... Refraining from operating electrical
devices has only been a potential issue for 125 years or so. And except
for Yekkes, most of our ancestors come from places where it has been
less than a century since electricity became part of our lives.

>So it's very hard to say that "not using electricity" is a defining
feature of the Shabbos experience.<


     True; but not putting a light on or off *has* been a defining feature
of the Shabbos experience since the mitzva of Shabbos was given, so
accomplishing it by any means might properly be considered a zilzul
Shabbos.  (Of course, by this argument, putting an electric light on or off
should be prohibited even if the use of electricity is not a m'lacha.)


>Contrast this to hotza'ah, including haavarah, which take up what seems
like 1/3 of chazal's discussion of issur melakhah (rough estimate from
Berakhos and Eruvin in mishna, Tosefta, Y-mi and Bavli).<


     I assume that "Berakhos" should be replaced by "Shabbos."


>When community eruvin got started, wasn't there a much easier argument
of zilzul? Why wasn't it made? Indeed we use the general kelal of being
meiqil WRT eiruvin to quite an extent to build one. And what does the
fact that a community eruv is NOT zilzul Shabbos say about the nature
of zilzul Shabbos and its applicability to nidon didan?<


     What tzuras hapesach and eiruv permit is not carrying prohibited by
the Torah.  Rather, it is, in effect, a built-in exception to the issurim
imposed mid'rabbanan by two g'zeiros: the classification of certain areas,
which min haTorah are m'kom p'tur, as a new entity called karmelis, and the
imposing of a prohibition of hotza'a from one r'shus hayachid to another of
different ownership.  Both were in use long before there was a city eruv.
E.g., persons sharing a two-family house with a common fenced yard would
make an eruv to permit carrying to and from their living quarters to the
others' and to the yard.  Likewise, a house opening to an unfenced yard
would make a tzuras hapesach to permit carrying between house and yard.
And, of course, two houses opening to a common unfenced yard would make a
tzuras hapesach to "enclose" the yard, and then an eruv to permit carrying
among houses and yard.

     The city eruv was not an introduction of a new practice, but a
larger-scale use of already common practices.  How does this constitute
zilzul Shabbos?

EMT
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20150518/9f90bbeb/attachment-0008.html>