[Avodah] Zilzul Shabbos

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Mon, May 18, 2015 at 05:49:16PM -0400, elazar teitz via Avodah wrote:
:> 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.)

As would replacing gefilte fish with sushi?

It's not that people from Sinai to around 100 years ago actually
experienced avoiding the lightswitch, nor did they even consciously
experience not having one -- since there was no conception of an
alternative. Not using electricity, and saying that qedushas shabbos
requires avoiding electricity are really two different things,
experientially.

100 years ago we had an opportunity to do something new on Shabbos,
much like when shomerei Shabbos first learned of sushi. The difference
is that we did assur one new opportunity, and not the other.

...
:      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 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?

Yes, that explains why it's nothing clearer cut than zilzul Shabbos.
AIUI, worrying about zilzul means that the mechanism is mutar, but
the goal is one that cheapens Shabbos, removes some of the feeling of
its qedushah.

Like taking the pre-existing concept of eiruv as a way to have a reshus
that was no included in Shelomo ubeis dino's original issur hotza'ah
and stretching it to a much bigger area than ever before, so that most
people never have reason to leave it most weeks. So that the entire
issur goes from being one of the dominant features of Shabbos (judging
just in blatt of discussion) to barely ever experienced.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Today is the 45th day, which is
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