[Avodah] travel on shabbat

[Zev Sero via Avodah]

On 03/10/2016 10:11 AM, Eli Turkel via Avodah wrote:
> from an article on the history of Jewish Venice (NYT)

> Since travel by gondola was deemed permissible on the Sabbath, the
> observant had no trouble floating back each week to pray at the
> scuola of their choice.

> Is this agreed by everyone?

No, it is not.

The origin of the heter seems to be from Rabbenu Yeshaya (the Tosfos RID).
The earliest source seems to be the Shibolei Haleket, who writes that
Rabbenu Yeshaya used to use the Venetian ferries, on the basis that the
ferryman is working for himself, but that R Meir (of Rothenburg) objected.

The Binyamin Zev (who lived in Venice for a while, and whose reliability
as a posek is *very* controversial) discusses this at some length.

The Agur cites the Shibolei Haleket, and the Bet Yosef cites the Agur,
but points out that according to the RI there is no possible heter.

In the early 17th century R Simcha Luzzatto, who was a rav in Venice,
wrote a teshuvah showing why it should be permitted, but his colleagues
voted against it on the grounds that one may not permit something that
the public regards as forbidden.

Sources:

Shibolei Haleket
http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=44342&pgnum=28

Agur
http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=8894&pgnum=36

Binyamin Z'ev
http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=44865&pgnum=25

Bet Yosef (dh Katav Hamordechai)
http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=14268&pgnum=105

Pachad Yitzchak
http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=20179&pgnum=121

PS: And now you know where my morning went...

-- 
Zev Sero               All around myself I will wave the green willow
zev at sero.name          The myrtle and the palm and the citron for a week
                And if anyone should ask me the reason why I'm doing that
                I'll say "It's a Jewish thing; if you have a few minutes
                I'll explain it to you".