[Avodah] Fitbit on Shabbos

[Akiva Miller via Avodah]

I wrote:

> ... But even with the mat, no one can actually see the electricity
> move simply as a result of standing on it.

R' Micha Berger responded:

> I think those two are different in kind.
>
> In the floor mat, a hypothetically visible (really, we should use
> the more generic sensible, and not just talk about one sense)
> change occurs. It just happens that situationally, we can't see it.

Exactly which mAcroscopic change are you referring to, that is visible
hypothetically, albeit not situationally?

If you are referring to the opening of the door, that's not a melacha. For
it to be a melacha, we would have to be talking about the motion of the
electrons, and that's what am taking to be the microscopic thing here. Am I
missing something here?

Perhaps the problem is not that the door opens, but that the motor which
opens it will get hot if the current stays on for too long a time?

Here's the attitude about electricity that I grew up with: Rav Moshe
Feinstein, in Igros Moshe O"C 484, gives 4 reasons not to use a microphone
on Shabbos. The second of them is that one's voice obviously causes the
electrical current to fluctuate, and he labels this "chashash issur
d'Oraisa even without hav'ara, v'yesh l'ayen bazeh tuva l'maaseh." I will
concede that he clearly has some wiggle room there, and he doesn't specify
why he is unsure, but I never thought that the invisibility of the
electrons was an issue, since their power is so evident. Could it be that
the tide has turned, and more poskim are looking at the electrons?

I would point out that in the very next teshuva (4:85, paragraph 5) he does
try to explain his safek, and rules that because it is only a safek it can
be allowed for a choleh or tzorech gadol. Perhaps the tiny size has
something to do with it, but I am bothered by the fact that in both
teshuvos he goes out of his way to say "even though there is no hav'arah".
It sounds to me like if there WAS hav'arah -- i.e., if one did not merely
speak into the system, but powered it up on Shabbos -- then he would not be
meikil. But if the heter is based on tiny size, then powering it up should
also be okay, if there is no visible spark when the on-switch is used.

Akiva Miller
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