[Avodah] Using a Child to Open an Electronic Door on Shabbos

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

We were discussing on Areivim some months ago what is done in areas like
much of France where locks are increasingly electronic.

Here's a related teshuvah by R' Asher Weiss
http://en.tvunah.org/2016/07/29/using-child-to-open-electronic-door-on-shabbos/
in the sense that is shows how totally R' Asher takes for granted that
opening the lock is a melakhah (rather than, say, a shevus).

   Question:
   Shalom! Here in Russia we have electronic locks on house doors. On Shabbat
   when davening is late we have difficulty to get in because a neighbors do
   not come and go at that time, so we have to wait for a long time. So is it
   possible to give an electronic key to a two years old baby and he bring it
   (without eruv) and unlock a door himself?

   Answer:
   If the child is taught during the week to open the door himself, and he is
   given the key before Shabbos to hold, and when you arrive home he goes and
   opens the door without being told to do so, and he is opening it to get
   himself inside, this would be permitted.

   Obviously if there is another feasible way to arrange entry without using
   a child to do melacha for you this would be preferable.

   Sources:

   There are 3 potential issues we face when a child is doing Melacha we are
   benefiting from. Firstly, the there is an issue of sepiyah beyadayim,
   the general prohibition against directly causing even a small child to do
   an aveirah. In this case it would seem there is no sepiyah as he is given
   the key far in advance, and when he opens the door he is doing so mainly
   for himself. Even on the small side there may be sepiyah we could rely on
   the leniency of the Rashba that a child may be given a Rabbinic
   prohibition when it is for his own needs.

   Secondly, there is the issue of Chinuch. A child of such young age is not
   yet higi'ah lechinukh and so would not need to be stopped from
   transgressing.

   Finally, there is the issue of a child who is oseh al da'as aviv,
   even if one does not cause or command his son to violate a
   transgression, if he is doing so for the sake of his father he must be
   stopped, see Mishna Shabbos 121a, and Biur Halacha 266:6 s"v haga"h who
   discusses whether this is a rabbinic or Biblical prohibition. In this case
   however it would seem that as long as it is clear that the child wants to
   enter the house for himself, we need not be concerned that he is doing
   melacha al da'as aviv.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Nearly all men can stand adversity,
micha at aishdas.org        but if you want to test a man's character,
http://www.aishdas.org   give him power.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                      -Abraham Lincoln