[Avodah] free public transport on Shabbos/Yomtov

[Chana Luntz]

RZS writes:

<<But in the case of the light, if 51% of the people in the room are nochrim
then the Jews are allowed to use it.  Since the majority of passengers on
pretty much any bus line in chu"l are nochrim, it shouldn't matter if the
line passes through some areas where there are a lot of Jews. Indeed it
shouldn't even matter if it passes through some areas where the majority of
potential passengers are Jews, since they're still a minority of the total
population along the line.>>

That is not Rav Uzziel's analysis though.  He says as follows:

אולם אין הדברים הללו אמורים אלא בקרונות שמתנהגות על ידי לא - יהודים,
וברחובות שרוב תושביהם הם לא יהודים, שלפי זה עיקר מציאותן ונסיעתן של קרונות
אלה הוא בשביל לא - יהודים, ודומה לכבש שהעמידו גוי לעצמו או לאחרים שכמותו,
אבל במקום שרובם ישראל, שנמצאים בו גם לא - יהודים מועטים אסור לישראל לרכוב
בהם בשבת ויום טוב, הואיל וניכר הדבר שהגוי מנהיג קרונות אלה בשבת בשביל ישראל,
והרי זה דומה למה שפסק מרן ז"ל (או"ח סי' שכ"ו סעיף י"ג) עיר שישראל וא"י דרים
בה ויש בה מרחץ רוחצת בשבת אם רוב א"י מותר לרחוץ בה במו"ש מיד ואם רוב ישראל
או אפילו מחצה על מחצה אסור למוצ"ש עד כדי שיוחם,

That is:

… But these things are said when the wagons that are driven by non-Jews, and
are in streets where the majority of dwellers are non-Jews, that the essence
of the going out and travelling of the wagons are only for the non-Jews, and
similar to the gangplank [Shabbat 122a] that the non-Jew made for himself or
for others like him.  But in a place where the majority are Jews, that there
are found in it also a minority of non-Jews, it is forbidden for a Jew to
ride on them on Shabbat and Yom Tov, since the matter is obvious that the
driver is driving these wagons on Shabbat because of the Jews, and it is
like that which Maran rules (Orech Chaim siman 226 si’if 13) that a city of
Jews and non-Jews live in it, and there is a bathhouse to wash on Shabbat,
if the majority are non-Jews it is permitted to wash in it immediately on
motzei Shabbat, and if the majority are Jews or even half and half, it is
forbidden on motzei Shabbat until it would be heated.  

If part of the route of the bus *are in streets* which have a majority of
Jews living in them, then he says it is forbidden.  

The point being that if a bus runs down a particular street, such as Golders
Green road (assuming that the majority living there are Jews) then that bus
route was designed with Jews in mind, and the fact that there are a minority
of non-Jews who also live on Golders Green Road is irrelevant. 

And the truth is, if nobody lived on Golders Green road at all, then the bus
would be routed differently, and would stop differently.  Once there are 51%
Jews, it is as if all the inhabitants are Jews (rubo k'kulo), in the same
way as with the bathhouse, even though the bath house owners may have been
happy enough to heat up the bath house just for the 49% of non-Jews in the
city.

That is Rav Uzziel's position, that we look wider than the actual bus at the
actual time.

And certainly it would seem to me that if at any given time the majority of
passengers on the bus were Jewish, then you are back to the Chatam Sofer's
reference to the train driver stoking or not stoking the coals for the Jews.
If the majority at any given time on the bus were Jewish, then the driver
would be putting his foot down on the accelerator for those passengers, even
if it only while he is going down Golders Green road. And this would seem
clearly like the candle case.   If there was a fluctuating population of
Jews and non-Jews in the room at various times,  I don't see how anybody
could say that a Jew could use a candle lit by a non-Jew at the time there
was a majority number of Jews in the room, even if that was subject to a
change of population earlier and later.

<<I mean, once the bus is running along that route it has to have stops
every so often, because that's what bus lines do.  It would be odd for the
bus to go an excessive time without a stop just because it's passing through
a Jewish area.  And those non-Jewish passengers who want to get off there
would complain pretty loudly about it and call it racism.>>

I think the understanding is that the bus route itself is considered
designed with Jews in mind, if it  services an area of majority Jews, even
though the minority of non-Jews also live there, just as the bath house in a
city where the majority are Jews is considered to service the Jewish
population, even though not a single Jew will have used it over Shabbat, and
it will have been heated over Shabbat to service those non-Jews.

Regards

Chana