Why Is Pressing a Button Considered Work on Shabbat?

Question:

Rabbi, do you honestly believe that pressing a button to cross the road is considered doing work on the Sabbath? It doesn't seem so strenuous to me...

Answer:

It is not strenuous work that is forbidden on Shabbos, but rather creative work.

During the working week we strive to make the world a better, safer and more comfortable place. We use our human ingenuity to invent, build, develop and improve the world around us. But on the seventh day we step back into ourselves. We take a break from trying to change the world and we appreciate the innate beauty of the world that G-d created. Instead of altering our surroundings we enjoy them. Rather than utilize the amenities that technology has given us we enjoy the blessings that G-d has given us - love, family, friendship, meditation, and just being human.

Shabbos is a like a dream-world, and we enter this dream-world by leaving the mundane world behind. Even the smallest disturbance -- like pressing a button -- would bring us crashing back down to earth. And there's nothing worse than waking up from a dream before it's over.

By Aron Moss

Rabbi Aron Moss teaches Kabbalah, Talmud and practical Judaism in Sydney, Australia, and is a frequent contributor to Chabad.org.

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December 3, 2012

What about an Ipad?

Any adjusting or manipulation of electricity is forbidden on shabbos. Work as it relates to Shabbat rest, is not physical exertion, but what the Torah calls 'melachah,' "creative work." For example, writing or cooking is a melachah, while carrying a heavy piece of furniture across the room is not. For more on this see Melacha - A Unique Definition of Work

Yehuda Shurpin for Chabad.org

November 30, 2012

What about an Ipad?

It would be interesting to hear whether touching an Ipad screen constitutes work. Were everything online, no one could burn our Talmud or any other of our sacred texts without printing them out. Apart from the Torah scrolls, there would be no need to worry about protecting anything from the elements. Synagogue expenses would drop considerably, with the lack of a need to purchase paper prayer books & bibles. If touching a screen & seeing a holy text appear is work (it always seems miraculous to me, but then I am over 40 years old), surely opening a door, pulling out a ladder to reach the upper shelves of the stored prayer books, & opening the books to specific pages is work. In cases where security is an issue, if you pull out a key to unlock the door where the books are, are you not doing work?

Mitchell Wachtel

February 21, 2010

Flushing?

Ok, If you don't flush, then you are going to have to go outside and bury away from your house. Particularly on Shabbat when He walks with us. The mitzvah concerning human waste is quite clear. It is evident that it pertains to cleanliness and to stop the spread of disease, so flush away or go and dig a hole, do it there and bury it.

C. FitzPatrick
Lawrenceville, Georgia
theshul.org

November 15, 2009

the shabbatt

I think that the shabbat was made for the man and not the man for the shabbat

Anonymous
limaPERU

November 4, 2009

Beautiful

What a beautiful answer Rabbi. It was a very good and simple explanation of what Shabbos really is for Jews.

Ricardo
Boquete, Panama

July 8, 2009

pressing a button on Shabbat

I wouldn't consider pressing a button work but doesn't pressing a button create a spark which is not allowed?

I guess since you didn't answer my question I'm not supposed to go to Shul on Shabbat as it wouldn't be safe to cross Jericho Turnpike without having the traffic stopped. It would bother me not being able to walk to Shul.

Pauline Goldberg
Commack, N. Y.
chabadmidsuffolk.com

July 7, 2009

Resting on Shabbat

Wow, what an interesting, heated debate! I am Jewish by birth, but I grew up with very little religion. So now at 41 when I try to keep the Sabbath holy, I have a lifetime of habits to break -- an uphill battle, but I haven't given up. Flipping switches might be the hardest habit of all for me to break -- it's all so automatic.

Once when I walked a considerable distance to shul on a Shabbat morning, I came in all tired and sweaty. I said, "Who'd 'a thunk resting on Shabbat would be such hard work?!" A fellow Jew replied, "Are you kidding? This is the hardest day of the week!"

Rabbi Yisroel Altein the Younger once advised me not to write on Shabbat. I had never heard of such a thing; I now know that anyone educated in Yiddishgeit knows this. He asked me if I was offended by his instruction. "Of course not," I said. "It's different from what I'm used to, but don't I trust you to teach me such things?"

Rob W.
Pittsburgh, PA / USA

January 29, 2009

sparks

While my original question was about a technological device which does not create any sparks at all, this has apparently become the sticking point of our thread. Nowpushing a lever that causes a reaction that causes a circuit to be completed (flushing) is OK but pushing a button that closes a circuit is not. what about when I wear a man made sweater and take it off on shabbat? ( a mundane task for sure) this is work and creates hundreds of large visible sparks as does eating a lifesaver or tearing open a food packet that reqires no cooking as I wouldn't heat food on shabbat or opening a bandaid or nasal strip package. Try any of these things in a dark room and watch the sparks/fireworks that erupt. Light, heat and sparks from simple tasks all easily visible and immediate.

terry
toronto, ont

January 28, 2009

who decides? consistency?

Some posts imply that there is a finite list of what can & can't be done on Shabbat or that there are clear guidelines that can be applied to any situation, even something new that has come about since the Torah was given. Yet Chabad has posted "The reason why it is generally permissible to flush on Shabbat is because there are many steps and variables in between your flushing action and the possible reaction which may be triggered." That response seems to contradict many of the earlier statements. If pushing a button is not allowed because it closes a circuit or creates a spark, things that are not seen, why do all the known actions resulting from a toilet flush not cause the same problem with doing it? We can't have things both ways. The question of using a microwave was mentioned but not commented on. I'm sure pushing a microwave button starts many actions, so can it be used or not? Most people no longer have fires in a stove that can be banked to keep food warm.

Ruth
Springfield, MO

January 27, 2009

Flushing

Good point! There may indeed be some cases where flushing a toilet or draining water in the sink is forbidden. For instance, if you are in a basement and your flushing triggers an automatic reaction from a pump, you may have a problem. The reason why it is generally permissible to flush on Shabbat is because there are many steps and variables in between your flushing action and the possible reaction which may be triggered.

Menachem Posner, Chabad.org

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