Thomas Edison, the great American inventor, developed the incandescent light bulb in 1879. In 1882, he started up the first electricity generating plant in lower Manhattan, serving 85 customers who had a total of 400 light bulbs in their homes. From then until now, Edison could never have imagined the many functions electricity would perform in our homes. We use it for countless activities in our daily lives. When we lose power, our lives are greatly disrupted. We no longer understand how we lived without electricity.

Our sages began to question how this new paradigm affected Jewish life. Especially since electricity provided light and made it much easier to perform many of our common household chores, such as cooking and washing, they wondered how its use would affect Shabbat observance: Could using an electrical device be considered «work» (melachah) or affect our ability to rest (shvut) on Shabbat?

There are 39 jobs, or melachot, that our sages defined as prohibited on Shabbat, and electricity can affect them. For example, some consider that flipping a light switch on or off violates the prohibition of turning on (37) or off (36) a fire, since they consider the incandescent light bulb equivalent to fire. Others hold the opposite view. They do not consider an electric light to be a fire, since there is no combustion, no flame, and no coal is generated.

There are other melachot that have been used to argue for or against the use of electrical devices on Shabbat. Using a computer or cell phone conflicts with the prohibition of writing (33). Using electric grills, with the prohibition of cooking (11). For some, turning on the light in a room is equivalent to finishing the construction (34) or completing a task (38).

It could be defined as the common denominator of what is prohibited on Shabbat, as anything that results in permanent or lasting changes to our environment. The purpose of cooking is to transform something raw into something cooked. The purpose of writing is to store information for later retrieval. But using an electric grill to heat already cooked food could be permitted. Using a card with a magnetic strip to open a hotel room would be the same case. In general, it can be said that manual labor that is prohibited on Shabbat is also prohibited if performed using electricity.

Rabbi Joel Roth, citing writings as diverse as those of Samson Raphael Hirsch, Mordechai Kaplan, and Abraham Joshua Heschel, explains that they all agree in defining «melach,» the work prohibited on Shabbat, as anything that allows people to «dominate or change» their environment. Many rabbis have addressed the issue of electricity use on Shabbat, and there is a range of opinions, from the most restrictive to the most permissive. Furthermore, new devices are emerging, such as light-emitting diode (LED) light bulbs, which force us to rethink old rules. Ultimately, the issue is more about “shvut,” rest, than “melachah,” work. It’s not so much about what work shouldn’t be done, but rather what I should do to truly rest on Shabbat.

By Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: Daniel Nevins: “Electricity and Shabbat” and other sources.