From: ask@cbnews.cb.att.com (Arthur S. Kamlet)
Subject: Re: Halacha when the decisive facts were wrong (was Re:
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories,  Columbus, Ohio
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 20:18:54 GMT

In article <20Nov92.183633.13931@granite.ciw.edu> cohen@quartz.ciw.edu (Ronald Cohen) writes:
>In article <LERNER.92Nov20130330@tune.cs.columbia.edu> lerner@cs.columbia.edu (Michah Lerner) writes:
>>In article <20Nov92.040520.8071@granite.ciw.edu> cohen@quartz.ciw.edu (Ronald Cohen) writes:
>>
>Your argument implies that it would be forbidden to use water,
>air, or even move on shabbat since such actions when taken to
>extremes or applied to certain materials could start a fire.
>
>When I turn on a light it does not start a fire (I would hope! :-) ).

It is not reasonable to expect that turning on a light or a radio
will start a fire.  It is more likely that when you walk to shul on
Shabbat that you will step on a twig and break it, yet we do not
prohibit walking.

>You may have a minhag of not using electricity on shabbat, and I
>have no argument about that and would respect it.  I however do
>not believe that it was valid halacha to forbid electricity since
>the issue is crystal clear.  And allowing electricity does not
>allow starting fires with it, cooking with it, etc., which are
>separately forbidden.

Perhaps I should repost an article summarizing the primary teshuvah
issued by the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards concerning the
nature of electricity:
-------------------------------  repost  ------
From cbnews!ask Thu Jul  4 01:43 EDT 1991
The principal teshuvah was written by Rabbi Arthur. W. Neulander,
and is available in full from the  Committee on Jewish Law and
Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly, at the Jewish Theological
Seminary in New York.

A good version of this is published in "Tradition and Change - The
Development of Conservative Judaism" Edited by Rabbi Mordechai
Waxman,  1958, Burning Bush Press, New York  [ No ISBN # listed:
Library of Congress Catalog No. 54-8409 ]

This is quite a few pages, and I'll just list several points he
made:

- Electricity is not fire because:

  - Fire is soref -- the substance is consumed by fire (Shab. 42a;
    also Rashi on Shab I 34a;  Magen Avraham:  kibuy - extinguishing
    does not apply to anything not soref).  Conclusion: Something
    not soref is not esh - fire.

  - Fire must produce a flame -- (Pesachim 75a  -- if a man cuts up
    a paschal lamb and placed it on a glowing coal. R. Judah regards
    it as as though it had roasted it.  A glowing coal in this
    context is regarded as a wooden coal.  A metal coal, though
    glowing,  is not considered fire. )  - Any glowing thing which
    does not produce a flame when burning is not considered fire.
      --- Former chief Israeli Army Chaplain Rabbi S. Goronchick
          [ who later Hebrewized his name to Goren and became Chief 
            Ashkenazic Rabbi of Israel ] in "Sinai" Vol. 12 #3.

He cites a Teshuvah by Rabbi Simcha Levy issued through the
[ orthodox ] Rabbinical Council of America that the use of
electricity on Shabbat and Yom Tov is permitted in the Synaagogue 
for a microphone if the electricity had been turned on before.  In
the same teshuvah, the use of electricity for an elevator on Shabbat
is not considered fire even though sparks are produced by the motor.
(This opinion is given in the name of Rabbi Eliyahu Henkin.)  He
cites a few other opinions which back up the tendency to permit
electricity on Shabbat when not used for work prohibited on Shabbat.

- electricity does not require producing something new, which would
  be forbidden.  (Argument but no specific references -  So he would
  permit electricity use for using a telephone, an electric light, a
  refrigerator,  but would prohibit electricity for  a washing
  machine or a razor.  These prohibitions are due to the work, not
  the use of electricity.)
____________
  "Ramaz: I shall not conceal that I doubt whether lighting electricity
  can be considered work which is Biblically prohibited since there
  was no similar type of burning in the tabernacle... For it is not
  fire and does not consume the filament. It is only like fire."
____________

Citing history, he compares resistance of authorities to use of 
electricity to the same resistance, long since overcome and now
considered OK, of:

  - The change of the ancient Semitic script to the k'tav Ashuri -
    the square Assyrian script - this change took centuries but was
    accepted.

  -  The changeover from use of oil for Shabbat lights to use of wax
     candles for Shabbat lights were originally opposed later very
     grudgingly  permitted, now accepted.
     
     (After all the book is Tradition and Change -- which is
     something Judaism has been wrestling with  and accomplishing
     for thousands of years.)

-- 
Art Kamlet  a_s_kamlet@att.com  AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus