Is it true that Jews can't use electrical devices at certain times of the day?

Question

Maybe I'm mixing this up with the Amish people, but someone I know works in a big hotel and she said that a group of Jewish people kept asking her all day to go push the elevator button for them because they could not use anything electrical. Please clarify why that is.

Answer 1

From just before sunset on Friday until just after sunset on Saturday night Orthodox Jews will not operate or adjust any electrical switches. That time period is the Biblical seventh day Sabbath.

It actually doesn't have to do with lighting a fire, as was suggested by a previous post. Rather, it is understood that building and destroying are forbidden on Sabbath. So it is forbidden to "build" an electrical circuit by completing it and closing a switch and likewise to "destroy" it by opening an electrical switch.

If the lamp was already lit prior to the start of Sabbath it is permitted. The Talmud makes fun of the heretics who thought that the lamps should be given "rest" on the Sabbath. The heretics sat in cold dark homes eating cold food on the Sabbath, while the homes of the rabbis were filled with light, warmth and hot food on the Sabbath. Food can even be kept hot on the stove (covered by a blech) on Sabbath as long as it was already cooked before hand.

Hotels in Israel have elevators that operate in Sabbath mode, where no button pushing is needed. You just wait and the elevator stops automatically at each floor, so you never have to call the elevator or tell it which floor. It is a bit slower, but it avoids problems. Modern hotels with cardkey doors are problematic because technically one would not be able to reenter their room once they exit on Sabbath. Motion activated lights are annoying since one might unintentionally trigger the light without intending to.

Also, you can't "ask" a Gentile to turn on the light, but rather if the Gentile notices that it is dark and turns on the light it is permissible. So a Jew can say "it certainly is dark in here" and "the light switch is over there", but can't say "please turn on that light switch". For more details on who can't do such things please study Exodus 20:8-11.

Answer 2

The Orthodox Jewish folks keep the Sabbath, which is the seventh day of the week (sabbath means seventh day in Hebrew), which is the day dedicated to the Lord Almighty. On this day all servants are to be given a holiday and all animals in the field were not yoked, and it was a mercy from the Creator for all people and even animals if they were in the service of the Jewish folks.

Some of the Jewish Rabbis took this one step farther, and began to add additional restrictions based on stricter interpretation of the Sabbath laws, to the point of not burning a lamp and giving the lamp a rest, which turned into not using electricity.

However, if someone else has lit the lamp, then they were not guilty of that action and may benefit from it.

This is my understanding as a Muslim. If I have made any errors in answering this question, I would like to be corrected.

Answer 3

It is true that after sunset on the Sabbath (Friday night) they cannot switch lights on because it is forbidden to start a fire, and the electrical spark is judged too close to being a fire to be worth the risk. Some Jews employ gentiles to do these things in their home on the Sabbath (Saturday, until sunset), and it is reasonably certain that your friend was being asked to do this on a Saturday or on a specific Jewish holy day.

I'm reasonably sure this doesn't apply to the Amish, but it does to (orthodox) Jews.

Answer 4

Jews were a "scattered human beings" even 2000 years in the past and we are able to not assume to really understand the practices and viewpoints of the common jew of the time. In some circumstances, legally, women were seen a spread of resources, regardless of the indisputable fact that there are a spread of alternative circumstances the position a women is spoken about in very intense regard with a purpose to't finish that their well worth became continually relegated to merchandise prestige. Modesty became seen significant between the girls of many historic communities and it ought to have ok been seen irrelevant for adult men and women who were no longer married or on the problem of have unneeded contact. this isn't to say it did not ensue. all of us do not ignore that Ruth spoke to Boaz and she or he and Naoimi accrued grain contained in the fields with the male servants (who were expressly ordered now to not annoy them) and all of us understand there became a a procedures extra liberal part to society decrease back then. in contemporary circumstances we are able to not fairly make generalizations both. A jewish guy is to carry his spouse in very intense regard, and that i'm efficient the most of them do. maximum jews are secular and persist with the customs of whichever society they stay in. Haredi jews, aka extremely orthodox jews remember on segregation of the sexes to the point the position their weddings are segregated an there are segregated buslines in some aspects of Israel. that's to sidestep transgression and to sidestep the adult men from being distracted from organic thoughts....although isn't it continually that we favor the sweet extra when we are able to not have it? Orthodox jewish women and conservative jewish women frequently cover their hair (even though it may well be with a wig) and placed on skirts which they provide idea to to be modest adequate, and the girls isn't seen as resources in any of those communities.

Answer 5

Orthodox Jews cannot use electrical devices on the Sabbath. It is considered work. They also cannot start any fires, use their car, or go more than a few miles from their homes. (among other things)

Answer 6

Yes, I used to live in an orthadox Jewish neighborhood and would be repeatedly asked to switch things on for people..central heating systems, electric kettles, lights..just about anything, desperate housewives I didn't know would call me in as I was passing in the street just to switch something on...I thought it was very strange when it first happened.

Answer 7

Yes you are mixing the Jews with Amish

Answer 8

I think the orthodox jewish community cannot use these items on their sabbath but I could be wrong.