Here's a fun one
Wednesday, 17 June 2009 01:03 amLight sensors cause religious row
Quite apart from the fact that there's a perfectly good case to make against the idea that Jews should not turn electrical lights on or off during the Sabbath, am I right in thinking that something automated might come under different rules, that there are laws about not interfering with nearby non-Jews if they're doing something for their own benefit (involving the weird notion of the Shabbes goy), and the possibility of overriding ecological concerns? How does this case compare with automated street lighting? What systems for stairwell lighting do they use in Israel?
Quite apart from the fact that there's a perfectly good case to make against the idea that Jews should not turn electrical lights on or off during the Sabbath, am I right in thinking that something automated might come under different rules, that there are laws about not interfering with nearby non-Jews if they're doing something for their own benefit (involving the weird notion of the Shabbes goy), and the possibility of overriding ecological concerns? How does this case compare with automated street lighting? What systems for stairwell lighting do they use in Israel?
