Shalom Rabbi,
I read your article about electricity on Shabbat. I completely agree with you and I’ve been holding that position for many years, but I have a question:
It is obvious that electricity is not forbidden unless you use it to perform an actual Melacha, but, what about turning on a heater during winter months or using an electric oven to reheat your food for Shabbat?
Maybe this is a bad of understanding of the law, but, for example, if I set the oven before Shabbat to a temperature that will just warm up the food, is this an issue? And we can add that usually electric ovens take quite a time to reach the proper temperature so it seems to me that it’s more in the side of Gramma. The same for the electric heater.
What are your thoughts on this?
Shalom Rabbi,
I have a question related to this same topic.
We have at home a tankless water heater with electronic ignition. Can it be used on Shabbat to have a shower? As you know when you open the faucet the pressure of the water is the one that triggers the electronic ignition that creates the fire. Since the pressure may vary and sometimes it doesn’t work or takes quite a while to actually start the ignition, may this be considered grama?
If you can ascertain that there is usually a delay before the fire goes on, it would be allowed on Shabbat.
Yes. I just checked and it has a small delay before the electric sparks can create the actual fire and sometimes it doesn’t work because it depends on water pressure, so I guess it is fine right?
In regards of bathing in Shabbat. Which precautions should be take? I read that you should be careful to not wring out your hair when bathing due to Sehita or that you need to be careful not to pull any hair due to Gozez. The problem is that when using shampoo you always loose some hairs or squeeze in someway. None of this is on purpose.
And, can I use normal gel/cream/spray to stylish my hair? I read that it is prohibited due to the similarity to Boney but to be honest that seems ver exaggerated. I have a big Jewfro btw so I always loose some hair and need to keep it clean.
Yes. It is fine. Take a normal shower. Ignore these silly rules that have no connection to Halachah or reality. lol
Perfect. Thank you! I really appreciate your help.
If you turn on the heat in your home on Shabbat, and it causes a fire to start immediately, that would not be an electrical question, that would be starting a fire. If you put on an electric stove or oven and cook something, that would be a separate question of bishul (cooking). If you give me more details of the circumstances, I can respond to that. Just remember that there are 39 melachot, and any action that triggers any of those melachot needs to be reviewed or analyzed.