Wednesday, June 11, 2008

The Latest Ban: Shabbos Ovens

I'm not sure how I missed all the talk but evidently the latest ban from some of the Gedolim in Eretz Yisroel is about the Shabbos Ovens. You can read the Kol Koreh here. I spent a good part of the yom tov listening to several drashas concerning the complexities of the whole issue regarding electricity and why it's assur etc.. It would seem on the surface that using electricity on yom tov is less problematic on yom tov then on shabbos but why it's assur is perhaps part of the issue. The interesting point this particular rav mentioned was the following: Rabbi Shmuel Heinemann is certainly a posek in his own right. People certainly rely on him regarding laws of a bibical nature i.e. kashrus. In a case that may be rabbinical in nature certainly there is room to rely on his p'sak ( and if you consider the problem a bibical in nature it's no different then kashrus perhaps). He felt that perhaps bans such as these facilitated a "Fear Mongering" as it were. In other words, to make it known you don't agree with a p'sak is one thing. Don't you have the right to rely on your own rav? There is a story he told regarding Rav Yaakov Kanmietzky who when visiting Miami for some down time was greeted with many Shielos and his response was: you have rabbanim here, ask them. Evidently Rabbi Moshe Feinstein felt something along the same lines regarding the building of an eruv in Manhattan. When he was asked about the building of the eruv on the West Side his response was he would not allow it. However he said if there were other poskim who would consider putting an eruv up and he would not overrule them since they are poskim but would disagree with their p'sak. He did not try to ban anything. It is certainly an interesting point of view and brings a new perspective to the whole issue.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mr. Jonah Ottensoser, Star-K Engineering Consultant


The star-K had him do much of the research

He is very highly regarded

AS said...

Good to know the star k has experts to rely on

Anonymous said...

Why do you refer to this as a ban? No one banned anything. You can buy this oven and use it on the holidays. However, in the opinion of most of the halachik decisors, you can't press the buttons on the holidays. What you can do, is use the sabbath feature, which enables the oven to heat past the normal 12 hour cutoff. Why then do you refer to this as a ban?

AS said...

Lets say I'll concede to your point why. One of the main features was the ability to lower and raise the thermostat. Saying you can't use it is perhaps the equivalent of saying you ban it's use or partial use. Perhaps you find the word "ban" as inaccurate or too harsh but one could argue that they are forcing their opinion even though another posek has clearly stated to the contrary and is not backing down.What happened to "ask your local Rabbi"?

Anonymous said...

What happened to "ask your local Rabbi"?

Nobody "asked their local Rabbi" because the oven came along with a hechsher from a respected Rabbi. However, now that it has been brought to the attention of the biggest rabbis, they seem to be unanimous that pressing the buttons on the holiday violate the sanctity of the day. Of course, if you live in Baltimore you can continue to use it, but what if you don't?

AS said...

Anon,

Sorry but I disagree with you on that point. I understand that it has a hecsher but to say before pressing buttons on yom tov that NOBODY consulted with their local rav is a bit of a stretch. I'm sure there were MANY people that consulted. Your point however is well taken.

Anonymous said...

Hi. Look at these links.

http://torahmedia.com/author/Jonah~Ottensoser.html

http://www.pebbles.hcii.cmu.edu/puc/localmedia/wired-200411.pdf

http://www.torahmedia.com/streamlink.php?fid=12924&bw=high