Shabbos Timers & Electric Cars

The Next BIG Halachic Challenge?

“Will artificial intelligence have unintended consequences?” asked NPR’s MarketWatch.

Quoting from an official White House report, they went on to answer their own question.

“Artificial intelligence is coming, and policymakers need to prepare the economy for it, the White House said.

“The report, ‘Artificial Intelligence, Automation, and the Economy,’ suggests the U.S. should invest in and develop AI, because it has ‘many benefits,’ education and train Americans for the jobs of the future, and aid workers in the transition and empower them to share in future growth.

“But the authors of the report acknowledge that there are countless unknowns, from what the effects could be, to how quickly they’ll arrive.

‘Researchers’ estimates on the scale of threatened jobs over the next decade or two range from 9% to 47%,’ they write, but add that the economy has always proved to be resilient to take existing rates of change and shrinking of industry in stride.”

They are wise to consider the potential realties that technology will hurl at us in the future, both the good and the bad.

The olam halacha is concerned with the same.

In the Shul Chronicles published the week before Chanukah, after I quoted Rav Moshe’s prescient, almost prophetic teshuvah from 1969 on the subject of microwaves, I ended the column with the following tease:

“After Chanukah we will return to this discussion, and show of another area of technology regarding which Rav Moshe was able to discern the winds of the future, and how rabbanim today need to pay heed, as I believe it will become the hottest button halachik issue of the next fifty years. Stay Tuned!”

This was not hyperbole; I truly believe this to be true.

Before I go on to explain, I would be remiss not to state the obvious: this column is never intended for halacha pesuka, and it certainly should never be used to question one’s rav. The subject to which I am referring is already a debated one, but I will be discussing to where it is heading in the not-to-distant future, not how it is viewed today per se.

To what am I referring? Timers on Shabbos.

For quite some time this issue has led to many opinions among rabbanim. My balla battim already know not to come to me with questions relating to this subject. On the other hand, many chashuveh rabbanim do allow timers on Shabbos, perhaps even the majority.

Eilu v’eilu is imperative –and the greatest poskim have debated this issue (some however are often misquoted, in my opinion, e.g. see Chazon Ish, often quoted as allowing timers, in his own words, Chazon Ish, Oh’c 38: 2 and 3).

I explain to my balla battim that far be it from me to follow the strict view when the minhag yisreol, arguably, is to be lenient. Rather, I am strict for another reason.

I choose to be strict because of a point Rav Moshe Feinstein makes in the course of discussing the matter. The point was ahead of its time, and one that we will soon all have to contend with.

I will first bring Rav Moshe’s words, and then will extrapolate from them to modern times.

It is no secret that Rav Moshe was strongly against all timers on Shabbos (with a few notable exceptions, e.g. light switches).

On the 20’th of Teves 5737, corresponding to the 10^th of January 1977, Rav Moshe responding to an inquiry regarding his opinion as it pertains to timers on Shabbos.

He writes, “Relating to timers (on ovens)…it is obvious that they are assur. For with these (timers) one can perform all prohibited activity on Shabbos, even in factories. There is therefore no zilzul Shabbos greater than this. And I am certain that had this (invention) been around in the days of the tannaim and amoraim they would have banned it, as they had banned amirah l’akum. Perhaps, it (timers) anyway fall under the rubric of amria l’akum…”

This last line of Rav Moshe may seem shocking, but it can be easily defended. Rishonim point out that one of the reasons offered for the prohibition of amira l’akum is that virtually every melacha could then be performed using this tool. Shabbos would vanish, and the day will have very little making it distinct from all others.

Would not then, asks Rav Moshe, timers offer the same challenge?

While not all poskim agreed with Rav Moshe’s argument, I wonder what they would say today.

In the not too distant future Google cars will be on the road. Already, many high-end cars offer varying degrees of self-driving features.

Should we allow those to be programmed to take us to shul before Shabbos?

If not, why not? For, if we allow people to have fresh coffee Shabbos morning through the use of a timer, why not this?

There already are ovens on the market that act as a refrigerator. Meaning, one can place seasoned chicken inside at 2pm on Friday, and Shabbos morning, as you are answering kedusha in shul, the cool mode will switch off and the heat mode be turned on. You will then arrive home for Shabbos lunch with fresh roasted chicken!

It will not be too long that one’s entire home and life is run through the medium of wires, what of Shabbos timers then?

To be clear, I am not seeking to convince other rabbanim to be as strict as I am, rather I sincerely wish to know the best path forward.

As our lives become more and more governed by technology, a lenient view on timers will have to come with exceptions, I would at least hope. How would these exceptions be defended? How would we then differentiate between timers’ permissible usage and forbidden?

In 1977 it may have read as peculiar his words that “all melachos can be performed with timers, even factories”; but they do not sound odd anymore.

Recently, a famous, young, secular news outlet published an article “A Gentile’s Guide to Cheating the Shabbat”. It begins with a basic primer on the 39 melachos, and delves into the most common issues that arise. After discussing our taping of the lights in our refrigerator, and even amirah l’akum, it begins the subject of timers. They only had seven words to say on that subject: “Using timers seems like flat-out cheating”.

While Torah Bagoyim Al Taamin (Eicha Rabbah 2; as opposed to wisdom, we do not look outside the fold for Torah opinions), I think the reason this journalist thought the use of timers as odd is because he is young and can easily see where such a policy can soon lead.

So, will this indeed become the hot button halachik issue of the next fifty years as I predicted? I hope not. It is my wish that standards be set now by our gedolei haposkim so that we can better protect Shabbos in not just fifty years but -if moshiach has not come ch’vs– in one-hundred and beyond. For, by that time, who knows what technology will offer! Hopefully not a self-programed drasha-giver!

For more on this vast topic -such as psak from AI, and programming Nizikin into cars, search “Artificial Intelligence” on this website.