Thursday, December 25, 2014

Reading by electric light on Shabbos

Hi,

The Talmud (Shabbat 12a) records a prohibition against reading by an oil lamp, lest one forget it is Shabbat and incline the lamp to provide fuel for the wick. This is brought in Shulchan Aruch. (Orach Chaim 275:1)

This concern does not apply regarding a light bulb fueled by electricity, because the light is generally great enough that one will not need to adjust, and because there is no means of adjusting it to raise its luminescence. However, it is not clear that this permission should extend to a bulb which has multiple settings.

(Rivivot Ephraim 1:222:27)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

No comments:

Post a Comment