de@moscom.UUCP (Dave Esan) (11/11/84)
A recent article brought up the question of the use of refrigerators on shabbes. A comment on this article quoted the Gemara on the case of moving a bench on shabbes when that movement could or could not create a furrow, which obviously would be a violation of the 39 forbidden "melachot". Strangely, the class that I am taking with my local rabbi (yes, an Orthodox rabbi, YU, and Elchanan Seminary) covered that exact gemara this week. I brought up the question of refrigerators to him. First the gemara states that Abaye disagreed with his master Rav only on three occaissions, one being the rule about moving a bench on shabbes when that may cause a furrow. The "chachamin"(scholars) hold with Abaye on this point -- that in fact the bench can be moved since the furrow is not always the result of its movement and certainly not the intention. Simply, if action A will cause action B and action B is forbidden, action A is forbidden. If action A may or may not cause action B, and action B is not the intent of action A, then action A is permissible. In terms of the refrigerator, if you have a bulb on, then opening the door will cause the light to go on (which is forbidden), you can't open the door. If the motor may or may not start because of the door opening, and starting the motor is not the reason one opens the door, one may open the refrigerator. A question brought up -- if you hold that you must wait for the motor to be on to open the refrigerator, do you also wait for the furnace to come on before you leave the house? Aren't you late to shul a lot? (Same applies to air conditioning.) The Gemara is Pesachim 100:2.