Shabbat timer and elevator
Completing an electrical circuit is forbidden.
The timer switches the light on by itself; the elevator stops at every floor without being called. The finger is the forbidden element, not the outcome. NOTE: this particular exit has been contested for decades — the halakhic literature records both strict and lenient positions, and in 2009 leading authorities in Israel ruled against Shabbat elevators.
his room goes dark and his hands are tied.
and the switch is right there, at my side.
I'm the shabbos goy — I press without the sin,
the light was never against the law.
the hand was — that is all.
the lift stops at each floor as it goes.
nobody presses. nobody sins.
a finger is work — a timer is not,
so the ride to the sixth is long and slow.
the timer wakes the lamp at five.
a finger is sin. a spring is fine.
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