Uvdin Dechol Sheilas

We are a group of 15 Persian bnei Torah from the Tila Shul in Los Angeles who came to Eretz Yisroel to learn in Rabbi Travis’ kollel for a week, specifically to study the sugya of uvdin dechol b’iyun. We have a number of questions about the sugya that we would like to ask Rav Auerbach.

Traveling in a Luxury Railroad Car on Shabbos

Question

We studied a teshuvah from the Chasam Sofer (6:97), who rules that riding on a train is uvdin dechol, because it takes a person toward his business and also because it moves around and severely interferes with one’s oneg Shabbos. The Chasam Sofer passed away almost 200 years ago, and at the time, trains were very primitive. Today’s trains are very different, and there are luxury coaches where a person might not feel any movement at all. Would the halacha change?

Nisan Farzadfar

Rav Auerbach 

In order to answer your question, we need to go back in history to the times of the Noda B’Yehudah. In those days, umbrellas were very complex and using them presented a serious question of meleches ohel. Today, umbrellas are made very differently, and we can compare them to a kisa traskal, a folding chair, which is permitted to open and close on Shabbos. However, once it became accepted practice in Klal Yisroel not to use an umbrella on Shabbos, people began to associate umbrellas with weekdays and not with Shabbos. Once this phenomenon occurred, it no longer mattered whether or not it was technically permitted or forbidden to open and close an umbrella vis-à-vis hilchos Shabbos. People view opening and carrying an umbrella as a weekday activity, and therefore, the use of an umbrella became uvdin dechol. In fact, the Chazon Ish writes that using a folding umbrella on Shabbos is worse than technical chillul Shabbos, for it weakens Shabbos observance for the entire community by making Shabbos resemble a weekday, which will inevitably weaken its observance.

The same idea can be applied to riding on trains. Even if today’s trains are very comfortable, once riding on a train has been “banned” from Shabbos, it remains uvdin dechol no matter what changes afterward.

Bicycles, Scooters, and Skating to Shul

Question

May a person use a bicycle, scooter, or roller skates to travel to shul on Shabbos?

Reuven Yaghoubi

Rav Auerbach 

The answer to this question is very similar to the previous one. The chachomim of earlier generations forbade using bicycles on Shabbos for a variety of reasons, most notably because the early bicycles would break often and repairing them would involve chillul Shabbos. Therefore, even though the quality of bicycles has improved significantly, the aspect of uvdin dechol still remains. I believe that traveling on skates or scooters outside one’s home falls into the same category as riding a bicycle.

Knee Scooters on Shabbos

Question

If a person breaks his leg, can he use a knee scooter on Shabbos to get around?

Benny Gabaie

Rav Auerbach 

Rabbi Travis actually asked me this question about 15 years ago. At that time, this was a very new innovation, and it did not seem to me that this was medical equipment that could be permitted. Rather, it appeared similar to a bicycle and should be considered uvdin dechol. Rabbi Travis later told me that he went to ask my brother, Rav Avrohom Dov zt”l, and he disagreed with me, joking that it was not uvdin dechol, a weekday activity, but rather uvdin d’choleh, an activity associated with someone who is ill.

Since then, these scooters have become more common, and it is now clear to anyone who sees them that they are medical equipment. For this reason, I now agree with my brother’s ruling that they are permitted, as long as one uses them within an area that has an eruv.

Learning Schedule

Question

If we have two hours a day to learn, what is the best use of our time?

Avichai Samimi

Rav Auerbach 

For one hour a day, you should engage in learning Torah b’iyun, and the second hour you should review what you have studied in the past. If you do this, you can become talmidei chachomim even while maintaining your work schedule. I give you all my brocha from the depths of my heart that you should succeed in becoming true talmidei chachomim.