- Megavolt

Taken from Zomet Institute
The Zomet Institute is an Israeli high-tech non-profit organization specializing in IT equipment and electronic appliances designed to meet Halacha.

Question: Three reasons are given in the sources for the prohibition of turning on electrical devices on Shabbat: (1) Lighting up a glowing filament. (2) Boneh – construction – according to the Chazon Ish. (3) Molid – “giving birth” to something new – according to the Beit Yitzchak and Rabbi S.Z. Auerbach. As far as I can tell, none of these three reasons applies to using a keyboard and a mouse to write on a computer screen on Shabbat, because of the following considerations: (1) The screens (at least modern LCD screens) do not have a heating element. (2) The keys are pressed in a “momentary” fashion (that is, after being pressed they quickly return to their former state). (3) Such a momentary action cannot be considered molid. This leads me to suggest that a person who is dumb should be allowed to use a computer-aided speech system on Shabbat. What is the Zomet Institute’s postition about this?

Answer: You suggest that pressing keys on a keyboard should not be considered boneh or molid, since the key is pressed for a very short time. This approach is not at all accepted by the rabbis. If it were true, there would be no prohibition in using a telephone, a computer, a remote control switch, and any other electrical operations which are activated by a momentary touch on a switch, leading to some long-term result stemming from a preprogrammed reaction.

While one may indeed ask what the basis is for this ruling, the fact is that no rabbi permits closing an electric circuit even for a very short time if this leads to an intended result that is a normal mode of operation of the equipment. (Some people have suggested that even the Chazon Ish does not consider a brief pressure on a button which causes a momentary change to be boneh. For example, this might include pressing a doorbell. But it is definitely forbidden if the switch permanently turns on some electrical device.)

In the Zomet Institute, we are searching for solutions for the problem you raised and for similar distressing situations. We soon plan to release a “virtual keyboard” which is operated by touching the cursor to a symbol on the screen, without any need to press a button. When it is necessary to press a switch (for example, to activate a specific program), the Shabbat mouse has one or more gramma switches.