עברית
Halachot and Customs
Is There an Isur of Bishul Akum with Electricity?
Question
Hello, honorable Rabbi,
For Sephardim,
does the same apply with electricity as well (for example, an electric griddle, an oven, or electric cooktops and the like), meaning that a Jew must place the food on the electric griddle and the like, according to the view of the Beit Yosef? (As is well known, the Beit Yosef, of blessed memory, holds that a Jew must place the food on the fire, and it is not enough for him merely to turn it on.)
Or does the above ruling apply only to a real fire?
And is there a difference between Eretz Yisrael and outside the Land with regard to the workers at the electric company, whether they are Jewish or not?
I would very much appreciate extensive sources as well.
(I am currently studying this sugya.)
I would be very grateful,
thank you very much and a good and blessed month
Answer
Greetings,
The view of Rabbi Ben Tzion Abba Shaul, of blessed memory, in the book Or LeTzion, part II (chapter 18, responsum 12), is that one cannot fulfill the mitzvah of lighting Shabbat candles with a bulb lit by the general electric current, because with electricity a new current arrives every moment, which is not at all connected to the first lighting, and it is not considered that he lit the subsequent light.
Based on this principle, it was brought in his name in the book Or Sarah (page 245) that there is no prohibition of bishul akum with an electric hotplate, electric cooktop, electric pan, since the electricity is renewed sixty times a minute by the electric company; it follows that his initial actions [that the non-Jew cooked with electricity] have gone and passed, and if so, he did not actually cook.
However, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, of blessed memory, in Responsa Yabia Omer, part II (Orach Chaim section 17), in Responsa Yechaveh Da'at, part V (section 24), and in the book Halichot Olam, part III (page 46), permitted fulfilling the obligation of lighting Shabbat candles with electric light when necessary, even with a blessing. See there. It follows that he holds that despite the fact that the electric current is renewed at every moment, the lighting is attributed to it. And apparently he would also hold similarly with regard to bishul akum, that this prohibition also applies to electric cooktops, etc., even though the electric current is renewed at every moment. Therefore, according to Sephardi practice, a Jew must place the pot on the cooktop. And this is the accepted halachic ruling.
With blessings,
Hillel Meirs
