Retroreflectors

A retroreflector, or corner-cube prism, is a prism so designed that a light hitting it from any direction will be sent back to the same location it originated from. The basic idea is that it is cut in a way that any light entering the prism will be hitting a corner which will reflect the light to another corner and from there back out in the same direction that it entered.

 

There are two approaches of using the Torah to relate to the current time. One approach is to adapt the Torah's view to the situation and the other way is to apply the current mode of thinking to the Torah.

 

There are many explanations as to the deeper meaning of Chametz and Matza. One more understanding of it is, that Matza is pure and original while Chametz is made out of time. This wouldn't make it Traif. However, once a year we are to focus on our timelessness and our source, and therefore in that time such food becomes unkosher.

 

With each new generation comes new questions and unique challenges. Each generation has its own views, as well. It is easy to pick up the prevalent outlook and decide that that is what the Torah wants. But, the Matzo approach is to look purely into the Torah and derive only from there what the Torah says.

 

This is not to say that we ignore the changes of time. However, it does mean that we use the Torah as the source, and apply that to the times.

 

In other words, instead of using the Torah as a tool to back up what we already believe, we look to Torah for our answers. This is where the retroreflector comes in. We shine our question to it from any angle, and we get the response. We don't move the reflector, but from any angle you focus on it, it responds to you.

 

From the most obvious issues that come up as times change, are inventions and innovations. We have items and situations that were not around at the giving of the Torah or at the compilation of the Talmud. You won't find the relevant Halachos in the Shulchan Aruch. How to deal with these new questions takes a good understanding of the reasoning behind the Shulchan Aruch.

 

The Halachos of Shabbos are a very good example. Electricity was understood by all that it must be prohibited, yet the reasons vary. However, a careful look would show that the Chazon Ish, Reb Shlomo Zalman and Reb Moshe Feinstein do all have a common thread.

 

The Chazon Ish says that using electricity is like building. To understand this, he explains that actually every circuit should be viewed as if you are the inventor. When someone makes a siren for a project, he would have all the bare wires wrapped or soldered to the different components, and then to the battery. When you want to stop the siren, you would pull apart one of the wires. The electrical switch in just a convenient way to pull apart that wire.

 

Although you may ask that a door to a house is just a convenient way to break down your wall and quickly rebuild it, the difference is in the intent. The house is meant to be entered into and exited from; an electrical circuit is meant to run. The only reason you stop it is for external reasons, like energy costs. An appliance is dead until it is turned on.

 

Reb Shlomo Zalman says that turning on an electrical appliance is the Issur of Nolad. The idea, here too, is that from the human perspective something new has come about, a new action was created.

 

Reb Moshe, in some Teshuvos, writes that he doesn't yet understand electricity clearly enough to deal with it. In another Teshuva, he does say that it falls between Maka Bepatish and Tikkun Mana, both meaning the completion of an item. Completing or finalizing an item, even when there is no other Melacha being done, is the Melacha of Maka Bepatish, literally, the last blow.

 

What all three have in common is that the problem would only be to turn an appliance on. Adding to the load doesn't seem to fall under any of the above categories. However, Reb Moshe, in one Teshuva about using a microphone when it was turned on before Shabbos, writes that it is Assur for four reasons:
1- It has a loud sound, which is always a problem on Shabbos, because it looks or sounds like a Melacha was done.
2- Not being clear on the issue of electricity, perhaps it is a problem to cause more current to flow.
3- Using a microphone is similar to the Issur Derabanan of using musical instruments, where there is the danger of the person fixing the instrument. Here too, it is only a flick-of-the-switch away to fix the appliance.
4- When you talk into the mic you are causing a sound to be created at the speaker end. This could be a problem of Nolad.

 

I don't know if Reb Moshe would uphold the second issue, that of causing more current, in light of his later Teshuva, associating the usage of electricity with Maka Bepatish or Tikkun Mana. There does seem to be a difference among Poskim between turning something on and using something.

 

According to the logic of the Chazon Ish and Reb Shlomo Zalman, I wonder about cell phones, where there is current running through the device the whole time. By pressing a button, although you are running current through the button's contact leads, that shouldn't be considered Nolad nor Binyan in the scope of the device. You definitely don't want the button to stay down and nothing new is being started up, other than the device's usage. However, the general rule of Shema Yissaken Klei Shir surely does apply.

 

Automatic elevators and escalators might be a step further from ordinary electrical appliances in that the switch is not available, making the Shema Yissaken not so applicable. Although we normally don't make distinctions like this when dealing with a Gezeira, in our case, the Gezeira was only applied to these cases because of their similarity.