“Abba, when is the air conditioner turning off tonight,” asked Miriam at the Friday night seuda.
“Before Shabbos, I set the pegs on the timer to turn off the air conditioner at 9:00 PM tonight,” answered Abba.
“Oh...I wish it would go on until 10 o’clock,” sighed Miriam, “Because I’ll go to bed at 9:30 tonight and I like falling asleep when it is cool in the house.”
Miriam’s brother Aaron turned to Abba and asked, “Maybe it’s okay to push now the pegs that are between 9 and 10 o’clock, to let the air conditioner keep on working until 10, because when we’ll push the pegs we won’t be turning anything on or off.”
“Hmm...I hear your point, Aaron,” replied Abba, “But I am not sure...”
Question: Can Abba push the pegs of the timer now to let the air conditioner run until 10 o’clock?
Hints & Answers
HALACHA CHALLENGE: Shemiras Shabbos Kehilchosa (13:28) teaches that an electricity timer that was set before Shabbos to turn off at a specific time, it is permitted to change the setting of the timer on Shabbos to allow the timer to turn off the electricity at a later time. However, it’s not permitted to change the setting of such timer to allow it to turn off at an earlier time. The permission to change timer setting on Shabbos is true only for an electricity timer that does not turn on or off at the moment when changes are made to it.
RHYMES: “pure”
PARSHA QUIZ: “You shall know in your heart, that just as a man chastises his son, so does Hashem, your G-d, chastise you.” (Devorim 8:5)
RIDDLE: Humility. The Ba’al HaTurim writes: “[The 2nd word of the parsha is] עקב “heel” [is hinting to the middah of] humility. The Torah is saying: “Learn from the heel. It follows the foot, in a way of humility. Therefore, it does not get stubbed like the toes of the foot do”.
*Menucha answers are not to be taken as final decisions in halacha.
