From correspondence of the Lubavitcher Rebbe
21 Shevat, 5718 (1958)
I was pleased to receive your letter of January 30, in which you wrote about your spending your vacation at home, after which you plan to return to your studies in New York. I am gratified to note that you do not content yourself with your own progress in Hebrew studies, but you are trying to use your good influence with your friends in that direction. This kind of benevolent effort expresses in the best possible way the commandment of "Love thy fellow-Jew," which is the great principle of our Torah. For, if helping a fellow-Jew in material things is so great a mitzva, how much more so helping one spiritually, in matters of Torah and mitzvot, which are eternal.
Moreover, the mitzva of Sabbath observance, that you write about, is one of the most fundamental ones and as the Rabbis state in the Talmud (Yerushalmi, Nedarim 3:9) that the Sabbath equals in importance all the other mitzvot combined. By the same token Sabbath transgression is one of the greatest transgressions, so that the Rabbis have ruled that he who publicly desecrates the Sabbath is regarded as if he was desecrating the entire Torah.
I mention this particularly in reference to your inquiry regarding the Sabbath desecration which is perpetrated by the Jewish ocean liners. The claim that everything is done automatically during the 24 hours of the Sabbath is absurd, and I state it with the fullest authority, being an engineer myself and having studied marine mechanics. For one thing, certain machinery can not be operated automatically, especially those connected with the steering, radio communications, services and similar functions.
Secondly, even if those machines can operate automatically, they are required by their very operation as well as by international law, to be checked every few hours, which involves direct Sabbath desecration a corresponding number of times during the 24-hour period of the Sabbath.
Thirdly, certain so-called automatic machines, including some of the boilers, require a change of parts periodically, approximately every six hours, when the affected sections of these machines are stopped and restarted for the said purpose, diminishing or starting it again.
In addition to the above, there are so many instances on a ship plying the high seas which involve Sabbath desecration, as any one who is familiar with the technical aspects of modern shipping will know. For instance, the water which is supplied for drinking, and even running water in the cabinets, is derived from the sea by a process of distillation, which, as you no doubt know, means the boiling and the evaporation of the water and converting it back to distilled water by cooling. The water supply is not stored for days ahead, not even for 24 hours, because of the storage space it would require, but is produced continually by process of distillation. In other words, even if the entire crew consisted of non-Jews, the water could not be used several hours after the Sabbath has begun, because the water supply from before Shabbat would have been exhausted and the crew should be providing fresh water on the Sabbath, specifically for the Jewish passengers, the use of which Jewish law forbids until several hours have elapsed after the termination of the Sabbath. The same is true of the lighting system. The law would apply even if only the majority of the passengers were Jews, how much more so if it is as in this case of the Jewish ships which carry almost exclusively Jewish passengers, for it is on their behalf that the ship is operated and the machines are regulated, involving a flagrant violation of the Sabbath. Only one who has no conception of how such machines are operated can be made to believe the absurd claim that an ocean liner can be operated automatically, without any Sabbath desecration.
The question has been asked, if the operation of the Jewish ships involves such a violation of the Jewish law, why is there no storm raised in protest in the Holy Land to stop it? The answer will become self-evident from the following instance: For some ten years the supply and distribution of milk in the Holy Land has been in the hands of the cooperatives and farms, many of whom have been known to raise pigs, and under very strong suspicion of mixing pigs' milk with the cows' milk (for economic reasons) which therefore made it treifa [non-kosher]. Yet, until late last summer, nothing was done about it, until finally, Rabbi Nissim [one of Israel's chief rabbis at the time this letter was written] stepped in and banned such milk, inducing the farmers to give up their pig breeding, since they would not want to give up the more lucrative milk business. No doubt you have read about it in the papers. Surely no one would declare cow-milk mixed with pig-milk kosher, yet this went on for this disgraceful amount of years.
I want to mention that last year, a group of girls who were planning go to the Holy Land on one of these ships, when learning of the Sabbath desecration it involved, changed their plans and went by air instead. These girls certainly deserve credit. Actually, it would be ridiculous were it not for the grave issue involved, for a person desirous to go to the land which is regarded as holy, even by the non-Jews, that he choose a way of transportation which involves an open violation of one of the Ten Commandments, namely, the commandment of "Keep the Sabbath day Holy," which, as we noted before equals all the Commandments combined.
I trust that you surely know the Code of Jewish Law begins with the admonition, "Do not be influenced by the scoffers." I sincerely hope that this will be so in your case, and may G-d help you to save others from open desecration of the Sabbath.
