Sensors installed as part of a Jerusalem pilot program report if the new underground garbage collection bins have to be emptied. This is part of the project that is improving the old situation which included unsightly garbage bins along streets. These bins are now storing the garbage underground, and signal when they are full and need to be emptied. When chareidi rabbonim heard about the electronic sensors, they immediately began working to prevent the system’s operation on Shabbos and Yomim Tovim.
In the past few weeks, the municipality has begun a pilot program, in which sensors were put into garbage cans in a number of neighborhoods. According to the pilot, every four hours the sensor will transmit the garbage volume to the municipal command center, and accordingly the garbage trucks will be directed by the municipal sanitation unit to first to empty the full garbage cans, saving time for the sanitation workers and saving resources that have been wasted to date by emptying partially full or empty bins.
At City Hall, the pilot is viewed as totally successful, but then chareidi rabbonim were furious about the initiative. They claim that every time garbage is thrown into garbage cans on Shabbos and Yomim Tovim, the sensors that transmit reports to the command center will be activated, thereby causing significant Chilul Shabbos.
According to a MyNet Jerusalem report, some chareidi rabbonim threatened to launch protests against the program out of fear of Chilul Shabbos. The report states HaGaon HaRav Yitzchak Mordechai Rubin Shlita, of Har Nof, was a leading rov against the sensors operating on Shabbos. after talks with City Hall officials, the sensors will be shut off from Friday afternoon at 4:00PM until motzei Shabbos at 10:00PM to avoid any Chilul Shabbos. Rav Rubin then informed his colleagues the problem was rectified.
City officials add that one should be aware that throwing trash into the new bins does not in any way activate the sensors, but nevertheless, a written guarantee was given to Rav Rubin that the sensors will not operate on Shabbos. The document given to the rav adds the religious status quo will not be violated. The document is signed by the city’s head of Operations Administration, Itzik Nidam.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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9 Responses
this is very poorly written. sensors can operate on the Shabbat without question.; no human activity is involved. the issue is what happens AFTER the data is received. No action by a human should happen until after Shabbat ends.
great story. kol hakovod to all those involved and how mutual respect and cooperation can achieve shmiras shabbos and achdus in our ir hakodesh.
Only in Jerusalem it’s a problem to michallel Shabbos? We’ve had these sensor garbage bins in Tsfat for over a year, and no peep about it from Rabbonim.
my apologies to dryidd who is incorrect when stating that “sensors can operate on Shabbos without question”. Are you a Posek? Are you quoting a Posek? Furthermore, your logic is flawed because there is human activity by a human putting the garbage into the bin which activates the meter. I suggest that you leave issues of halacha to qualified Rabbonim and Poskim.
I don’t know enough halachah to criticize the rabbis, but senors are not Jewish, and nothing mars Shabbos like overflowing garbage bins.
Kol hakavod to the city officials who solved a problem with the guidance of the rabbonim. This kind of cooperation is what we should be seeing everywhere.
ahavas yisroel, you do not need a posek for a non-sheailah. the sensor is not activated by the insertion of garbage; it is time activated and measures the level of garbage inserted. i do not ask poskim what toilet paper to use or what beracha to make on matzoh. and btw, gedolai ha’poskim ask me for input in an area where I have both halakhic and technical knowledge.
sensor technologies raise many harder sheailot; this is not one of them. it is critical klal yisroel is guided by halakhic knowledge based on the real physical mitzius rather than nonsense.
DrYidd,
Apart from the mention of the four-hourly transmittion, the article also states, “They claim that every time garbage is thrown into garbage cans on Shabbos and Yomim Tovim, the sensors that transmit reports to the command center will be activated”. Whether that claim is true or not is a technical question, not halachic. But if it is true, then there is obviously a halachic concern.
And by the way, toilet paper and matzos definitely also have halachic questions that need clarification. Everything according to one’s level of knowledge, but I’m not even talking about perforated TP on Shabbos. Did you know about the concerns for TP with pictures (such as Labrador puppies, butterflies or flowers) imprinted onto the paper, and whether it’s with ink or just pressed in. Or the fact that Sfardim wouldn’t make ‘Hamotzi” on our [‘Ashkenazi’] matzo?
If “throwing trash into the new bins does not in any way activate the sensors” can someone who actually knows how the system works explain what the halachic issue is? The municipality does not collect garbage on Shabbos in Jerusalem