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From: zev@hou2a.UUCP (Z.FARKAS)
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish
Subject: hot water on the sabbath
Message-ID: <439@hou2a.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 24-Oct-84 23:47:28 EDT
Article-I.D.: hou2a.439
Posted: Wed Oct 24 23:47:28 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 25-Oct-84 04:21:17 EDT
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ
Lines: 37

before I leave the net, i thought i might try to start one more
discussion, even though i probably won't be able
to see much of the message traffic.

it seems to me that a fairly large number of otherwise
orthodox jews make use of hot tap water on the sabbath.
a few years ago,
I asked rabbi elazar m. teitz of elizabeth, NJ (my hometown)
about the permissibility of hot tap water on the sabbath, and
he confirmed my own intuitive feeling that it is prohibited,
under the category of cooking.
a quick look at how an ordinary home hot water heater works
should make it evident that every time you draw hot water,
you are adding cold water to the heater tank.

also, using even slightly warm tap water is really using a
mixture of hot water and cold water.

this is especially troublesome with the single-lever
"joystick" type faucets that are becomming popular.

in a test on such units in my own home i found that even
when set on full cold, some hot water may leak through.
of course, this will be a function of the design and
condition of the individual faucet.

does anyone know of a valid reason to allow the use of
hot tap water on the sabbath?
is this simply a matter of ignorance?

I hope that this note will at least get a few people
to ask their halachic authorities about this matter.

(in my own house, i turn off the hot water valves under the
sinks every friday before sunset.)

zev farkas  hou2a!zev  201 289 2553