Q. In preparation for a hotel that I will be attending Shabbos/Yom Tov, I have looked in to the situation of a Shabbos elevator as the hotel is 6 floors high and have a couple of questions. The elevator will be preprogrammed and stop automatically at every floor. The questions are 1) is it permissible for a healthy person or is it only allowed for sick and elderly people? And 2) I have " heard " that even when it is permitted, it is only when it is a hydraulic elevator. Is this correct? in my situation I have been told by the manager and I quote "the elevator is pulled by a large motor on the roof attached to cables and pulleys." Would this be permissible?
A. The fact that an elevator has been programmed to stop in all floors during Shabbos does not necessarily imply that you can use it. You also have to be concerned with the light, motion and weight sensors that could be triggered when one enters or even approaches the elevator. All these would have to be disconnected before Shabbos.
Hydraulic elevators are seldom used today in buildings that have more that one or two floors, Horav Shlomo Miller's Shlit"a opinion is that the Halacha issues in them are similar to the common cable elevators.
Even when a elevator has been approved for Shabbos use, many Poskim maintain that, as you mentioned it is only for the sick and infirm (Igrois Moishe O.H. 4: 84 and 2: 95, Minchas Yitzchok 3: 60, Shmiras Shabbos Kehilchoso 23: 49-50: n. 138: 139, and in length; Maaliyot B'Shabbat From Rav Levy Yitzchok Halperin Shlit"a, et.al, see also the psak, signed by Horabbonim Nissim Karelitz, Chaim Kanievsky, and Shmuel Halevy Wosner, Shlit'a published in Yated on Elul 2009)
Horav Miller mentioned as an example of the misconceptions and complexity of today's machinery, that frequently there is more of a Halachik problem descending on an elevator than going up. In many elevators the counter-weight is equal to the weight of the cab plus almost half of its rated cab weight (the maximum number of passengers). In such an elevator, when a single person enters an empty elevator and wishes to ascend, no assistance from the motor is needed. Assistance is needed, however, to descend.
Not all elevators are created equal and technology changes rapidly these days, therefore Horav Miller Shlit'a advises to have a competent neighboring Rov inspect the intended elevator and rule on it.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit'a
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