Is running on rollerblades permitted on Shabbat?

Introduction

At Marom Paris, we like to spend shabbat together. One way is to gather at one's place, sitting on the couch, and chat for hours in front of a glass of wine and a cheeseboard. Last September however, one of our motived members had a brilliant idea: what if we would take a small rollerblade tour in the streets of Paris. What could be more fun on shabbat, than sliding gracefully in front of our beautiful monuments and busy tourists. Immediately, a question arose… It took us several Rabbis to be able to plan our event with a clear mind.

Question: is running on rollerblades permitted on Shabbat (in Paris)?

1. The Mishna lists 39 categories of shabbat work that are prohibited, based on the activities of the Tabernacle carried across the desert by the Israelites, as described in the Torah. (By the way, a different list of activities was found in the library of Qumran, which is older than the Mishna). As a consequence, in order to decide whether an activity is allowed or not on shabbat, Rabbis must relate this activity with one of those 39 categories, and it is not possible to add different activities. For example, it is forbidden to drive a car during shabbat, based on the prohibited category of 'burning', since driving a car involves burning gasoline.

The first observation is that rollerblading, which involves movements of the legs and rolling, doesn't relate to any of the 39 categories of prohibited work.

2. It is prohibited to carry from an Eruv during shabbat. So our question is whether doing rollerblade in the streets of Paris is connected to carrying. Some consider that the "périphérique" (highway belt surrounding the city) makes a separation that can be considered as an Eruv, but they are a minority. Let's assume it's not the case, and that Paris has no Eruv.

Rollerblades are considered as a piece of clothing, if the wheels are attached. As a consequence, doing rollerblade isn't an act of carrying. The problem may occur when you remove them in order to carry them. If this is made inside the house, like when you would put them on and off at home there is no problem with carrying.

On this aspect of the question, various orthodox or massorti Rabbis agree: rav Kahn from cheela.org, or a Rabbin from aish.com.

3. Should rollerblading be prohibited "for fear of" bringing about a risk of breaking a law of shabbat like repairing or carrying?

- for Yeshaya Dalsace (Massorti Rabbi in Paris) and Rav Kahn from cheela.org, the chances of having to repair the rollerblades are too low.

- However, the Talmud mentions that one is not allowed to go out on shabbat with an object that you might want to take off, like shoes that would be too large, or jewels. But according to Rabbi Scheinberg (ohr Somayach) this rule doesn't extend beyond the objects explicitly mentioned in the Talmud, and it is not allowed to include new objects today. Therefore rollerblades are not concerned.

4. Is running on rollerblades compatible with the spirit of shabbat ?

For most of massorti Rabbis to whom we've asked this question, Yeshaya Dalsace and Rivon Krygier from Paris Chaim Weiner from London, David Lazar from Stockholm, the answer is yes. Moving your body is made easier and it can be pleasant. As long as you're not running a marathon.

Here there is a divergence with some orthodox Rabbis, like Rav Kahn from Cheela.org who consider that it is not compatible, or Rabbi Scheinberg for whom rollerblading doesn't honour shabbat (zilzul), even if it's in order to go to the synagogue. Another rav from thehalacha.com considers it as a disgrace to shabbat.

5. Is it a problem to get some exercise by rollerblading on shabbat?

Some orthodox Rabbis (thejewishpress.com) refer to the Mishna and Maimonides in order to support the idea that getting exercise results in the healing of the body, and as such should be forbidden on shabbat. What do we mean by "exercise"? Maimonides answers: from the point where one sweats.

The massorti position is usually more flexible and allows limited exercise to be performed on shabbat.

Epilogue

On the day of the event, Oct 23, it started to rain… We postponed the shabbat-rollerblade event to later. But that was minor ;-)

Pierre Stanislawski – October 2010