NOTE: This is Part 2 of a three part series on the Laws of Shabbat as it relates to staying in a hotel. Part 1 is available here. Part 3 is available here.
What are the relevant laws that a person needs to know about staying in hotels over Shabbat?
Elevators
There are two relevant issues with elevators. The first is whether we may use elevators at all on Shabbat — even so called Shabbat elevators. The second is whether we can use an elevator if a non-Jew operates it for their own use.
Regarding whether we can use elevators on Shabbat at all, there are three primary opinions.
Rabbi Yitzchok Yaakov in Minchat Yitzchak Part 3, Chapter 60 says you cannot use the elevator at all because it is a mundane activity, and also because the elevator motor will exert more energy to lift you.
Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Halpern in his book Elevators on Shabbat says that you are allowed to go up in the elevator, but you may not go down because your weight is helping generate power by the regenerative braking system used by the elevator. This issue can also include most Shabbat elevators too – especially regular elevators are turned into Shabbat elevators by stopping on every floor on Shabbat.
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach say that you are allowed to use the elevator in both directions because the generation of power via the regenerative braking system is considered a rabbinically prohibited unnecessary side effect. The person in the elevator isn’t benefiting from this power that the regenerative braking system is creating. This is called פסיק רישיה דלא ניחא ליה בדרבנן (i.e. the inevitable action is not satisfactory to the person).
Therefore, if someone is using this lenient opinion and is using the elevator on Shabbat, They are also allowed to use the elevator when a gentile opens an elevator for the gentile’s own sake.
This is based upon the idea of what the Shulchan Aruch says in סימן רע"ו סעיף א, that a Jew is allowed to use the illumination of a candle lit by a non-Jew for the gentile’s own sake. Therefore, it follows that a Jew is allowed to use the elevator if the non-Jew who opened it did so for solely their own sake. This is also the ruling of רבי בן ציון חי עוזיאל in his book משפטי עוזיאל א השמטות א.
Motion Sensing Toilets
Motion sensing toilets automatically flush when a certain trigger occurs. A person should try to find another latrine that doesn’t contain this technology. If there are no latrines available without this technology, we can be lenient and use it. This is because it is considered a rabbinic prohibition since it it is unintentional and indirect.
We also give room for human dignity, and this is the ruling of the Shulchan Aruch in סימן שי"ב סעיף א which says that you are allowed to remove sharp stones in order to clean themselves, because of human dignity, despite the fact that it is מוקצה.
Using Hot Water in a Hotel
Using hot water in the hotel or in any other place where you know that cold water will go into a hot water tank to be warmed up when you turn the tap is forbidden because you are warming up the cold water indirectly. However, if it is a big hotel and many other people are probably using the water and cold water is constantly going into the tank, you may use the hot water because there is no substantial change of the cold water going into the tank.
In that case there are some who say you may be lenient. Of course one needs to check how the system works first.
Birkat Me'en Sheva
The Shulchan Aruch says in סימן רס"ח סעיף י that we do not say Birkat Me'en Sheva at a mourner’s house because the whole idea of saying Me'en Sheva is that, in previous times, shuls were located in fields and people would come late. We didn’t want people to daven by themselves in the shul, and then walk back by alone because there are demons in the fields.
Therefore the Rabbis established Me'en Sheva to prolong the prayers and to give people time to finish the Amidah so they will all go back together. Even though today the shuls are not located in the fields, the establishment did not change. Yet, when the Rabbis established this halacha, they established that it would only apply in permanent synagogues.
Based on that, If a group of people came together to pray in a hotel that has no shul, they should not say Me'en Sheva. However, if the hotel has a permanent synagogue, even if people only pray there once a week, and even if there are different people each time, one still must say Me'en Sheva.