Can You Use a Hearing Aid on Shabbos? | Rabbi Anthony Manning | July 23, 2025

Um thank you all for coming. It's good to see you all. This is the last in our current series uh before the tishab break. Um sometimes in past years we've had another shir before tishav uh but to this year we do not which means we have a long list of dedications that I need to read out uh of special sponsorship for the shirim in no specific order. So the sherim the learning today uh all day this Wednesday is sponsored by Mark and Deborah Zohar for the Y sites of Mark's parents Kalman Khim Benvi the Y site is on the 2nd of Av on Sunday and Esbat Mosha on the 4th of A are the Zohos here. Thank you very much for the sponsorship. Uh the Shim were also sponsored specifically uh today by Ka and Sheila Leag. Thank you very much for the sponsorship in memory of Sheila's mother Kaya Etal Bastid whose your site is today. Um and the Shia today is also sponsored by Miriam uh who regularly sponsors this time of year uh for in the memory of her mother Liba Pesha Bas Mosha Al Shalom whose yacht site is on the 7th of A next week which is the 8th y site and also her grandfather Nakum Ben Mosha whose yacht site is on the 9th of Aishab itself and it's his 70th yacht site uh this year um and the Shirim are sponsored for the whole of the 2025 academic year in memory of Zelig Benalman and also Branabas brandit all those people that I've mentioned the namas should have an aliyah it should be an opportunity for us to learn Torah in their I would also just mention my own grandmother's yide is on Monday which is the third of a and her name is Bas Abraham also zikura we should learn good Torah in their merit now Today I'm fulfilling a promise that I made to Amy a while back that I would do a shirim on a shir on hearing aids um on Shabbat specifically focused on charging hearing aids on Shabbat. I might just mention to turn off your phones please. I can already hear something bleeping and beeping. So something's beeping. I think I think the lady's dealing with it there. Sometimes these bleeps have a mind of their own. uh so I am focusing today specifically on the issue of charging although I will be talking about other things as well uh we gave a series of sharim a while back and these sharim are available on my website also on the U website we gave a series on microphones on Shabbat I don't know if you remember that series was a three-part series and we dealt with some of the hearing aid issues but this year goes well beyond that and I've brought you a little bit of recap as well so I brought you uh on the first page a couple of pictures of hearing hearing aids. Uh the top one is an old-fashioned hearing aid that you will uh remember which is very hard to come by these days which basically works like a microphone with an amplifier, a battery, a receiver and a little output. They can be analog, they can be digital and as we all know they tended to go wrong quite a lot and whistle quite a lot in the middle of everything and you end up having to work out how to stop the whistling etc. Modern day micro uh ear hearing aids are much more complicated as everything is and here's a picture of no doubt a very oversimplified picture of what goes into a modern uh hearing aid. The technology is uh somewhat different these days and they have lots of extra features. Of course they're all digital. They're not analog anymore. They have features such as noise filtering, directional focus, uh automatic volume adjustments adjustment synchronization between the hearing aids, meaning they're talking to each other. Uh also you can live stream Bluetooth direct from your radio, from your phone, from your TV, from your screen, straight into your earphones, into your head hearing aids rather, and also earphones straight into your hearing aids. So there's a lot of complicated technology going on. The hakic issues, which we're not going to deal with all of them, but some of them are listed here. First of all, are you allowed to wear them on Shabbat? Yes, is the answer, and we'll talk about what the issues are there. Do they need to be switched on before Shabbat or can they be activated on Shabbat? We'll see. Preferably switched on before, but there are ways to deal with that on Shabbat. Can they be charged on Shabbat? We'll talk about that in some detail. Um whether the charging cradle is attached to the mains or it's an independent power pack, battery batterypowered cradle. Um and then in the modern models, there's lots of beeping and lights and and flick flickering and different colors. How does that all work as well? There are some other issues in terms of carrying them in a place where there's no AOV. Uh, is that okay? Yes. We're not going to be dealing with this in detail. The Muka status of hearing aids, we'll see that they're not Muka. And v various other things as well. Um, I brought you on the first page in the footnotes some statistics. There's a lot of people in the world who wear hearing aids and there's an awful lot more people who need to wear hearing aids. Uh, there there still seems to be something of a stigma in people's minds. they don't have a problem wearing spectacles. Um, but hearing aids somehow or other uh are difficult to adjust to in terms of sort of the psychology and and there is a actually a much larger percentage of people need hearing aids uh than actually have hearing aids and in in America alone we're talking about millions upon millions of people um tens of millions of people. I brought you a couple of references to some very good articles. A recent article, Rabbi Asha Bush, who I actually met just now in America, he wrote an article recently called the use of hearing aids on Shabas and Jon of issues relating to charging or recharging the batteries. That's a 2024 um essay, so it's pretty up to date on the technology. Now, I summarize a little bit for you uh Raf Feinstein on microphones in the footnote. I'm not going to get into that in too much detail, but it's obviously relevant. Ra Mosha Feinstein passing very clearly that you can't use microphones on Shabbat and his reasons for that we'll see soon. There were two definite durabon concerns he had and some possible dar writers but he very much differentiated between microphones and hearing aids. Even though hearing aid technology to some degree involves the same shilers for reasons that we'll see he felt that they were very different. Microphones interfered with the spirit of Shabbat. He was under no pressure to in any way permit microphones. In many ways they differentiated between Orthodox and conservative shooles in America. And therefore he came down pretty clearly that microphones are not allowed even though there have been attempts to uh to create chabas friendly microphones. Summet created a shabas friendly microphone but it just hasn't caught on. I don't think I've been to a single shaw with a shabas friendly microphone even though people have shabbat friendly uh little sort of buggies that they ride around and all sorts of other things. Somehow or other microphones in Shaw is that kind of hashkafic dividing line. I'm in an orthodox shaw. There shouldn't be a microphone. Uh loop systems that they used to have with the old hearing aids. I I think they still do have. Yes, they definitely have those induction loop systems, but microphones we don't tend to have. But we'll have a look at Rav Moshia in a minute. Uh just turn over to page two. Um and we'll have a look at some of the initial categorization questions about hearing aids. So the first question we need to ask ourselves is what is the hashic category or status of a person who is hard of hearing who is hearing impaired impaired and they need to wear a hearing aid. Is this person considered to be sick or ill in some way on Shabbat? Obviously that's very important because if we categorize someone as a then there are all sorts of haki dispensations that they will have on Shabbat. So let's just review together very briefly the categor categories of illness on Shabbat. There are basically five. They range in increasing severity from the most minor which is a someone who has some minor aches and pains. We'll talk about what they are in a minute to someone who has a they have a specifically painful thing but they're still functioning fine to someone who is a or someone who is sick but not dangerously so. We'll define that in a few minutes. The next level up is someone who lenu has sakat that there's they're in danger of losing a limb, an arm, a leg, a finger, whatever it is, an eye, god forbid. It used to be that this was in quite distinct from piku nephesh, which is the highest category, someone who's in life-threatening danger. And they categorize them differently. Today it's I'm not giving a whole shear on this but sakanat aa because of the concerns for internal bleeding which people didn't necessarily know about so much hundreds of years ago most cases of sakanat aa where people are in danger of losing a limb are also at least at the beginning of their diagnosis potentially puak nephesh as well until they've established that this person is not in any life danger but there is just a question of saving the limb and then of course there's the someone who is in life-threatening danger so let's just look at the First the the two categories we're really dealing with. The first one number one is on someone who has a minor ache and pain says as follows someone who has a an irritation a minor ailment but they're basically feeling fine. They're feeling strong and they're walking around like a regular healthy person but they there's something that's annoying them. They are not allowed to do any kind of healing or or medication on Shabasi. They can't even ask a non-Jew to do anything because we are worried that people the classic formulation will come to grind the medication. Medication was and to some degree still is. It's just we don't grind it today unless you have a homeopathic medication kit in your bathroom. Most people don't grind their own medicine, but a lot of medicine is still ground into tablets. And the concern was people are going to grind something and then break shabas on a Torah level. Now Ra Moshi Feinstein uh has a very important shuva on this and he says it's not just an issue of grinding because this is the everybody loves to like be irritated by like really rabbi I don't grind anything. Nobody grinds anything. I've got a headache. Okay, it's a minor headache but why can't I just take a tablet? Rav Mosha said because everybody knows that nephesh sets aside shabas. So whenever anyone feels sick, there's always this temptation to say, well, you know, especially with Jews, they tend to get a bit dramatic about things sometimes, and people are going to say, well, of course, Shabas can't apply. I need to take a tablet. I need to do this. And this is just saying, slow down. Just just one second. It's not just about grinding. People might come to cook something. They might make something with the hot water in a different way than normal. And this is just telling you just take a step back. Is it just a minor ache and pain? If so, let's not do any kind of medication just to reinforce that this is not a case of nephesh. We'll see once that we get into a real there are a number of uh of realic changes but someone has a minor ailment and I and I listed some examples. This is not obviously um exhaustive. Uh you know indigestion, minor stomach ache, a slight you know ear ache but not a serious one. A minor headache like an insect bite or a sting, something minor, a bit of muscle pain, a bit of skin, a chapped skin, something like that. A minor cold, a sore throat, um a bruise, a minor burn, something like that. The general is they can't do anything which requires medication on shabas. Now there are many exceptions to that rule and this is not a share of this on this in detail. If the sufferer is in general poor health or weak, which sometimes is the case with elderly people, not always, then there are then that that's not just considered a minor thing, it could become more major. Children, maybe even to the age of nine, certainly when they're little and they can't explain what's wrong with them, we treat everything as potentially more serious. Uh where a condition is expected to deteriorate into something more serious. So there are many exceptions, but that's the general rule for a mush balma. also exceptions if you're on a course of medication, if you started your antibiotics, you have to finish them, etc. That's this is not the occasion to talk about that in detail. But when you're talking about someone who's a real not a dangerously ill person, but a sick person, how are we defining that? Number two, somebody who is bedridden. Should be a Yiddish word, bedridden, but it's bedridden. It's an English word, okay? Someone who is taken to to their bed because they feel ill. They're not life-threateningly ill. There's no danger of them dying. So the first category is someone who's just gone to bed because they just don't feel well. Okay. Then the says or they have a pain or an illness or an ailment which is really hurting them and they feel sort of systematically sick from it. They have a fever. It's not just a sore throat. They just feel under the weather where everyone knows exactly what that feels like. Just they feel they're sick with something. Even though dummy, even though he might be forcing himself to get around or herself, okay, I'm going to, you know, battle through it. They should probably be in bed. The fact that they're up and around, they're still a because they're still sick. They're just, you know, trying to put a brave face on it. So, what do we say with this kind of person? And we'll see some of those examples soon. So, so the first thing is everybody agrees, every opinion agrees here. You can ask a non-Jew to do anything you like on Shabas directly. Please do this. Please do that. If it's even if it's a Torah prohibition as it were that the non-Jewish person will be doing, cooking, turning on the lights. A person who is a even though they're not dangerously sick but they're systematically sick can ask a non to do anything. What about more than that? You can't obviously do an god forbid threat life-threateningly sick. You can only ask a non-Jew. What else? And there is another level that maybe you can also there is a you can yourself do a a rabbitic prohibition directly because of the person either for the person who's sick or the person themselves. And there is a third opinion here. So now when you're doing youron, you have to do it with a shino a little bit differently and he pascins like that last opinion. So again of the three options I've simplified it a little bit on the page the three options everyone agrees you can ask a nonju if a person is a everyone agrees that you can do some kind of dabon. The question is can you do it with a shinui or can you do it even without a shinuy? So he asks that you do the draon with the shinu which by the way is a good reason to to remember why you have to know your doris from your dabon on shabas. If you just have one big kind of chant in your head and you think well this is mut and this is osa and I don't really know why then you won't be able to keep shabas you have to know this is da this is dabon this is called you have to be an intelligently educated Jew on shabas and we ask like that third opinion the mishnaber says you can do all but you have to use a shiny thera and he writes here that this is the the sack of the gr um and he brings that down as the view of most postkins. So where does that leave us? Go to page three that if you are on Shabbat you can break a rabbitic prohibition with a shinu and maybe even without a shiny if you follow that last the other opinion um which maybe we'll be able to rely on. Don't forget when the includes opinions that he says we don't necessarily follow that means that those opinions are there. they're not irrelevant and you can rely on them in a situation of need. So use a shinu wherever you can but if it's not possible and you really need to then possibly without Simon you had a question. >> Okay. >> Okay. So let's talk about that now. Let's talk about that right now. So who is a what does it mean disability in this sense? So, I brought you on the top of page three um a few types of different categories of someone. Someone who is a they're sick enough to have to go to bed. We've already seen that they can't function. If they were at work, they said, "I'm sorry. I have to go home. I have to lie down. I can't stay here anymore." That's usually a good test between a if you were at work and you didn't particularly want to take the time off, would you say, "You know something, I'll manage till till I go home tonight." Or would you say to your boss, "Look, I'm really sorry. I don't feel well. I have to go to bed. If the latter, then you're probably a or someone who should be in bed, but they're forcing themselves. Also, we'll see soon someone who cannot function normally. They can't eat, they can't speak, they can't walk. Meaning someone who has slight, you know, canker sors in their mouth and it just hurts a little bit is a somebody whose mouth is so sore that they can't physically eat is a ready. They can't eat. Someone who's coming down with a sickness that they're going know they're going to become a etc etc. someone who's awaiting a diagnosis. A small child, we talked about that. Special halocas for women who have just given birth in the last month as well. And I brought you some examples. Again, I'm not a doctor. This is not an exclusive and exhaustive list rather, but some things which are definitely a and they're not just a asthma, a beasting for obviously an asthma could be life-threatening in certain situations as well, but in a case where it's not, a beasting for a child is a serious issue. a bad burn, the flu, um diabetes of again obviously could be life-threatening in other situations and I'm not going to read through all of these things like a fever, um pneumonia, strep infection, etc., etc. What can one do? So, we've said so you can ask a non-Jew to do whatever you want. You can ask you can do whatever you need to do, which is dabon with a shinu. You obviously can take the medication and maybe you can do it even without a shinu. But what you can't do is break a Torah mitzvah. Now we come to number three because jumps in the and this is not just the opinion of the and you'll see where this is going to take us in terms of charging your hearing aids. The alterbi and this is also the opinion of the and others which we'll see at the end of the sh says add an extra thing on that can do which is they can even do a tora prohibition but with a shinu. Now never said that. He said a dabon with a shinoi. Excuse me. A dabon maybe even without a shinoi. Excuse me. But who said you can do a Torah prohibition with a shino? Look at number three. There's no danger to any kind of limb, life or limb, but you had to go to bed or you feel systematically, you know, all all sick all over systemically, I should say, not systematically. If you want to do a you can, but you have to use a different from the weekday. Now, we we'll see don't come all in the same way. How are you going to charge your hearing aids with a shiny? What are you going to do? You gonna do it with your nose? You're going to do it with your knuckles? We're gonna we're going to get to that. We'll have to see how that's going to work. So, yes, he goes like this. And then he says, "And if you really use a proper shin, you can even do a Torah prohibition as long as you use your shin." Now, that's much further than the went and that's a minority opinion. And we'll see soon that the Mishna brewery is very unhappy to pasan like that opinion. And therefore most postkin will not go to that place and say you can do a Torah prohibition even with a only obviously it's someone whose life is not at risk. The life is at risk. There's nothing to talk about. We will see however that Raf Schlomma Albbach was more um open to this particular approach than many other postkim and therefore we'll see that it gained traction uh in other issues in in modern day life. Okay, good. So far the categorization we've got our mikma we've got a what can you do for a etc. What is hearing impairment? On what level do we place this? Is it a minor thing? You know you say well it's actually a major thing. I can't hear anything but are you sick? Are you ill in in do you fit into any of these categorizations? You do you don't feel like you need to go to bed. You're not in any pain. You just can't hear properly. So the the excuse me number four says as follows. If your hearing aid batteries go uh go down decharge on Shabas, you may not change the batteries for other batteries. We'll see why soon. You can hint to a non-Jew and the non-Jew can change the batteries for you. Now, that's very interesting. You can hint to a non-Jew. It's clear that he he's holding here that a hearing impaired person is not a if they were a they could say directly to a non-Jew. That's the first thing that everybody agreed on when it comes to a they can ask directly. When we say ask mean ask directly. He said no you have to hint exactly how you hint. We talked about that two weeks ago etc. This is actually quite a mahmeak and already rah hershel sheha and ra morai willig and many other postk I've listed uh in the footnotes as well rule that no a person on shabas who is not able to function and this simon is kind of your question even if they're not sick but they're not functional they may have a you know a bad leg which means they can't walk they may not actually be in pain right now and they may not feel like they need to go to bed but they can't function and therefore they say a hearing impaired person impaired person is definitely a ker B Sak and I brought you some of the uh sources on that. I actually heard this also from Rav um Ravit Miller who is the the head of the Grus Kohl and was the ravit in Harov when we lived in Harov and I asked him a few times about the the categorization of a he said anyone who is not functional in the way that a normal person would in society is called a now once you get that in terms of hearing impairment then now the the door is open to some new ways of doing things on shabas so what are we going to be able to do let's assume that we're passing like that position which I think is a is a is a fairly majority position. We're going to be able to do is draon with a shinoi. Okay. So, we have to work out what is maybe even without a shinoi if we in a in a in a bind. And maybe even we'll see if we're going to rely on that other minority opinion, a Torah prohibition with a shinu. We'll see if we can rely on that. I'm not going to go into too much detail on page number four uh because this we did in the in the previous series even though it was like five years ago, but you can pick it up online. But I've brought you in number five and six and seven Rav Moshious Chuva on microphones and what his problem was. He was worried about the electricity. Yes. Although at the end of the day he said for a person with a hearing aid we don't have to assume that the electricity itself presents a problem. But he had two rabbitic issues which he said definitely things we have to consider. One is ashameter. We said we talked about this last week. Things that make a noise on shabos. He said a microphone is a perfect example of asha. people turn them on on Shabas. Remember the whole problem of things that make noises, people are going to assume, ooh, he just did it on Shabas, which is why we said that air conditioners which are on a timer, etc., are not a problem. Microphones are not on a timer. People turn them on, they make a lot of noise. That's definitely a problem. He said hearing aids, they don't make any noise. I mean, every now and then they whistle, but >> they whistle, but that but he said that's that's not called a hash. That's not called an isser of Asha Milta. that something every now and then might emit a slight you know whining noise says that's not a problem he he dismisses that and he says hearing aids we're not going to dis we're not going to say is a problem because of a shabila but more of a problem is what about sheen cle maybe you're going to fix them and I want to look at this with you in number six in more detail because this is fascinating in the terms of the process he says the second reason number six here the since everybody knows how to fix their hearing aids And hearing aids often go wrong. Meaning if it was something that if it's broken only a professional can fix, then you're not going to have a problem on Shabas because we're not worried that people might come to fix it. People don't know how to fix it. But hearing aids is anyone can fix the hearing aid is a cliche and therefore just like you're not allowed to play a musical instrument on Shabas, you should not be able to use a hearing aid either because you might come to to to play with it to change it to fix it because it's very common that they break. they go wrong and you'll come to fix them and that's a problem on Shabas. That could be a Torah prohibition but I'm not going to say this either. It's not a problem. Why since it's only for people with deafness with hearing impairment and this is very important in when made rabbitic fences if you like they only made them on common situations. They didn't make them on small minority situations. Hearing aids are sufficiently minority within society that kazal would not have made a gazer. Of course, you can tell me that hearing aids didn't exist. They weren't included. But even within the general issue of tikun, they didn't make that on things that only a small number of people are involved in. They didn't make gazeras that apply only in rare cases. And therefore, I don't think that hearing aids would have ever come within this. It's interesting. He knows when he wants to say something is also when he wants to say it's mut. He clearly wants to tell you the hearing aids are fine. Remember the chuv about the time switches where he clearly wants to say that they're not fine and he says well even if they're not ma they should be prohibited and would have prohibited them. Maybe they did here. He's going in the opposite direction. He clearly wants to let you wear your hearing aid on Shabas. He says no I don't think that would have been included and it's also very important. Why is it very important for someone to wear a hearing aid on Shabas? because people really need it because if they don't have their hearing aid in there because when they go outside, they won't hear the cars and they'll walk across the street and they won't hear a car coming and god forbid. Now, I don't know if you would have assumed that was really what people need their hearing aids for uh or or not, but that's what he says here. And certainly they would not have not have made in that situation. And since it's not included in the rabbitic prohibition of because it's a minority thing and there's a good reason for you to be wearing it. We're still concerned you might play with it. So put a little sticker or something, he says, on the place that you might come to fix it so you remember not to. Now this is very important. If there was a real rabbitic prohibition, we would never have said, "Oh, just put a little sign there and you'll be okay." Because we say llug, I give you an example. Llug means we don't differentiate when it comes to dabonos. You'll remember, you won't remember, he'll remember, she won't remember. For example, you're not allowed to have uh uncooked food or semi-cooked food on an open flame. Why? Because you might turn up the flame. So kaza, you have to cover the flame. So you say, "Well, you know something? I don't I'm not going to cover the flame. I'm not going to use a ble. I'm going to put a big sign up on Shabas over my uh oven and it says Shabas Kodesh don't forget not to turn up the flame. It doesn't work. Kaz said you have to cover the flame. Oh yeah, but I won't forget. I'm special. Llug. We make this for everybody. For example, you're not allowed to read by a light which is an open flame in case the light starts to flick on Shabas in case the light starts to flicker and you might come and play with the candle. Oh, what if it's I fixed it up on the wall. So, I'd need to bring a ladder and I'd need to crawl up the wall in order to fix the no lions. If say it's osa, it's osa. What rah has done here, he's saying since it's not included within the rabbitic prohibition now, I can talk about little signs and little things to remind me, etc. Because I'm not in the prohibition. I just have to be sensible. For example, light switches. Do you have to have a little cover on your light switch? on Shabas. No. Kazal never made a gazer that I might switch a thing over here to turn on a light over there. Is it sensible to do so? Maybe. Maybe. Do you have to? No. Then you can get into a discussion of what you'd like to and what you wouldn't like to do, etc. So, here too, he says it could well be that this the hearing aid, which of course are allowed to wear, you should put something on it. Now, we'll you're going to say, well, this doesn't apply to modern hearing aids, and we'll come to that when we uh we get there. There's lots of different types of hearing aids. We'll talk about that when we get there. Um, so that for these reasons and for others, Rav Mosha says that a hearing aid is not a problem. Don't forget also before we leave this page, a sha when we said machinery that makes noise, even if that were an issue, remember the spartim say it's not an issue. Remember that. And even for the Ashkinazen, they say it's not an issue if there's a real need. Well, there's a real need. So, we're not going to have a problem with the hearing aid on Shabas. Uh, should it be turned on? Yes, if you can turn it on before Shabas, it can should be turned on before Shabas. Now, some of them turn themselves off, you might have to turn it on again. And I brought you on the top of page five um that uh most of the postiums say that if you can have it switched on before Shabas, then you should do that because it could be a rebbitic prohibition to switch the to switch the thing on. But if it's not switched on uh and you need to switch it on, then you can do that with a shininoi if you possibly can. Why? Because switching on the hearing aid is almost certainly a rabbitic prohibition. The electricity involved. Remember when we talk about electricity, the of electricity is other than the ish who rules that electricity on in any form pretty much is is a Torah prohibition of boner. The vast majority of uh of posting do not follow that. They say it's a rabbitic prohibition of myid probably myid that you're introducing new life a circuit into the circuit. And since it's a rabbitic prohibition if that we're not getting into all of the of electricity once you're dealing with someone with a hearing aid and they're we already established there. So they can do a rabbitic prohibition with a shinoi if possible to do it with a shinoi if necessary to do without a shinoi. So they can turn it on on shabas. That also applies to turning it up on shabas as well. They should do that. They can do that with a shininoi. Turning things up by the way is less problematic usually in the old models than turning them on because even if you compare electricity to moled what's moled there was the classic truver on this is Ravitkmelus at the end of the 19th century he says turning on a circuit is like introducing a new power into or a new force a new quality into something which didn't have it before we have an example in the Gmorra of someone putting scent into clothing the clothing had no smell and you put a nice smell into the clothing that is a rabbitic prohibition. He says I think that's the same with electricity. Okay, you can debate that. But there was never a problem of Mosif uh smell Mosif mullet meaning if it already smells and you want to make it smell a little bit more then that's always been fine. So turning up the volume uh is less problematic because you're simply changing a current that's already there and that would have been prohibited even by postkim who are less happy to turn it on um and certainly by those who are happy even to turn it on. They can certainly turn it up. What about today when it's not a dial anymore? Turning up a hearing aid today is not just a question of of moving a dial. It's pressing new buttons to turn the volume up. So Rav Rav Schlam says, "No, that's still the same. You could do that. If you can do with the Shinu, do it with the Shinui." But again, we're dealing with the Draonon for someone who is classified as a relatively straightforward issue. Now, modern hearing aids raise all sorts of new questions. I've raised them here. Uh they have things that I don't really know what they are, but I'll tell you anyway. beam forming where they you know focus on special directions they filter out background noise they synchronize between the hearing aids ravise has a very interesting chuver he says that all of these things are happening automatically you're not you're not even aware of what the hearing aids are are tuning into and tuning out of and therefore they can be allowed to do theirs on Shabas if you can disable things that beep and bleep and and do these kind of things on Shabas because you don't really need them then disable those modes before Shabas if remember to do that. But if you don't remember, then at the end of the day, these are all background electronic things which are happening without your uh without your knowledge. And therefore uh that deals hopefully fairly clearly with the issue of turning on the hearing aid and turning up the volume on the hearing aid. Rav Mosha actually is very interested uh in not in the person wearing the hearing aid but the person speaking to the person wearing the hearing aid. Look at number eight for a second. This is a fascinating chuver. He says apart from all of this conversation about the hearing aids the the hearing impaired person that they're the ones with a machine on their ear with a device on their ear. They're not doing anything. They've just got the thing on their ear. The real question is it's not are you allowed to wear wearing hearing aid? It's are you allowed to talk to someone wearing a hearing aid because you the talker are making all the electricity change. And takes this actually quite seriously. People who were talking in the background, background noise, they don't have to worry. They're not they don't have any cavana to cause the hearing aid to go off. You're just talking in the ground. It's something which is not intended. And that's not definitely going to activate the hearing aids. Sometimes the person even with a hearing aid can't hear what's going on in the background. It's the people who are talking directly to the deaf person to the hearing impaired person. They intend the hearing aids to work and it happens many times. It's a you're definitely making this thing go off on Shabas. Now you can see here why this is a bigger problem. The person wearing the hearing aid is a they're not so worried about the the drabon. They can do them with the shinoi. The person speaking is not a therefore what what do they have to now we'll see there's a whole issue of you know which we'll get to in just a minute but we'll get there in just a minute. I think that's what you're going to ask me but we'll see. So then he says, "And therefore, if it's possible, this is a remarkable it's better not to speak to someone on Shabas directly if they're wearing a hearing aid and it's going to make the machine work." And obviously people people wear the hearing aids for background hearing. I want to hear the laning. I want the guy laning is not laning to me. He's leaning to the shores and I'm I'm picking it up. You know, agaf the guy the Kazen is noting to me and they think they are. Okay. Okay. The rabbi everyone knows the rabbi is definitely not talking to me. Okay. That that's that's for sure with the rabbis. Um but he says when someone's talking to you directly that's a problem. And therefore, he says a remarkable thing. And therefore, if you're talking to someone wearing a a hearing aid on Shabas and they ask you a question, you shouldn't really answer them directly. You should kind of hint to them because you don't want to speak and activate the hearing aids. He says, but if that's not possible, then you can. It's not really OSA. It's really permitted but it's better it's better to avoid it because what's your ha you're not a now this is a remarkable pac and many people do not like this pac at all and I brought you on the top of page six um a uh the hesp that arenstein gave uh uh on the the funeral of rablam albak in 1995 and I want to quote you what he says here he says once I visited rama zan and I asked him about the issue of wearing a hearing aid on Shabbat he permitted it which we know and so did Ra Mosha but he permitted it at the same time he told me you know I can't believe it someone sent me a letter from the states saying that Ravkler so it wasn't just Rab Mosha Fistine was careful not to talk to a person wearing a hearing aid on Shabas for fear of speaking into the hearing aid and thereby performing a malika he rabbak told me that he didn't believe this imagine as if it's not enough that this person has been punished by heaven and that he's death the garor states that if somebody is wounded in such a way that he becomes deaf, he's paid full damages. Someone hurts another person and they lose their hearing, it's full damages as though he ceased to function altogether as if he died. This punishment isn't sufficient. He said, "Imagine you meet him in the street and instead of greeting him, you say for him says Rav Lenstein, this was completely out of place. He couldn't bring himself to believe that this is what the situation required." Very interesting as to how that works. Now again it's a little unfair of Mush Feinstein is not here to defend himself on this particular issue as to why he said that. Would he still have said that? Leave that aside. But that's uh on the issue of speaking to people with hearing aids. That's also not a problem as far as most postkim are concerned. Let's talk about cover habrias because our heter that we've been looking for have been based on a and that's why we said that the person speaking to the person with the hearing aid might not have that heter. So look here the kadab brius is a very important concept meaning we we go a long way to prevent per public embarrassment of individuals look at number 10 so the gmorra says I'm not going to get into the massive detail but let's give an overview if you find shhatness in your clothing on shabas or any day not just on shabas if you find shas in your clothing post you have to rip them off I feel a bit shook even if you're in the middle of the of the street my timer what is the reason a You can't rationalize mitzvah. You don't know. God said don't wear shers. Period. Don't wear shasers. Yeah, but it's going to be embarrassing. I'm sorry. It's embarrassing for you to do an a in public. So take the shers off and you're standing there with no clothes on says the garra. If there's going to be a because you break a mitzvah, even to even to someone of importance, dignified, you know, nature, you don't give them special treatment. They have to rip off the clothes. Ah says, "But didn't we learn?" Isn't public embarrassment so serious that we set aside a Torah mitzvah? So why can't you keep the shas on? It's so embarrassing to take the clothes off. Why would you uh set aside a mitzvah? You can't rationalize away mitzvah. Um, so explains this kahan in front of Kahan. No, no. When the Bryce has said you can set aside a Torah mitzvah to avoid embarrassment, that's the Torah mitzvah of Lassur of not deviating from the words of the rabbis, i.e. you can set aside a rabbitic mitzvah to avoid embarrassment. All rabbitic prohibitions are all based on that Torah prohibition of loss. And because of the rabbi said he was okay. So we have a whole new uh concept when it comes to habrius. You're allowed to break. It's not really breaking to avoid public embarrassment says the number 11. We've we've learned from what we've analyzed in this chuvo. One of the examples they give is you're allowed to to to to move mukah on shabas. Let's say they used to have stones in order to clean themselves after the bathroom. They used to have special smooth stones that they used. They didn't have paper in those days. They used to have stones. What happens if you forgot your special stones and you were caught in the middle of a field? You need to use the bathroom. Whatever. You can pick up a stone. You can pick up a suitable stone. Ah, that's moxer. How can you break mukah? Yeah, but it's embarrassing. You need to be, you know, hygienic. You need to be clean on Shabas. You're allowed to do that. He says, we've said you're allowed to break that. A person shouldn't be embarrassed because they're not allowed to move it. It shouldn't be embarrassed themselves in in the eyes of others in whatever way. It seems to me, says, there is no greater imperative of giving people dignity and honor. The best example is taking away someone's embarrassment and and and public degrading from a person who's hearing impaired. What could be more embarrassing for and and distressing to someone that they can't hear what people are saying and therefore you are allowed to breach a dabon even if you say it's a dabon to make the hearing aids work. Of course you're allowed to do that. What are you going to you're going to sort of hint to the person? You're going to mumble to the person. It's a major coverrious issue. Bush is upon him. You can't imagine the the the embarrassments and the distress of someone and the unpleasantness if they have to go in in the public and they're effectively isolated. People's is not part of the public. He doesn't really know what's going on and he can't answer people. That is a terribly embarrassing situation. But I think this is even worse than the cases of the Gomorrah with the stones. It's so embarrassing for this poor person. And then look at these last two lines. Very important the odds and even more. This terrible embarrassment is is mixed with a lot of pain of distress. He can't dab him properly in public. He can't hear the creator. He can't hear the Torah. He can't answer. He doesn't say, "Oh, this poor person, he can't hear the laning. He's not doing the mitzvah of laning." He says, "This poor person feels distress because he can't or she can't hear the laning." It's not about they're not doing the mitzvah. It's how they feel. This terrible feeling of isolation. He says, "There's nothing to talk about. Cover a debris is clearly a header. Now that will give you a header to do a drabon on but not a door writer. Will it give you a header to do a door writer with a shinuy? That's a big debate which I'm not going to get into in uh in too much detail here. Uh there is a uh there is a case brought down in the in the Gammorra of whether a person who has embarrassing food stuck in their teeth is allowed to make a makeshift toothpick on Shabas. And the Gomorra this is very embarrassing. you've got this piece of food kind of hanging out of your mouth or looking very unsightly and everyone says you've got to do something about that. You can't go out looking like that. So the Gmorra says you're allowed to take a piece of straw which is not a normal thing for a toothpick and and like fold it over and do something with your but you can't pull a splint of wood off something because that would be a real toothpick. Da if you put a knife on it that would be a tora to make a toothpick from a piece of wood. But he says you can't you can't do that. Ah why can't you do it with your hand? Pull a bit of wood off. It's a shinoi. Yeah, says the mission brewer because you can't do a Torah prohibition with a shino for cover. Why? Because you should have known in advance and had some toothpicks with you. You know, this is something you could have done on Friday. But the mission says, but in a case where you couldn't do it on Friday, maybe you'd be even be able to pull one of these little toothpicks off and uh and pick your teeth with it as well. So, Rabbi Bush in the article there says it could be for to for maybe and he's very tentative. You could even do a Torah prohibition with a shinui like that case before. Now, this is going to all by way of a rather long-winded introduction to our basic question, which is what are you going to do about your batteries on Shabas? So, um let's have a little look on page number seven, please. Or page number, sorry, six. Let's start with page number six at the bottom with with changing the batteries. Now, the older models of hearing aids had disposable batteries. I know a little bit about this a because I research you'll see some of the weird things I had to research to to prepare the share. But my son actually who's obviously quite young. He actually has a hearing aid. He has a hearing issue in one of his ears. So I've talked to him a little bit about these things. The older models used to have disposable batteries. You throw them away every three or four days. You change them etc. Now that shouldn't be a problem on Shabas because you can plan in advance. They last three or four days. You don't have to change them on Shabas. But there could be a surprise. You could have forgotten to plan in advance. It could just die because it uses all of the electricity quicker than you thought and you're ended up you ended up in a situation that you have to change the battery. Are you allowed to change a battery of early pizza and a device which has died because the battery has run out. The answer is no. What is the prohibition? Potentially a terror prohibition of tikun. It's a dead device. It doesn't work. It's effectively broken. You changing the battery brings it back to life. There's a kind of it brings it back to life. This is a this is a Torah potentially a Torah prohibition. Okay. So, what can you do? So, Rasham Zan says, "Well, you can ask a nonju. You can all you're a person who's hearing impaired, you can ask a non-Jew." That's great. That's fine. If you have a local non-Jew who knows how to change your batteries, you can ask a non-Jew. Can you ask a non-Jew directly? So yes, according to Rav Sha and Rav willig that a person who is hearing impaired wearing a hearing aid is a you can ask the non-Jew directly. Um a piece of advice we'll see soon is maybe you should change the batteries before they completely run out. We'll see that soon. But they they are your basically op they're your options. If what if you can't find a nonju? Are you allowed to change the battery yourself? Well, that's problematic because if it's a Torah, if it's a Torah prohibition, who says you can do a Torah prohibition because your hearing aids have run out? Ah, he says, "But I'll do it with a shinoi." Well, first of all, how exactly you going to change one of these batteries with a shinoi? Yeah, they're not exactly large. It's one thing opening the door with a shinoi. It's another thing opening the case and getting the little battery things out and putting them in. People who wear hearing aids are often also slightly sight impaired and are not always the most dextrous with their fingers. So working out how to change these batteries with your knuckles and stick them in and out is is it it may be just that you can't use a shiny and and therefore that's that's a problem uh and something which is not going to be very easy to do. Uh and therefore when it comes to changing the batteries, this is potentially a uh a problematic issue. I brought you some other options maybe as to how you could uh deal with that. Um, however, recharging has changed the world of batteries. I imagine the people who are here, people here have uh hearing aids. I imagine there's a couple of people here who might have a hearing aid here. Uh, uh, they're probably rechargeable hearing aids. The way that I understand that they work, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, is that you have a little cradle which they kind of pop in. Uh, in many cases, it's plugged into the wall, okay, with a cable and you put the there's a little there's a red dot and there's a blue dot and one's for the left aid and one's for the right hearing aid. Then you pop them in. Uh, I don't know if it makes a little beep when you put them in or a little light comes on. Maybe depends on the brand. Some yes, some no. Little lights charge charging, green light, red light, orange light, all that kind of stuff. You pop them in and when they're fully charged, you pop them out and put them in your ears. Are you allowed to do that on Shabas? So, most of the uh most of the models that you can get now have a good 35 40hour charge if they're fully charged. Not all of them, but quite a lot of them. So if you plan in advance then you shouldn't need to do it on Shabas. Two days of Yonf is going to be an issue. Another reason not to live in if you're wearing hearing aids but rash before Shabbat Yonf after Shabbat you're still going to have to think of how this works. So people do have to start thinking about charging their hearing aids on Shabas. Are they allowed to do that? What are the implications of recharging a battery? So like I said before if the thing is completely dead then bringing it back to life could be tickle. Now it's important to know in the tickle something which is the normal way that you use it is not called tickle. For example take a door conceptually the door is basically a piece of wall which is removable. Okay there's the wall is blocked up. I have a a sort of wood bit of wall. I open up the wood bit of wall and the wall opens up and then I close the wood bit of wall and the wall closes up again. Why is it not prohibited to open and close the door on Shabas? It's boner and so you're breaking the wall and mending the wall every time you go through the door. The answer is because that's what the door was made for. That's not called fixing something. It's not broken. You're just using it. It's called using it. Um Rashma Zama says you're even, for example, allowed to change the gas canisters in a soda stream. Not just to put the air in, the soda in, but you're even allowed to change the gas canisters because first of all, nobody waits till the gas canisters are completely empty to change them. Already you change them being well, it's kind of giving a neb bubbles rather than decent bubbles. And it's the way that you use it. It's not broken. It just needs it just needs a new canister. There's nothing there's nothing broken about it. Whereas something with a battery which is completely dead is broken. If you can get to the battery before it completely dies, then that almost certainly downgrades the prohibition from a Torah prohibition at least maybe to a drabon. It's not derekish. You don't use it in that way normally. It's not a normal way of use, but maybe it's now a drabon. And the source for this is a clock. Remember old clocks that needed winding up. So you have a grandfather clock in your house or a chiming clock. People don't have these anymore. Chiming clocks in the house. Number 12. If a clock in your house which chimes on the hour and it's got weights, you know the weight, you need to rebalance the weights. You can set it all up on Friday afternoon. Let it chime through Shabas. Why is it not? Why is it not a problem of making a noise? Because you say, well, the not have that problem anyway. Okay. The Ashkanazin have the clocks as well. Okay. I don't know if more Ashkanazin had clocks or not. I suspect more Ashkenazarin had those kind of clocks. The answer is because everybody knows you set it up in advance and it chimes on its own. It's automatic. It's not a problem on Shabas. But what if it runs down on Shabas? You're not allowed to wind it up on Shabas only on Friday says the mission number 13 Shabas itself leave leave aside the problem the if the clock stopped you can't reset it so it goes now even if there's only just like a like a winding thing you have to wave or I don't I looked did a bit of re research on how they sort of rewound clocks I can't I don't exactly know what he's talking about This this piece this wire that comes out that you pull or you shake in order to wind it up. This is a prohibition on a Torah level. Your clock has stopped. It's broken. You have to wind it up. Torah prohibition. But if it's still going, it's just winding down. You're not allowed to wind it up. But this is this is what if you have a tash or what's pocket watch there's a little thread that comes in that you pull to wind it up again all the watches I could see you with a with a with a screw with a key or with a thing at the top you can't do that but it's on but for that's allowed why would a need a watch on Shabas >> you need pills at a regular basis certain treatments you have to replace the pist or whatever every half an hour etc. that they had in those days. So then that's because it's if it's still going. That's if it's still going. If you can't find a non-Jew, again, always better to use a nonju hoodie. But if you find a nonju, even if it's stopped, a non-Jew can wind it up. So again, you have a classic application of this hetera. If the battery is low but it's still working then recharging it is a daon not a dissa like rewinding up a clock etc. Again we're not going to be worried about the electricity side of things for the reasons we said before because the person with hearing impairment is a and therefore if they put their their battery uh their hearing aids into the charger when uh when it hasn't completely went down that is definitely going to be better preferable. So don't don't let your batteries go down completely. >> Okay. So we'll see the light go. You're not getting anything really out of the light going on. And that's a drabon on as well. And for the you can use a shini. So what's the best way to do it? So I've brought you three options here. Number one, ask a non-Jew to recharge your hearing aids. Well, that's great, but most people recharge their hearing aids before they go to bed at night, I suspect. And they probably don't have random non-Jewish people walking through their bedroom that they can just stop and ask to recharge their hearing aids. Okay, if you have a living caregiver, okay, that's different. But if you can't find a nonju, so the best answer the post can give is to put the charger on a timer, >> a Shabas clock. You set it up on Friday so that it's going to be off. Let's say at from 10 p.m. when you go to bed at night, you're going to put your hearing aids into a non-active charger, which is clearly permitted. Okay? It's going to turn on, let's say, at midnight when you're asleep. It's going to charge them all through the night. It's going to turn off again at, I don't know, 7:00 a.m. You add the whatever timing you need. And then when you take them out, it's also turned off. Ah, isn't it grammar? You are causing it like the dishwasher on a timer. Remember, you're putting the hearing aids in. That's what's going to make it go on when the but grammar is permitted in a situation of need. And this is clearly a situation of need. So that's fine. That is by far and away the best way to do it that the post can bring down. Put the charger on a timer. The problem is as technology advances, all of these nice easy solutions become harder and harder. It's like turning off the light inside the fridge. You know, it used to be the easiest thing in the world to put a piece of tape on the fridge. Now you have to call an engineer to retrofit the like to pay extra to have deactivated the special. So a lot of charges these days are themselves battery powered, meaning the charger can be attached to the mains, but even when it's detached from the mains, it still charges because it has its own power. So the solution that I came up with just now won't work because even if the power is off, the timer is off, the the cradle still has charge in it. So when you put the hearing aids in, it's going to do its magic, etc. Unless you've allowed it to go completely dead and Okay, you could do that. Yes. >> Is that causing it to go on when he's putting if it's off with the clock? Yeah, >> it's working anyway when the clock goes up whether you put them in or not. >> No, it's not charging. If you don't if you don't put them in, then they're not charging. If you do put them in, then they are charging. You said you're causing it to >> But you're causing your hearing aids to charge. If you don't put them in, the hearing aids are not charging. >> No, the hearing aid but the machine is working anyway. >> I don't a good question. I don't know what charging machines do when you're not charging anything. I don't think they they do much. I think they just sit there waiting for you to stick something in and charge. That's a good question. I'm not an electronic engineer. Uh and we'll have to like talk about that. So, what's the best option if you don't have a non-Jew handy and you can't put your things on a timer? So, one of the suggestions made is to put them into the live charger. Ah, but that could be a dora. You can't do that for a So, make sure that they're not completely run down number one. So, it's a dabon. And then do it with a shinuy. If you can do a dabon with a shinui, then you're good to go. How you put these hearing aids in with a shinuy is a good question. I'll leave you to think about that and send me answers on a postcard. Okay. Um are you allowed however let's say it's completely decharged and you say look it's a Torah prohibition am I allowed to do a Torah prohibition with a shinui now we said the said no but the alterb said yes and have a look here in number 15 the doesn't like that sack of the he says this is talking about doing uh things once medication once number 15 if I don't think you should be doing anything even with a on a Torah level. It's a Torah prohibition like Shabas. It's not the same as Shabas, but it's a Torah prohibition. Even though there are examples in the Gmorrah of people apparently doing Torah prohibitions with the Shinoi in order to deal with someone who is sick. And the example given is gone. What's that case? It's a very unusual case and I did a little bit of research into this as well. It used to be a therapeutic cure that the doctor would say to you, you have to suck milk from a live goat or a cow uh in order to cure your illness. And actually, if you look into this, you'll see this was much more common than you would have thought, especially with young children. They used to, you know, feed them all the time from animals, apparently. Uh now you know why people turn out like they turn out, maybe. Uh uh but on Shabas the the Kazal said you're allowed to suckle from a from a live animal in order to cure your illness. One second that that's a Torah prohibition to to milk a cow to milk a goat. How come you're allowed to do that? Okay, so it's for sure it's a shininoi. That's not normally the way that you get a milk cow. But how are you allowed to do that? Says the my answer is it's it's just completely a different thing you're doing. And this is a very important principle. That's not just called a shinui. That's called something completely different. Milking a cow and suckling directly from a cow are not just a one is one just a shiny of the other. It's completely different. And when you have something called a shinu gour than you are able to do it says the mishaber therefore in a shinu like in that extreme case and I can I can talk about a Torah prohibition but anything else? No. However, if you go on to the last page on page nine, just one second. And I'm a bit conscious of the time. Rabbi Golshad is going to appear any second. If you look at the number 16, you can see the shir shabas however brings down says not so quick. It's not just the alteri. It's not just the egg, but it's also the and many others I brought down in number 16 that say you can rely on this and therefore Rav will and say that if really there is no alternative for your hearing aids on Shabas and the only way to charge them because you need them on Shabas is to put them into a live charger then if you can find a way to do it with a proper shinoi then you should do it with do with the other hand. Are you always particular? I understand. I understand writing with your left hand is a shinuy because you never write with your left hand. But are you always particular to place your ear hearing aids with your right hand? I imagine most people don't even remember which hand they use to put things in. Okay. So maybe in your case that's different. Uh so I brought you that as a maybe as a permission as well. Of course you could always be luxury oriented and have a second set of hearing aids ready for uh when when when uh when you need. I'm not telling you you have to do that because they I'm sure cost an awful lot of money but that is a glat kosher solution as well but not probably a financial one. I just brought you finally on yonf when it runs into shabas uh then if you have to do the charging better to do it on yon than shabas because whatever we can do in order to minimize the prohibition we do and yon is on a different level to shabas but again wherever possible the shinu should be used. I hope that's helpful, interesting, some hakic issues and uh and certainly you can take them to a POS for more clarity. We will reconvene on the first Wednesday in September where we will look at medical ethical issues going forward.