Jerusalem - Last Shabbat, during Sukkot, dozens of Jews congregated in the impressive synagogue on Hadassah Hospital's Ein Kerem campus. Brilliant sunshine illuminated the famed Chagall stained-glass windows that grace the upper part of the shul, located below ground level, as worshippers prayed for good health and shouted a hearty "Mazel tov" to the father of newborn twins.
When the davening was over, staff, visitors and patients - several in hospital pajamas, some in wheelchairs - streamed over to the hospital's sukkah, where volunteers served gefilte fish and steaming hot cholent to hundreds of visitors.
"This is amazing," said an Orthodox woman on her way out of the sukkah. Her young daughter was hospitalized in the Mother and Child building after an emergency operation. "I'm very grateful for these holiday preparations."
That so many religious Jews were able to fully participate in religious life at the hospital that day was due in no small measure to Hadassah's Shabbat elevators. All day long religious patients and their families entered the designated elevators, which were programmed to stop automatically on each floor for 20 to 30 seconds (negating the need to push a button), and spent the next few minutes slowly riding up or down, until they reached their destinations.
Given how many Orthodox Jews in Israel and elsewhere rely on Shabbat elevators, many were shocked when four prominent Ashkenazi haredi rabbis ruled that the elevators are no longer considered kosher.
The ruling, which was signed by Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv - considered the most influential Torah sage in Israel - and Rabbis Nissim Karelitz, Chaim Kanievsky and Shmuel Halevy Wosner, was announced in the haredi Yated Ne'eman newspaper in late September. But word of it is only now beginning to spread beyond the fervently Orthodox community.
The decree is already having a major impact on the rabbis' haredi followers (many of whom never believed in the Shabbat elevator concept to begin with), but it remains to be seen whether others, including Sephardi haredim, "black hatters" from the U.S. and Europe, and the Modern Orthodox will heed it.
In their edict, the first mass ban by high-level rabbinic authorities, the rabbis said the way Shabbat elevators operate "is related to a grave prohibition against actual desecration of the Sabbath."
Their ruling did not provide details of how the desecration occurs, but discussion on the subject in the haredi world has often focused on whether the number and weight of passengers can influence the way Shabbat elevators operate.
The rabbis did say that they carefully weighed the issue after receiving "a written and oral technical opinion from certified elevator technicians and engineers."
They noted that "the function of Shabbat-mode elevators change with technological developments, but did not specify whether older, lower-tech elevators might still permissible.
Instead, the rabbis appeared to ban all Shabbat elevators.
"It was made clear to us that in using these elevators, either in ascent or descent, direct activation is created regarding doing work according to the Torah," the rabbis wrote.
To emphasize the point, and their authority, the rabbis wrote, "It is forbidden to rely on any kosher certificate or supervision provided by various institutions."
One such institution is the Jerusalem-based Institute for Halacha and Science, whose stamp of approval has been widely accepted in the Orthodox world, even in many haredi circles.
"We are constantly keeping up to date on new technologies, and we are always able to find solutions in accordance with halacha [Jewish law]," a stunned Rabbi Levi Yitzhak Halperin, the institute's director, told the Jerusalem Post.
Many are wondering aloud how disabled and elderly people, as well as those who live on high floors, will be able to manage with the ruling.
The ruling "imposes hardship and isolation on the less mobile," said Yael Eller Berlinger, a Modern Orthodox high-tech employee. "Shabbat and chagim [holidays] are also about community."
David Weitz, whose 90-year-old mother is hospitalized at Hadassah, said that Rav Elyashiv "should be moved to a 30th-floor apartment. After all, he's 98 or so. Then let's see how he'll rule!" said a fuming Weitz, who is Modern Orthodox.
Others insisted that the ruling is not as black and white as some are portraying it to be.
"In the religious world, when rabbis come out with a statement, people are allowed to ask their own personal shylas, said Julie Bor, an Orthodox woman, using the Hebrew term for questions posed to a rabbi. "Every circumstance is different."
Hospitals, hotels and building management companies said they will continue to operate Shabbat elevators for those prepared to ride in them.
"We have Shabbat elevators, regular elevators and stairwells, and we will let our guests decide which is best for them," said George Barash, front office manager of the Jerusalem Shalom Hotel, which has 288 rooms spread out over 12 floors.
Tiki Bashan, whose 12-year-old daughter Leviah spent two weeks hospitalized at Hadassah Hospital for a serious ear infection, said the Shabbat elevator was invaluable.
"Leviah has been on the fourth floor of the pediatric building and she had to go twice daily for check-ups on the sixth floor of another building. Walking down on Shabbat and chag wasn't such a problem, but up … that was another story," Bashan said.
Standing by the elevator bank the day after Shabbat, Leviah broke into a big grin.
"I'm sure glad we could use the elevator," she said.
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