The Shabbat Elevator

From our first ride up the hotel elevator we had both been puzzled by this admonishment on the elevator buttons:

We mostly wondered why anyone would need to touch the doors on any other day…

On Friday night, the mystery grew stronger, as the “Shabbat Elevator” suddenly came to life and seemed to have a mind of its own. Of the two elevators, one was completely disobedient to any commands given to it and would take its passengers up rather than down, to the second rather than the third floor, and so on and so forth. On our way to dinner we were warned by fellow wide-eyed harpists not to use the haunted elevator on the right if we wanted to get to dinner on time.

Elizabeth decided it was time to figure it out – she rode down on the elevator and discovered that it just spends the Shabbat going up and down from floor to floor, waiting several minutes with its doors open on each level. The mystery was solved. Apparently, pushing buttons on elevators is considered “work” and is thus forbidden during the Shabbat. Thus, special Shabbat Elevators have been installed in most buildings.

We soon decided that using the “Secular Elevator” on the left was much more efficient, if not as culturally appropriate. So down we went to dinner feeling a bit like sacrilegious heathens…