Is it okay to drive a car on the Sabbath?

Question

The books of Moses mention not stoking a fire on the Sabbath, if I remember correctly. By starting a car, i'm stoking a fire, is this okay to do for a Jew? Why or why not?

Answer 1

Moses tells the people who are about to get busy building the Tabernacle (sort of a travelling Temple in the desert) that they need to pause all their construction activities on the Sabbath, and mentions for instance not to burn things.

Our Oral Tradition (recorded in the Talmud, tractate Shabbat, see especially Chapter 7) has a list of 39 categories of creative labor which were used in building the Tabernacle, all of which are therefore prohibited on the Sabbath: "growing" (including planting, watering, and fertilizing), "plowing", "reaping", "cooking or baking", "dyeing", and so on and so forth. One of these is, as stated, "burning."

Hence, use of the internal combustion engine is prohibited on Sabbath. That's why Orthodox Jews have to be within walking distance of a synagogue, they can't drive; this creates a geographic sense of community that is very different than what typical American suburbia developed.

Answer 2

not only starting the car, but on it's regular use you are constantly kindling and extinguishing fire, see how a 4 stroke engine works: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four-stroke_engine http://www.animatedengines.com/otto.shtml http://www.compgoparts.com/TechnicalResources/FourStrokeEngineBasics.asp http://www.howstuffworks.com/engine.htm

a different question is if a non jew could do it for a jew, which is a whole question on itself that depends on when, how, why and have exceptions

Answer 3

No a Jew cannot start a car on the Sabbath for the reason you outlined above. A non Jew could in theory open the car door and drive a Jew around, however there is a concept of marat ayin, where another Jew will see another Jew getting into a car and think, if they're getting into a car, so too can I drive.