Shabbat elevator

A Shabbat elevator is an elevator built to run in a special automatic mode that stops at every floor without anyone pressing a button, so that observant Jews can travel between floors during the Sabbath without breaking the religious law against operating an electrical switch. The device answers a specifically modern problem: Jewish laws traditional ban on work on the Sabbath has been read in modern times to cover operating electrical devices, which would otherwise make an ordinary elevator unusable to observant users on that day. Shabbat elevators are now installed in hotels, hospitals, apartment buildings and synagogues across Israel, the United States, Canada and other countries with sizable Jewish populations.