oot for life,
In light of the hubub surrounding the “shabbos switch,” all halachic musings aside, the hashkafas that would allow such a thing to even be thought of should be concerning.
I agree, the notion in the advertisements for the switch that Shabbos was an inconvenience was disturbing to me.
For example, I just received an advertisement for the latest and greatest Shabbos Lamp. As far as I know most people use them, maybe I’m wrong, but maybe we’ve made Shabbos so convenient and so accepted that its not such a stretch that someone would develop something like the shabbos switch.
Then again I don’t know were to draw the line, crockpot, hotplate? Timers in general.
I think there is a distinction between the notion of enhancing Shabbos or making Shabbos activities convenient, which is not problematic at all, and viewing Shabbos itself as inconvenient because we cannot do melachos, and trying to find ways around that to do melacha-like things.
Crockpots/hotplates/blechs enhance Shabbos because they allow us to have hot food.
The Shabbos lamp enhances Shabbos because it allows us to block out light to help us sleep.
These things have nothing to do with the fact that we are forbidden to do melachos on Shabbos. They are simply 100% permissible ways to bring us additional delight and comfort on Shabbos.
The Shabbos switch, on the other hand, is an attempt to “kasher” a melacha on Shabbos, because it’s so “difficult” to have to go without flipping lights on and off on Shabbos.
It’s a subtle difference, but a big one.