The Ben ish Hai allowed it, and an acquaintance of mine told me that in his youth in Ntanya the Sepharadim rode bicycles to shul on Shabbat. However, Rav Mordechai Eliahu, who was a great-nephew of his, said that he was talking about a certain type of bicycle that was driven by an Arab – and even on that he rescinded his heter. I also heard that Rav Chaim Zimmerman was very upset with the reason for prohibiting it (maybe the chain will break and one will come to fix it) because there is no power to make new gezerot. However, today it is prohibited either because of that reason or uvda d’chol or minhag Yisrael. Regarding a tricycle, Shemirat Shabbat k’Chilkata (16,17) explicitly states that it is permitted in the home or even outside where there is an eruv as it is a toy. However, he says that it is a good idea to remove the bell.
Menu