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I forwarded my original question to a person who asked it to a posek on a well-known bais din. He was kind enough to post his opinion and the reason(s) behind it without issuing a formal psak. The correct thing to do is always ask your own rav, and all the more so in a case like this where there is a key disagreement about a halacha that figures prominently in the posek’s reasoning – details below.
Before I post what I was told, thank you very much to those who took the time to contribute their thought’s opinions, and mareh mekomos of gemoros and halacha that addressed the question – BN I’ll write them down and review them inside over Shabbos.
anIsraeliYid, that’s a thoughtful suggestion. I’ll address it with what I was told, below.
SQUARE_ROOT, this was asked here for more than one reason. First, I hoped that somebody might already have issued an accepted psak on this issue that I wasn’t aware of, and second to discuss the halachic issues for the sake of learning, if nothing else. Of course the only way to actually come to a decision based on something said here is if a mareh makom is given and you look it up yourself, and even then it’s probably good to get confirmation from a rov.
HaLeiVi, thank you for your suggestion of looking in Shabbos and several other contributions to what may affect what should be done in this case. This is exactly what I’d hoped for when starting this thread.
coffee addict, I’d be interested in hearing Rabbi Hoffman’s take.
ubiquitin, interesting point, and I’ll address it, below. Thank you for the suggestion of a place to look up a similar shaila.
DaasYochid, your responses are well though out. Thank you.
Avram in MD, thank you for your thoughtful contributions.
The answer I was given follows verbatim, with names omitted since a) I wasn’t given permission to use them, and b) I don’t want anyone to be misquoted. A HUGE thank-you to the person who forwarded the question, relayed the answer, and provided additional details:
I spoke with a posek from Rav *** ***’s beis din. His psak isn’t binding for you. He said that you can’t answer the phone. His reasoning is that for you – answering the phone is an issur. Conversely, the Hatzola members who respond are correctly following the laws of pikuach nefesh.
He did not see the points that I brought up regarding those Hatzola members not being available for other emergencies at that time, and the possibility that they will not respond to a call from the same address in the future, as being relevant.
I asked him about answering the phone with an elbow.
Bear in mind that as this posek sits on Rav *** ***’s beis din, he follows the shita of the Chazon Ish, who held that completing an electrical circuit is considered ‘construction’ and is thus the melacha d’oraisa of ‘boneh’.
Also, according to many shittos, the leniency of a shinui only has halachic validity if the action’s result is inferior to the result of the normal performance of the same action. An example would be writing with the left hand.
This would not be the case when answering the phone with an elbow.
The Chazon Ish was a da’as yachid on the matter (of completing an electric circuit being a d’oraisa of boneh) .
Rav Moshe Feinstein did not agree.
This answered the question I had and hopefully addresses points other have raised. The fact that this opinion is based largely on the Chazon Ish’s psak which not everyone holds by clearly indicates to me that anyone who has this shaila must ask their own posek. Unlike some other shailos where it’s possible to simply be machmir where there’s a sofek, in this case being machmir on oneself will result in other Jews taking actions that would be assur d’oraisa if not for pikuach nefesh.