There is a strict and particular set of rules and while "not making changes on the Sabbath" is a useful metaphor, it doesn't perfectly capture the rules or why specific workarounds are permissible and others aren't.

The core set of rules comes from specific actions that were banned in the ancient Tabernacle on the Sabbath. Electricity use is not banned per se on the Sabbath (as electricity was not discovered several thousand years ago); instead, the core law of "do not fix things on the Sabbath" was ruled to ban completing circuits on the Sabbath once electricity became widespread; similarly, "do not break things on the Sabbath" covers breaking a circuit. The rules only cover actions performed by Jews during the Sabbath; they don't cover actions taken on other days even if those actions result in changes on the Sabbath, so for example setting up a timer to turn lights on or off is permissible as long as you set it up prior to the Sabbath. Ditto for these kinds of elevators.

The Sabbath rules have pretty much nothing to do with environmentalism or energy use.

I'm not a religious scholar but these interpretations:

- "do not fix things on the Sabbath" ban[s] completing circuits

- "do not break things on the Sabbath" covers breaking a circuit

sound extremely convoluted to me. A switch's express purpose is to break and complete circuits to direct current. It is part of the object's usage, part of the creator's intent on the object's utility. It has modes of operation where the circuit is broken and complete by design. The saner interpretation of this law IMO would be along the lines of "if a switch got stuck on a Sabbath, good luck on the energy bill, mate".

I have one of those trash cans with a pedal that opens the lid. It is a switch but none of it is electronic. Are Jews not allowed to operate these contraptions on a Sabbath too? It arguably introduces a break in the object, namely the opening for the trash can. Heck, does Jewish law even allow opening trash cans on a Sabbath, at all? By such broad applicability, the only difference between any lidded trash can (a closed object most of the time) and an electric circuit is the presence/absence of current. Can a Jew unlock padlocks on a Sabbath? What about opening doors?

(FINAL NOTE: HN mostly has charged---pun intended---discussions over things we deem ridiculous. Such discussion is NOT my intent here. I know J. Random Netizen like me isn't going to change Jewish culture in two paragraphs. I just wanted to waste actuations of my mechanical keyboard to register my astonishment and confusion over this interpretation.)

>sound extremely convoluted to me. A switch's express purpose is to break and complete circuits to direct current. It is part of the object's usage, part of the creator's intent on the object's utility. It has modes of operation where the circuit is broken and complete by design.

This is an excellent point and is a big reason why a lot of rabbis would not give "building" as an answer. Another answer commonly given is that electricity is like fire (made a lot more sense when "electricity" was 99.9% stuff like starting your car with a spark and incandescent lightbulbs) and lighting a fire is prohibited; this doesn't really hold much water anymore. Another reason given is that there's a rabbinic prohibition on "creating", but that doesn't really work because, like you said, all electric appliances are made to be turned off too. Basically electricity on the sabbath is pretty weak as far as prohibitions go and any explanation you hear for why it's banned will always be post-hoc, and the real reason why it's banned is because rabbis are afraid that letting people use electricity will "destroy the spirit of shabbat" (but they can't actually say that's the only reason because it's not strong enough to prohibit it). In fact, on holidays (like passover and the like) the prohibition becomes much, much weaker (to the point where some poskim say that turning on and off LED lights is permitted, among other things.)

The can probably is OK because opening it does not materially change the thing. If it had an attached cover that you had to tear off, would be different business. Padlocks I'd say look ok but then for an observant Jew there wouldn't be too many regular Shabbat activities that require dealing with padlocks. Doors are certainly ok, I've seen observant Jews opening (and closing) doors on Shabbat many times. Of course, if a particular door has e.g. an electronic sensor there might be complications... But again, as an observant Jew you probably wouldn't find yourself in a place with such doors on Shabbat.

But the proper way to address this question is to ask your rabbi of course. If you're an observant Jew, you have one. If he says it's OK then it's OK, if he says it's not then it's not. Sometimes they disagree, and sometimes the disagreement grows big so some strict people for example only eat food that has the Kosher stamp of a specific authority and not the others, and so on.

Just want to point out that this argument is not universally accepted by modern halachic (Jewish law) authorities.

Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, a very prominent orthodox Jewish halachist held that closing/opening an electrical circuit does not constitute the biblical prohibition of building and destroying.

Instead, he held that that electricity was prohibited "Rabbinically" for an unrelated reason (which is of a lower degree of severity, which has practical implications).

Notwithstanding this, if one say, turns on an incondescent lightbulb I believe that is biblically prohibited according to all because of the heat it generates.

Can you make a switch Kosher by putting 1M ohm resistor across it. Then the circuit would never be broken just modified. Electric Eruvin? (Consult your local Rabbi) I think that was done to touch-tone telephones in Israel many years ago when we still used land lines.

"Sabbath mode" ovens work in a clever way, where the temperature switch is only checked on a certain interval. So when you change the temperature you're generally not completing or breaking a circuit, since the circuit is likely currently broken anyway.

Most rabbinic authorities still prohibit Sabbath mode ovens on Shabbat for different reasons, but on holidays with weaker restrictions but that still have electricity bans, like Passover, permit their use.

I remember when my parents first got a "Sabbath mode" oven, the local Orthodox rabbi came over excitedly just to see it at work.

There is an organization in Israel, Tzomet, dedicated to these kind of stuff. I believe they manufacture such products.

But they're explicitly dedicated for times of need and not for leisure purposes.

I'm not sure what is your point. Nobody is trying to convince you to follow Judaism. In fact, it is customary to strongly discourage anybody who wants to convert. If it doesn't make sense to you, it's ok, it's not supposed to. I'm just trying to explain how those who follow it see it. If you're not interested, well, you're welcome to not being educated.

I would phrase the Shabbat prohibitions as "creative work", modeled after the days of creation and the creative labor of building the Tabernacle. The 39 general categories of labor have been documented for millennia, and are applied as the archetypes for technical usage in the modern world.