I may be forced to leave my apartment

I have been living in Manhattan for close to four years. I love my apartment and I love my building. However, this past week I had a serious problem. On Shabbat and festivals I never use the elevator, I always take the stairs. This past week the building management decided to start saving money and so they installed a sensory monitor for the lights in the stairwell. The lights are dimmed by default and when somebody walks into the staircase the sensor is alerted and the light becomes brighter. This is a major problem for a Torah observant Jew because according to the Torah one is not allowed to turn on lights on Shabbat and triggering automatic lights also falls under this prohibition.

To make matters worse, the building installed this monitor on the eve of the holiday of Shavuot. I immediately went to meet the building management and explained the problem. They apologized and stated that they had no idea about this Jewish rule and that the system was already in place and lacks an override switch. Apparently many building in Manhattan are switching to this system in order to save money.

There wasn’t enough time before Yom Tov to argue with them more intensively, so I began thinking about what to do.

Option number one was to find a way to keep the door propped open the whole holiday. Because the sensor is also sound sensitive, the noises coming from the hallway should theoretically have keep the lights on the whole time. Unfortunately, after I came home on the first night of Shavuot at 4:30 A.M. after fulfilling the custom to learn Torah until sunrise, I was dismayed to see that a neighbor had done me the “favor” of closing the door to the stairwell.

My second option was to run down the stairs so fast that the sensor wouldn’t pick up my movements. As fast as I am, let’s just say this option did not work.

My final option was to arrive in the staircase and wait for somebody to take the stairs before me and trigger the lights. I figured with fifteen hundred apartments and approximately five thousand people living in my building this should not have been a problem. Unfortunately for me, it turns out that most people actually use the elevator and not the stairs at all! Even more complicated, Torah law forbids from asking someone explicitly to go into the staircase for me. Finally, after a long wait someone decided to come down the stairs. This gave my companions and me a five minute window to run up the four flights of stairs to my apartment; more than enough time to do so.

Being that today is Friday, I am going to have to deal with this very situation again this evening. This time I have formulated a new plan of attack and will coordinate with my super and attempt to put tape over the motion sensors with the hopes of disabling them. Unfortunately, all of these solutions are only temporary and without a permanent fix, we will be forced to abandon our apartment. We love our building and don’t want to leave, but we are being left without a choice - wish us luck!

Shabbat Shalom