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Comment by dmurray | Hacker News Reader

Are they allowed to go down?

Also, depending on the counterweight and the current load of the elevator, adding an extra person to it might tax the motor less even when ascending.

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Generating electricity is equally forbidden.

The prohibition is not work, but rather creation. In this case creating electrical energy.

A prohibition on "creation" is over-broad. Any action taken purposefully can be considered an act of creation. That would include choosing to adhere to the law (thus creating a world where there is more compliance with the law) even if that takes the form of deliberately doing nothing.

The only way I can think of to completely avoid creating anything would be to remain unconscious the entire time, thus preventing yourself from making any choices.

Judaism has a specific list of what counts as creation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/39_Melachot

Yes, that is understood. My point was that if the intention was to prohibit "acts of creation" then the official list is woefully incomplete, and rather arbitrary; other acts which could equally well be considered "creation" under the same reasoning are not prohibited. (Mostly IMHO because if said reasoning were applied consistently it would be impossible to follow the law, regardless of what one did or did not do.) It leaves the impression that "creation" is merely an excuse or after-the-fact rationalization, not the actual reason for the prohibition.

There are opinions that say that ascending is fine, but it’s fairly unanimous that descending is forbidden.

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