Shabbos Travel for Minyan Attendance

I’m currently on vacation in the mountains with my family, and I realized that the closest minyan is a bit of a distance from where we’re staying, and there are two options available to get there: One is to take my bike — it’s a regular pedal bike, no battery — and the other is to take the local shuttle bus that circles the area throughout the day. It’s free of charge and mostly used by tourists, many of whom are not Jewish.Is it permitted for me to ride the bike or take the bus on Shabbos so that I can daven with a minyan?

Thank you for your question.

The answer:

One may not go on the bus or even ride the bike on Shabbos, even if it will cause you to daven alone without a minyan.

The answer explained:

Not riding a bike on Shabbos:

One could ask — what’s the problem with riding a pedal bike on Shabbos, since it’s not using a battery, so maybe it should be permitted?

The reason why, lehalacha, we don’t ride a bike on Shabbos — the Poskim write a few reasons:

Since when riding a bike, it could happen that the chain will fall off, or there might be a puncture, etc., and a person may forget it’s Shabbos and come to repair it

Another reason is that since the bike is used during the week as a form of transport — to go to work or to the shops — it’s considered uvdin de’chol.

Uvdin de’chol is a very general halacha and a big chiddush — since it forbids doing things even if there’s no specific issur involved. For example, it’s not one of the 39 melachos, however, since it’s something that’s weekday-like and a kind of activity that is done during the week and not on a day of rest, it’s included in uvdin de’chol.

There are two sources to this halacha in the Rishonim. According to the Rambam, as we’ll see, it is a rabbinical issur, but the Chasam Sofer learns from the Ramban on the Torah that it is a biblical issur.
 So let’s see the two Rishonim to get a better understanding of this halacha called uvdin de’chol.

רמב"ם הלכות שבת פרק כד הלכה א
יש דברים שהן אסורין בשבת אף על פי שאינם דומין למלאכה ואינם מביאין לידי מלאכה, ומפני מה נאסרו משום שנאמר +ישעיהו נ"ח+ אם תשיב משבת רגלך עשות חפציך ביום קדשי ונאמר וכבדתו מעשות דרכיך ממצוא חפצך ודבר דבר, לפיכך אסור לאדם להלך בחפציו בשבת ואפילו לדבר בהן כגון שידבר עם שותפו מה ימכור למחר או מה יקנה או היאך יבנה בית זה ובאי זה סחורה ילך למקום פלוני, כל זה וכיוצא בו אסור שנאמר ודבר דבר דבור אסור הרהור מותר.

Rambam, Hilchot Shabbat, Chapter 24, Halacha 1:
There are certain things that are forbidden on Shabbos even though they don’t resemble actual melacha (forbidden labor) and don’t lead to melacha.
Why are they forbidden? Because the verse says (Yeshayahu 58), “If you restrain your foot because of the Shabbos, from pursuing your desires on My holy day,” and it also says, “and you shall honor it by not doing your ways, seeking your own desires, or speaking [idle] words.”

Therefore, a person is not allowed to go about his personal business on Shabbos — even talking about them is forbidden.
 For example: discussing with your business partner what to sell tomorrow, or what to buy, or how to build a certain house, or what merchandise to take to a certain city — all of this and anything similar is prohibited, as it says, “or speaking [idle] words.”
 Talking about such weekday matters is forbidden — but thinking about them is permitted.

The opinion of the Ramban:

ויקרא פרק כג פסוק כד
דַּבֵּר אֶל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לֵאמֹר בַּחֹדֶשׁ הַשְּׁבִיעִי בְּאֶחָד לַחֹדֶשׁ יִהְיֶה לָכֶם שַׁבָּתוֹן זִכְרוֹן תְּרוּעָה מִקְרָא קֹדֶשׁ:

רמב"ן ויקרא פרק כג פסוק כד
והנה ידרשו "שבתון" לשבות בו לגמרי אפילו מדברים שאינן מאבות מלאכות ותולדותיהן:

Ramban, Vayikra 23:24:
The Sages interpreted the word “Shabbaton” to mean that one should completely rest on that day — even from activities that are not part of the main categories of forbidden labor or their subcategories……
 ……It seems to me that this Midrash is teaching that the Torah commands us to rest on Yom Tov not only from melacha (forbidden labor), but also from various weekday activities that aren’t technically melacha.
Meaning — a person shouldn’t spend the whole day measuring grain, weighing fruits and gifts, filling wine barrels, or moving utensils and stones from place to place. Even if the city is surrounded by a wall and the gates are closed at night (i.e., there’s no issue of carrying), people might still load up donkeys with wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of merchandise — the marketplace would look like a regular weekday, full of buying and selling, shops open, storekeepers writing down debts, money changers counting coins at their tables...
 And workers would get up early for their jobs, hiring themselves out for all these activities — just like on a regular weekday — even though technically, none of this is actual melacha.
 Therefore, the Torah says “Shabbaton” — to teach that it must be a day of rest and calm, not a day of toil.
 And this is a beautiful and fitting explanation.

We see from the Rishonim that there are types of activities that, even though they may not be a specific melacha, still are not fitting for Shabbos, because they disturb the ‘day of rest’ that Shabbos is meant to be.
 Therefore, HaGaon HaRav Fried says that riding a bike on Shabbos would also be considered uvdin de’chol and therefore forbidden.

Riding a bus:

Yes, I’ve also been in the Alps and I remember that there is a regular bus that drives around bringing people from one place to another — and it’s free of charge — so maybe it should be permitted?

HaGaon HaRav Fried shlit”a says that there are a number of reasons why it would be prohibited, even if most of the passengers are non-Jews:

One: there is the prohibition of techumin on Shabbos, and by taking the bus one will travel outside the techum Shabbos, since there is no eiruv there.
 Also, even though there are mostly non-Jews on the bus, nevertheless each added passenger causes more fuel to be burned — and so that would also be assur to do on Shabbos.
 And the third reason is the one we mentioned above — the issue of uvdin de’chol — which applies here as well.

Note: We wrote earlier that one may not ride a bike on Shabbos, however, a child’s tricycle is permitted since it is a toy.
 The same applies to a korkinet (kick scooter) that is meant for children — it is permitted for the child to ride it on Shabbos.

Wishing you a great holiday!

Rambam, Hilchot Shabbat 24:1

Ramban, Vayikra 23:24

Yeshayahu 58

HaGaon HaRav Amram Fried shlit”a - Shimusha Ve'Limudah