Unplugging something on shabbos

Posted: Sat, Dec 17 2011, 12:46 pm Post subject: unplugging something on shabbos

I am not providing background details unless necessary...

I unplugged something on shabbos. It was plugged into a shabbos clock, but it was on the "off" time when I unplugged it. Meaning, the device was turned to the on position, the shabbos clock was in timer mode, but it was during a time when it was set to be off.
I did not unplug it because of any danger/medical need.
Was this like assur min hatorah? m'drabanan? Not assur? I know that switching the device to the off position when its during the "off" time is permissble, but what about this?
I feel terrible that I did this, and I want to know how bad it was? This has been bothering all shabbos (I did it last night)...

Ok so first it was muktzeh, that's pretty much for sure and by unplugging you moved something muktzeh.
Did you actually do a melocho? I don't think so because it was neither hadloko or kibui.
What about what you did by causing it not to go on later? Well shabbos is different then yuntif but I don't think it's a melocho either.

Why did you do it? Did you have a reason? Was it bothering your sanity? Could that be a medical reason in itself (you can see I'm into mental health...)
_________________
"Olam Chessed Yiboneh", Tehilim 89.

Yes, it was bothering my sanity. But as soon as I did it I felt guilty. O gosh, I really feel guilty. I was having dreams about getting punished for what I did.

Did you feel unbalanced when you were doing it? Mentally imbalanced? Are you hormonal? Are you post partum, are you pms or are you menopausal? All of those can bring someone to a state where they feel if they don't do something they will go out of their minds. Seriously.

If you feel you fall into any of those categories relax. If you are the kind of person who needs to speak to a rov about it, go and do it but please mention your state and its stress on you. See what the rov says. Not that one should do it milechaschila but if that was the situation there are mitigating circumstances bedieved. However once again, the idea is not to get into such a position if you are in such a state again. People in such states are temorarily mentally imbalanced sometimes, for real. And they aren't responsible for their actions. I've seen it happen and I've seen the people afterwards not even aware of what they had done. But again, speak to a competent rov if you feel so awful and if necessary to a competent therapist (and not to me over imamother as completent as I am!) that you can give the entire picture to.

Hatzlocho!