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There are some opinions that one should not ride on a boat during the 9 days because of danger. I am asking a follow-up on this answer and any similar opinions that prohibit boating.

According to those that would prohibit it because of "danger", is there leniency to allow one to ride a commuter ferry to go to / from work? To me, it poses the same level of "danger" as driving a car or travelling by bus or train. It's that the type of danger is different.

Alex
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DanF
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  • I agree that one who'd prohibit traveling on commuter ferry should by the same rationale prohibit driving. And by the same token, hoverboards, which IMO are much more vulnerable than those two, should also be prohibited especially when riding in the street along traffic. – Oliver Jul 10 '18 at 16:21

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In general, activities restricted during the nine days are pleasurable activities and many of the relevant lists do not include boating (e.g., here, here and there).

Some include taking trips (e.g., Moadei Yishurun in the name of R’ Moshe Feinstein, quoted here or "a gadol" quoted in Rivevot Efraim 1:374 mentioned here) but they mean pleasurable trips. This presumably doesn't apply to commuting to work by boat.

Danger alone cannot be a reason to prohibit commuter boating. The amount of casualties by boat is a fraction of deaths in car accidents (e.g., in the US between 2013-2016 an average of 15 people died every year on passenger vessels in the US vs. 34,000 in cars) and people do drive during the nine days.

mbloch
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  • I don't see how this answers the question at all. It belongs on the question the op linked to – Double AA Jul 10 '18 at 16:19
  • Absolute number of deaths doesn't seem relevant. What percentage of users are killed? There are way fewer passengers on boats then in cars so obviously cars have more deaths. That doesn't make them more dangerous. – Double AA Jul 10 '18 at 17:07
  • I think we may have to define, perhaps, what was meant by "danger" with regards to travel. Again, keep in mind that my question focused on the specific opinion that says boating is prohibited, not to the general question of whether you can do it or not. – DanF Jul 10 '18 at 21:52
  • @DanF the thing is I didn’t find opinions which prevent boating (outside of pleasure trips but these are forbidden/not recommended even when no boat is involved), neither in my search, nor in the question you linked. This is why I started my answer where I did – mbloch Jul 11 '18 at 04:41