Hell bound button pushers

[Llamatron]

This is without doubt the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard:

http://stupac2.blogspot.com/2007/05/religious- accommodation.html

Is it for real? Are people who operate electrical switches on the Sabbath destined for hell?

[naomi24]

Hi Llamatron, I can remember my father being asked to go into a Jewish house to put money in the electric meter because the family weren't allowed to do that on the Sabbath. In the case you've given, I'm surprised the lift is an issue bearing in mind that Orthodox Jews must walk everywhere on the Sabbath and aren't allowed to use any form of transport!!!

Are they destined for hell? I wouldn't say so. Hold tight now - Going up!!!

[Llamatron]

But surely asking other people to do it instead is asking them to commit a heinous sin? That's not fair.

What would they do in an entirely Jewish community?

Do Jewish communities not have fire services or doctors on the Sabbath? Do they have to import non believers to do the work?

[naomi24]

I think that was the point. In my dad's case, they asked him to do it because he wasn't Jewish. I presume they wouldn't have asked a Jew. Perhaps the same applies to medical services - although I don't know how they feel about being taken to hospital in an ambulance on the sabbath. Perhaps they have special concessions for emergencies. I think Lonnie's Jewish so might be able to tell us - I'll give him a call.

[Octavius]

There are 39 categories of activities that Orthodox and Conservative Jews believe Jews are prohibited to do on Shabbat.

Some observe, some don't.

The consequences: "Keep the Sabbath as something sacred to you. Anyone doing work shall be cut off spiritually from his people, and therefore, anyone violating it shall be put to death."

Sabbath elevators are more likely to be found in Israel and larger Jewish communities in high buildings. And if a lift has a notice that said on the Sabbath it will stop at each and every floor, would it make you (being a non-Jew) take the stairs or just put up with the slow ascension?

Although these 39 activities are forbidden, in the event something life-threatening I understand that one is required to do whatever is necesary to prevent it as this is would not be about 'creation' or 'control over ones environment', but preservation of life.

[Llamatron]

Wow.

I guess I just have trouble understanding how they have got to the point where they're not allowed to press buttons on a Saturday.

[Octavius]

Well it really only concerns those who adhere to the strictest rules of Sabbath which are set by the poskim.

Electricity � according to the Orthodox legal devisors - falls into the Melacha of �lighting a fire� which is one of the forbidden activities.

Of course there are those who might be somewhat confused as to what is permissible and not permissible on Shabbat and Biblical holiday and categorising certain areas of technology has become confusing.

Another school of thought holds that while electricity can be used for light, it is but a minor use of electricity. Electricity is used to heat and to cool, to power engines and to power utensils, all of which are activated by a switch. The activation of a switch completes a circuit which allows the electricity to flow and therefore falls into the category of "the final hammer blow" or, completing something (the circuit) on Shabbat that was incomplete prior to Shabbat.

[wizard69]

confirms what ive always said...religion is a mental illness

[tompaine]

Saturday, Donny, is Shabbos, the Jewish day of rest. That means that I don't work, I don't get in a car, I don't f***ing ride in a car, I don't pick up the phone, I don't turn on the oven, and I sure as sh1t
don't f***ing roll! Shomer shabbos!

Walter, The big lebowski.

[Octavius]

Some would say that, and there are those that would say seeing a ghost is a psychosomatic hallucination of an overactive metaphorical subconscious in a confused state of metaphysicality.

If you are always saying it, perhaps you should change the record.

Aren�t opinions wondrous.

[naomi24]

Wizard ..... disappears for days and then straight back to the fold with no holds barred!! Ha!

[Octavius]

Yes disappears and then reinvents himself by trotting out the same old stuff as before.

A sort of �Ruddy Hell it�s Harry and Paul� of the Answerbank.

[wizard69]

I see octavious, you are entitled to your opinion, but im not.
How mature of you..

[Octavius]

I was merely only answering the original question until you added your half-penny worth. I just recall seeing that opinion several times before, often, on several other threads, even ones that weren't about individual religious observances.

Did my post imply that I deny you your opinion?
How facetious of me.

[luna-tic]

Doesn't the body have electrical impulses running continually through it, which could be classed as switches so that would render all Jewish people following the Sabbath to not move at all.
Mmm....very interesting.

[naomi24]

Any excuse for a day off, eh Luna? What you doing Sunday? Not a lot? :o)

[Llamatron]

Octavius are you saying that Wizard should give a different opinion every time?

[tompaine]

and you wonder where all the christians have gone.

[Octavius]

Llamatron, not at all. But it kinda gets a bit �samey� when the line is used in several threads. Wizard can opine in anyway they see fit if they feel it is an erudite contribution to the Answerbank Question, I was just giving an opinion too.

One can learn a lot from understanding other people�s religious observances whether we agre with them or not, but any fool can say its all crap. I just thought that providing an educated answer to your question was the way forward but perhaps it is I who has missed the purpose of your inquisitive mind. If you didn�t want to understand the reasoning behind Sabbath elevators and the somewhat strict Orthodox rules governing the Sabbath, then why-ever did you ask?

�.Where all the Christians have gone�..

I feel a song coming on.

[naomi24]

Good - maybe that'll cheer you up a bit.

[Octavius]

Well it might, but then as I appear to be the anathema of R&S - being the only Christian prepared to speak up an�all - I might get booed off by the mini-cult of the AB R&S Matriarchal High Priestess, Naomi24 and her faithful minions.

Is the sanctity of my wraithlike happiness really worth the risk? I shall await your guidance before my opening stanza.