If you err inadvertently, as I am certain would be my constant failing, do you just correct yourself and go on? Using an example I cited earlier, imagine that each morning you stumble into the kitchen and pop a baby bottle into the microwave. On the Sabbath, you stumble out and oops…forgot again. Now what? Can you use the bottle that has been warmed? Must you confess your fault? Just vow to do better next time? Take steps to prevent your semi automatic action?
well, the whole reason i joined this thing is to tell cecil how incredibly smart he is, and how immensly impressed i am at his infinite wisdom. as an “ultraorthodox jew” as some call it, i would like to say that his answer is pretty much on the button. but i’m assuming he is not reading this , so oh well. to answer goddess of oddness’ question- it depends on the situation. if you turned on the light by mistake. oh well. better luck next shabbat. but if you did something like cook a 9 course meal, the food is not allowed to be eaten on the shabbat itself. ad about the vowing to do better thing, there is a concept in judaism called tsuvah (repentance). it means pretty much that if you really regret what you did, and won’t do it again if faced with the same situation, you’re good with God. you follow?
and by the way, i was just reading back a bit, and to correct what was said about the doctor thing- “pikuach nefesh doche shabbat”. danger to human life overrides the shabbat- meaning if there is a medical need, everything neccessary must be done. boiling water, driving to the dr, surgery, whatever.
Cecil is one smart cookie but he can’t take the credit for this article. It was written by CMKeller and C K Dexter Haven. Cecil doesn’t write a new column every day, so on the other days he either reruns a past column or has a column from a guest contributer like this one.
I remember as a child, my father would complain to my brother and me, how was it that we had memorized all sorts of sports trivia so perfectly, yet we got awful grades in school? I never had a good answer, and was always frustrated by the question. After all, the facts were on his side - we were indeed good at one thing and bad at the other, and I could not figure out the difference between them. But as I grew older, I realized a simple truth, the things which one is interested in are much easier to learn than things which one is not interested in.
Applying that principle here, if one views the rules as something which you have to put up with (like school), then they will be hard to learn, hard to understand, and hard to remember. But if one sees the religion as an important part of one’s life, then these things will be easier accordingly.
goddessodd:
Well, you shouldn’t derive benefit from the results of your transgression, but other than that, you’ve got it pretty much dead-on. Repentance of sin, in traditional Judaism, requires three elements: regret, confession, and resolve to not repeat it. G-d understands that we’re only human, what’s important is that we sincerely try our best. As long as we’re constantly striving to improve, that makes mistakes of the past nothing more than steps in a journey ultimately to success.
i didn’t pay attention that this wasn’t written by our dear cecil. nevermind, it’s his column, he should get the credit anyway. go cecil!!!
Ah, well…maybe I’ll deserve credit for the next one I write…
[Applying that principle here, if one views the rules as something which you have to put up with (like school), then they will be hard to learn, hard to understand, and hard to remember. But if one sees the religion as an important part of one’s life, then these things will be easier accordingly.]
I understand and absolutely agree, but I think my greatest failing would be simple mechanical slips. As an example, I can leave my office repeating over and over to myself something like “remember to stop at the bank…remember to stop at the bank” over and over, only to arrive home later still clutching my deposit slip. I will walk thru the store muttering “lightbulbs lightbulbs” and arrive home with everything but. Remembering not to do very mundane activities would prove very difficult for me I think, regardless of my motivation for doing them.
Just to clarify: “confession” means to God through prayer. It’s not like Catholic confession. And inadvertent slips happen and usually are not considered a big deal.
goddessodd:
Take it from the king of klutzes, absent-mindedness is hardly unknown amongst traditional Jews. Fortunately, that’s why our lives are full of reminders and mnemonic devices. Just as examples, Sabbath starts with a candle-lighting ceremony and doesn’t end until a formal ending ceremony. Everyone is usually dressed in their finest clothes, in many homes, the table is covered with a white tablecloth, there will be the aroma of cooking chulent until it’s served at the Saturday lunch meal…unlikely to forget what day it is! On top of that, Judaica stores sell snap-on lightswitch covers, metal sheets (called “blech” because of the Yiddish word; I hate using that term because it sounds, in English, like an expression of disgust) to cover oven surfaces and knobs and similar items that help the absent-minded not transgress.
One of the first directives taught by the Talmudic Rabbis was “build a fence around the Torah.” No one is perfect, but a little preventive effort can go a long way in enforcing religiously-correct behavior. The properly motivated will make use of these (mental and physical) devices to overcome their personal difficulties.
For that matter, if you’re born and raised observing the Sabbath, then observing the Sabbath itself would become part of your accustomed routine. So it’d probably actually help, not hinder.
More examples of the “fences” mentioned by cmkeller:
Lighting a match, writing with a pen, and pressing the button on a remote control are examples of actions which are violations as described by the many posts above. What I don’t think anyone has yet mentioned, is that since these objects – the match, pen, and remote – are used primarily (almost exclusively, actually) for actions which are prohibited, we are therefore forbidden to handle them, as a protective “fence”.
In other words: There is no violation whatosever of the Torah’s Sabbath laws, if one were to pick up a pen without actually writing anything. However, the ancient rabbis added additional legislation, forbidding us to pick up a pen even without writing anything, as a protective “fence” around the Torah’s laws. If one is careful to observes these fences, a great many absent-minded violations will be avoided. And if one absent-mindedly does pick up the pen, no Torah violation has been committed yet, and we can hope that he will become aware of the pen before he writes anything.
(Yes, there are ways around this if you have a good enough reason to move the pen. But only for certain reasons or by certain methods, and that will help the awareness factor.)
This particular fence works only for moveable objects, and won’t help the reflex action of hitting a light switch when entering a room. But as cmkeller pointed out, many people cover their light switches (either with a specially-designed cover as he wrote, or just a piece of tape), and we have many other ingenious ideas too.
I am positive I would need to make use of every available idea and device, but again, I am certain a lifetime of custom would help.
to ask some questions related to it…
It recently came to my attention that B&H Photo in Manhattan, which is owned and run by Orthodox Jews, does not allow their website to take orders during the Jewish sabbath and holidays.
So this raises a few questions:
Is this a reasonable interpretation of Jewish Law, or are they over the top?
If the former, does this mean that no Jewish-owned businesses are allowed to operate on the sabbath or holidays, even if there are only non-Jewish employees working? How about part Jewish, part non-Jewish owners (I assume this is OK, otherwise orthodox Jews would not be able to own most stocks)?
Interesting. It doesn’t seem that having someone leave an order on your website is all that different from having a customer write a note and leave it on your door, or even having them write a letter and mail it to you on the Sabbath.
Jewish tradition is that, until there is again a Sanhedrin to make official rulings, the more conservative choice must be taken. In addition, there is the old maxim, “Build a fence around Torah,” which means that practice should do more than the Torah actually demands, not out of supererogation (Jewish thought has little, if any, room for that), but as a safety buffer.
Actually, the Biblical rule is quite clear: “Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.”
I’ll have to bow out of this one, as merely a well-informed gentile
Running With Scissors:
It’s definitely reasonable - commerce is forbidden on Sabbath. It might be OK for them to receive orders through the web site on Sabbath, but perhaps they feel that allowing that to happen will result in non-observant Jews violating Sabbath and ordering from their web site, so they remove themselves from providing others with a sinful temptation.
Aside from any legalistic aspects, it is said that one will not see good fortune come from monies earned on Sabbath. Perhaps for that reason they make it impossible for themselves to earn any on Sabbath.
Correct. A Jew cannot have non-Jews doing forbidden acts for his benefit.
This is allowed, and is usually done with the explicit stipulation (obviously not in the case of stocks, but with more direct business partnerships) that all revenue earned on Sabbath belongs entirely to the non-Jewish partner(s).
But, as I understand it, a Jew is allowed to benefit from a non-Jew performing a forbidden act for his own reasons, correct? So if a Jew and his non-Jewish friend are going to a party on the Sabbath, and the gentile offers the Jew a ride, the Jew is allowed to accept, but he’s not allowed to ask for a ride, or to pay anyone to drive him.
I don’t know any orthodox Jews who would take up the offer of a free ride on Shabbat, just for a party, although it would be the preferred mode of transport in an allowable situation (eg emergency).
Chaim, a question about the internet orders - have there been any rulings on this situation given the international nature of the internet, and hence the two day long (more or less) Shabbat?