The problem is that Touhy Avenue is a major road and in use pretty much 24/7. The gentiles don’t mind the hordes of pedestrians from Friday night through Saturday sundown, but they were NOT on board with blocking off the road to traffic. As best I remember the attitude was “if you want to walk on your Sabbath that’s great, we don’t care, but don’t impose your rules on the rest of us, we want to drive on the public road.” The notion that the small Jewish community somehow “owned” a public road paid for by public taxes also did not go over well. There are privately owned roads in the Chicago area (one by the Merchandise Mart is shut down at least once a year to maintain private ownership, as an example) but those roads were paid for solely by private funds, not public. The group in question simply did not own that road and the majority of people living in the area and using that road did not want someone else’s religious rules imposed on them. The group couldn’t get permission from the city to shut the road down every week.
As I said, I don’t know the details of the Touhy eruv group’s request, I just know some of (I’m not a Rabbi) the technicalities of eruv and that my local Rabbinical Council arranges with the city to do that in a way that doesn’t interefere much with others. But I can certainly see ways in which a request can be done in a less agreeable manner.
I watched that video on what the “Sabbath Switch” does, but can anyone give a simple explanation as to why it’s OK? After all the end result is you’re still turning on a light, whether you’re operating a standard toggle switch, or changing the probability of a random event from “never” to “by the laws of probability certainly will”.
What about leaving a standard triac dimmer on but turned down away, then you can turn it up without creating a spark on the switch.
Would turning on a fluorescent light be out no matter what because the electric arc in the tube is like a spark?
Ontario had blue laws until the late 80s. Stores closed on Saturday for Shabbat we’re permitted to open on Sunday.
Famously (and I offer no cite) Philadelphia had an exemption to Blue Laws for the Jewish jewelers in the city. The exemption was struck down as it favored one religious group over another.
I believe I’ve read about places that got around that by requiring stores and other businesses to close either Saturday or Sunday without making any reference to the proprietor’s religion.
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Sounds highly discriminatory in case the proprietor’s Sabbath falls on Friday (or any other day besides Saturday and Sunday).
As a teenager, Bill Clinton was a Shabbos Goy for a wealthy Orthodox family in Little Rock.
Thank you cmkeller! Man, this thread is an educational experience.
I know it’s Sabbath for most SDMB users right now, but cmkeller’s post got me thinking about fire. Specifically if it’s okay to throw a log onto an already burning fire. I figure it’s an old enough question that there is something close to a consensus.
I got some sideways glances when I ran through Satmar Williamsburg on Saturdays with no shirt (I didn’t do it on purpose; I accidentally went south of Broadway). They really wouldn’t have liked it if they had known that I was a goy who married a Jewish woman.
When I worked in a library near Crown Heights I had a woman ask me where to find a book. She wasn’t allowed to write the location down, so I was happy to do it. Apparently it was ok for her to carry it.
Until recently, in the US Muslims or others with different Sabbaths (do other religions besides Christianity, Judaism, and Islam have Sabbaths on which one refrains from work?) were just a blip and generally ignored.
I don’t think that Islam has a “sabbath” at all: That is, Friday is the customary day for communal worship, but I don’t think there are any rules against also doing work on that day.
Right. Friday is a special day for worship because it commemorates the creation of Adam on the Sixth Day. Although it is frequently given as a day off work in Islamic countries, there is no injunction to refrain from work as there is in Judaism, and according to some interpretations you should go back to work after worship (which is held just after midday). A Muslim shopkeeper in a non-Islamic country might have to close up for a few hours on Friday to attend worship, but could stay open most of the day if they chose. (If running a store by himself he would have to close anyway for a short time every day for prayers at midday and in the afternoon.)
And they really, *really *wouldn’t have liked it if you *were *a Jewish woman!
In the spiritual sense of “work” discussed by the sagesof old (not Bronze Age, by the way) up to the current annual conferences of observant physicians and technologists (for example), one remembers that even having toilet paper is something pretty special, and Sabbath and its "rules"is all about appreciating what is, well, special.
On the other hand, there is no prescribed blessing for using toilet paper, for example. There are any number of prescribed “thanks be to God” (brachot) each of which has the same formulaic opening, and then the object of wonder—wine, bread, fruits, thunder, first seeing the ocean, etc. etc.
No matter what the range of opinions may be on being able to transform the already nifty item toilet paper–“create” a humanly enhanced version–it’s interesting and nice to note that the issue is secondary (as Broomstick notes) to taking a shit.
Now that has its own blessing.
Every time you poop. And once every Sabbath for good measure if you haven’t gone that morning.
You can look it up; it’s quite lovely.
This is a long-standing SDGQ phenomenon.
Wonder if it’s a sign…
Of what…?
Show of hands: Of the goyim here, who got his (they’re always guys) start jailhouse lawyering in Catholic religion class? 
See Carlin’s “Class Clown”
I have to make a distinction here. In “religion” classes (grade school, taught by nuns) there was no lawyering — Sister Mary Godzilla’s word was The Law, and you kept any doubts to yourself. “Theology” classes (high school, taught by Jesuits) were a whole 'nother kettle of fish: discussion/dissension was not only permitted but encouraged, and while the conclusion reached was almost always orthodox, the value lay in the process.
(Time frame: 1952-1965.)
Gotta echo what OttoDaFe says.
Grammar school - dictatorial nuns (Gray Nuns of the Sacred Heart) laid down the law.
High school - priests (Jesuits) encouraged questioning and even dissent, while somehow guiding the discussion so that we ended up at an orthodox (more or less - these were Jesuits, and it was the seventies) conclusion.
Time frame - 1965-1977