work on shabbos

[gilana]

I know people are often confused by what I can and can't do on shabbos, and what constitutes "work". I was amused to see the The Straight Dope has just posted an interesting and very readable column on the topic.  (My personal observance does not always follow the Orthodox customs, so please don't tell me "Hey, you're not allowed to do that!" if you see me doing something covered there...)

Comments

[dpolicar]

Can we tell you that if we see you doing something not covered there?
I mean, you know, just for grins?

[gilana]

I'm going to say yes, because I trust that you will have completely forgotten about this by the time it actually comes up. :)

[wellstar.livejournal.com]

Hah!

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Ha! I'm totally putting this link in the email announcements I'm about to send!

[eclecticavatar.livejournal.com]

This is really interesting; thanks for posting!

[doeeyedbunny.livejournal.com]

That was a very excellent and thorough answer. What bothers me is the question.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Ditto.

[gilana]

Yeah, the question was pretty obnoxious, but the answer was good enough to make it worth passing along.

[bedfull-o-books.livejournal.com]

Very interesting. I've been wondering about the specifics of the no work on the Sabbath thing but have been too lame to do my own research.

(Re the injunction against putting out a fire: I am assuming that there are exceptions made for putting out something that should not, in fact, actually be on fire.... Yes. I know. The darndest things catch my eye/brain.)

[magid.livejournal.com]

Putting out house fires, definitely ok. Doing medically necessary things or anything else life saving, always ok.

[chaiya.livejournal.com]

Actually, I believe I was instructed (by llennhoff and malkaesther, Orthodox Jews, during my Orthodox training) that as long as everyone was out of the house, it was supposed to burn down rather than have a Jew put out the fire.

But I could've misheard them. It stuck in my mind as something that was very incongruous with what I thought was reasonable and right observance of my relationship with God. So that's not what I would do, faced with a burning building. But then again, I also decided not to become Orthodox.

[magid.livejournal.com]

How can one be sure that the house will just burn down without spreading to other houses that may be occupied?

Which is to say, I can understand the other point of view, but I can also see how it would be considered fine to put the fire out.

IANAR and all that, though.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

aha! i knew the general concept of an eruv but wasn't sure what the purpose was, nor how it was arrived at.

please don't tell me "Hey, you're not allowed to do that!" if you see me doing something covered there...

if someone does that when i'm around, i will happily do the work of bitching them out for you.

[gilana]

Thanks! I already get enough comments from people along the lines of "Hey, I thought you're not allowed to do work!" that I thought I'd at least try to forestall what I can ahead of time...