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

[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.