I must say that I was really threatened as a jew by those who told me that I must not use electricity at all on shabbas. I thought that it was a right that we needed to observe to really be holy. I had always heard the story of Elvis Presley who was a shabbas Goy turning on the lights for some family in Memphis, Tennessee. I thought that it was the way of the world to be perfect and that if I was not as perfect as other people told me that they needed to be, I was really not a good enough person to be their true friend and relative or council mate. I was really offended that we needed to make sure that a shabbas goy was present in our homes if we say wanted to watch television on shabbas. But that said, I endured one full year of not using the electricity at any major length (I left the radio playing and once in a while I accidentally turned on a light by accident). I was terrorized by the idea that turning on a light was not the acts of a Jewish human being on shabbas. I was terrorized by the local rabbi who lived next door to the synagogue, had ten children and kept shabbas to a T. I knew that there might be something wrong with driving since I was sure that the law about lighting a fire applied to vehicles as well. But I did not 100 % feel that listening to music on the radio was a bad thing. It was not. I did enjoy the past year, though I felt I might be regarded as a Jewish radical by the in group of Jewish orthodox believers. So that said, I am going back to being myself and I am going to indeed enjoy using a computer on shabbas. I also think that I will consider painting and writing down your phone number if you call me on shabbas. Its not starting a flame and its not work I do for my livelihood. I must say that Torah is not a third world way of oppression. It is enlightened liberal learning and I will be the first to lock the bathroom door when I leave for the bahamas on my first ticket out.
That said, I do not believe you can start a fire in any sense on shabbas. So no driving your gas powered vehicle and no airplane ride either. Boats included if they have anything that burns fuel. That said, I will take any electric vehicle out for a ride on shabbas in the years to come. I also agree that one must not work an animal on shabbas. So do not drive your buggy on shabbas. That would be a bad move. Thanks.
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