Exodus 35:3 says "You shall not kindle fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day".
This is interesting.
The ultra religious have interrpreted that this means no lighting any flame anywhere anywhere anywhere.
I specifically see this verse written as "in your dwelling place".
This to me does not mean your car or your out doors.
I disagree with this halacha and I will not abide by the idea that we do not use electricity on shabbas becuase to the very simple minded, electricity seems like it is a flame. It is not.
So good for life and good for order in this universe. I can see any rational jew has a right to disagree with this ultra stringent lifestyle limiting order that makes no sense to me in any way in this day and age.
I am sure I will make many enemies among the ultra religious. I will assert that they never wanted to be my friend in the first place if this is a contention that they must express their own disdain into my life.
I will say this, I no longer feel that is is assur (forbidden) to drive a vehicle on shabbas.
In fact, if you have to go to the hospital, it would make little sense that it was prohibited in the first place.
I might turn on my television and I certainly will no longer be unscrewing the refridgerator light bulbs each friday afternoon. That is just absurd and I can not believe that Torah means we must do things that really really do seem silly to most people.
I did it for a year. Not anymore.
I realize now that this simple verse means "not in your dwelling".
So I wont be lighting my pipe lighter in my home on shabbas. This makes sense to me.
Sorry if this is difficult to comprehend for the ultra religious. I will still consider that I am orthodox and probably even more so as I am correctly obeying the written word exactly as it is written.
Thanks.
2 comments:
Not only that, but I will recommend that you consider that by making this particular commandment more stringent than it is written, you are being wicked and deceitful.
I must say that during the year I kept this ultra stringency, I was increasingly critical and angry with my fellow jew. They say if you don't keep this commandment as the ultra religious jews suggest you must, that you are violating sabbath. So therefore it would seem to this type of person that about 85% of more of Israel does not keep the sabbath. This is absurd. Do you really think that our Creator wanted to make a nation that was almost wholly impossibly able to keep the commandments and the sabbath laws? Nonsense. God is not someone who makes you walk 1000 miles each morning of your day. The Torah is written with good reason and if you simply read and understand what is written, you will live a kosher life.
I disagree that one should ever keep an ultra stringent shabbat unless one is trying to be ascetic and even then, don't do it your entire lifetime.
I must say that hating your fellow jew as you would if you consider that every one of them is mostly violating shabbat is heresy and you will pay a price in the world to come in my thoughts.
Not only that but it is clear that if you do not think that every person is keeping shabbas as is the paradigm today, you will think that the messiah you look for will never come. They said to me once that if ever jew kept shabbas perfectly for just one weekend, there would be a messiah instantly. I personally do not know what our Creator has in store for us, but I disagree that our shabbas observance is the most crucial concern about our people.
Remember, the 2nd temple was not destroyed becuase someone defiled shabbas. it was destroyed for baseless hatred among our people.
And what can not be more baseless hatred than the arrogance and intrepid hatred that exists in this Jewish ultra religious communities and others who keep an ultra stringent shabbas and resent the entire nation who does not. This might be your call to find and make teshuvah for real in your lifetime. Just the sensitivity that I see in our day that we must accede.
I became angry with jews who did not keep the ultra stringent shabbas. I disliked the jews I saw who posted to Facebook and the internet on shabbas day. I most certainly felt agitated and anxious and angry when someone rang my phone in my home. It was a terrible situation and I am for one glad that I can now speak with my brother on shabbas. He does not live anywhere near me and sometimes, saturday is the only time we have to speak. Enough of the heresy and bad hyperstringencies of some of these 'halacha'. I will not support paganism in another form, that of being radially over stringent and perceiving ones self as holier than the right way of life. Thanks.
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