Religion & Beliefs
Burning Dumpsters and Rioting Doesn’t Show the Beauty of Shabbat
By Heshy Fried / July 17, 2009
I bid goodbye to my friend Josh at Kikar Shabbat. We had expected some riots, but there were none and we both turned toward home, let down by the seemingly non-violence of the Charedim. I walked toward the Beis Yisroel neighborhood and he towards Nachlaot. When I got to the alleyway I had memorized as my turnoff (based on the Tuna Beigel bumper sticker plastered across the street sign), I noticed a throng of Charedi boys walking quickly down the block seeming excited about something, but I decided to continue down the block. It was only 11:30 at night and I was planning on going to bed early, but my curiosity got the best of me.
I continued down Mea Shearim street until it narrowed and the garbage seemed to come out of nowhere, piles of filth everywhere cemented into the ground by an awful lot of water. I wondered if this was the quality of street cleaning in Charedi neighborhoods, merely to pour water on the street in hopes of some miracle on par with the splitting of the red sea and all of the sudden the garbage would wash itself away.
Then I saw them, at first it was clusters of younger streimel-wearing fellows, in groups of three or four gesturing towards the end of the street. I smelled smoke and saw plumes of it in the streetlights and then at this random intersection was a full-out throng of kids pushing a burning mini-dumpster down the street towards the flashing lights of police cars.
I watched these kids cheering and gesturing wildly and pushing the dumpster to the police waiting at the end of the street, then everyone started running and so, like any normal guy with a huge Jewfro and a 30-pound backpack would do, I started running with the boys away from whatever unseen horrors would be taking place if I had stayed still. Suddenly I found myself alone and noticed the throng which was so scared a moment ago was moving back in. More people had joined in and I once again cursed myself for not speaking Yiddish.
Then I heard a rumble and before I could understand what was flying, besides for peyos, this truck started moving down the street and kids of all ages started throwing bottles and whatever they could their hands on at it, while others ran like mad. I figured the big ugly truck was going to stop and a bunch of Israeli police officers would jump out. I hid behind a wall in the entrance of a building just in time to see and mighty strong jet of water squirt down the street, small tidal waves complete with last night’s suppers, random cardboard boxes and plastic bags floating along in the stream of water gurgling back down the street. Then I saw them spraying the balconies and roofs, I wondered about all the people trying to sleep.
A young Chassid came over and asked me in a British accent what I thought about the whole thing,. I told him I thought it was the pre-melave malka party and that it was just a bunch of kids with nothing better to do on a Saturday night. I also told him that I didn’t notice anyone over 30 at the gathering. He agreed, he said that it wasn’t called for, but it did provide some good entertainment and I added that it’s a good way to work off the cholent of that day.
I had thought by leaving Jerusalem for shabbos I would have missed the riots, but apparently it was peaceful this time, a group of 7,000 davened together. Besides, you can’t burn your dumpsters on Saturday night, heterim for stone throwing at cars is one thing but heterim for fire are kind of hard to find and when you do find them they can get pricey.
Another little group of English speaking Chassids asked me what I thought about it, I told them the same thing but they weren’t buying it. I told them I understood that they were trying to out a new line of kiruv because Chabad was too secular and that dumpster-burning seemed to be helping people learn about the beauty of shabbos by showing how unified the community can be when you have shabbos to hold on to. They told me that Israel isn’t a Jewish country and the people breaking shabbos obviously weren’t Jewish, I didn’t want to get all philosophical, but I pointed out that if they really weren’t Jewish, they were rioting for nothing and other than conducting genocide on cats in dumpsters they really weren’t accomplishing anything.
After the burning dumpster and water cannon affair some other Charedi kids got the bright idea to wheel one of those huge dumpsters that support entire cat populations and can take the garbage of several Charedi families. This big dumpster was on fire and they were rolling the thing from upper Mea Shearim down the street to the cheers and disdain of many. Lots of the older crowd was walking away. I think the water cannon is so scary because what on earth do you tell your wife if your most expensive possession, your streimel, gets ruined in a protest?
I watched from a distance as poisonous gasses shot out from underneath the pile of plastic and the entire thing was engulfed in a huge inferno. I should mention that at this point I had secretly started filming the whole event. I was scared of the Charedim getting nasty with me but I really wanted some footage, albeit dark and shaky footage. They wheeled the dumpster down to the corner and several times we ran like mad. I wondered if this is what happened during 9/11 only they were running away from much worse.
Some of you may be thinking that by me just being there I was showing support, but I was merely watching the madness with extreme curiosity. Some may even call me a ghetto journalist in the sense that I have no credentials but I am just a social critic with no goals. Journalist without a cause maybe?
But this does lead to the philosophical question of the week: If these people want to stop the violence they have to listen to the Charedi demands and close the parking lot on shabbos, but if they listen that sends a message to everyone that violence pays and that is a terrible message especially in such a volatile place as Israel.
On the other hand, the only way to actually stop the violence would be to start physically hurting people. Should that be done, I heard more then one person say that the only way to deal with violence is to start shooting these Charedim, but when the government starts killing its own people that’s a great way to bring on a revolution, and I am deathly scared of a government run by Orthodox Jews.
Seems that the Israelis may want to start thinking of a security fence around the Haredi neighborhoods…
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Rambam42, you said, " It works very well for him, it would appear, but it doesn’t work for me."
However, my assertions are not based on what I think "works" for people. A person might get a spiritual high out of many things – Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, whatever. A person might enjoy many things – from ice cream to murder. So my concern is not with what people enjoy or what "works" for them; my concern is with what I believe is correct. Just as I won’t condone racism just because the white supremacists enjoy it, I also won’t condone any violation of Judaism just because those so violating enjoy it.
In other words, I vehemently reject any sort of moral equivalency or relativism. Judaism is too valuable for me to reduce it to whatever people enjoy; the early Reformers stated their mission as being "Religion Allied to Progress", i.e. social progress in keeping with the times, with Judaism allied thereto. Rabbi S. R. Hirsch, a German-Orthodox rabbi of the time, pointed out that Judaism has never been in keeping with the times; Avraham’s Judaism was not in keeping with the times when he smashed his father’s idols and was thrown into the ovens by Nimrod (whether or not this actually historically happened is not the point); neither was Moses’s when he confronted Pharaoh; neither was Isaiah’s when he demanded that abuse of the poor cease; neither was Judah Maccabee’s when he proclaimed "All those for G-d, join me!". The fact is, Judaism has never been a religion that sought pleasure for its adherents. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks points out that quite the opposite of being an opiate for the masses that inures one to social injustice, Judaism awakens its adherents to injustice and abuse of the disadvantaged. According to Rabbi Joseph Dov Soloveitchik, "the highest form of religious experience comes from constant turmoil and from the experiencing of life’s irreconcilable antitheses-from the simultaneous affirmation and abnegation of the self, the simultaneous awareness of the temporal and the eternal, the simultaneous clash of freedom and necessity, the simultaneous love and fear of God, his simultaneous transcendence and immanence. True, with the departure of Sabbath’s peace, Jews may sing, ‘The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures." But the road to the green pastures is a narrow and winding one, along a steep cliff, with a bottomless pit below. It is the other words of the Psalmist-"From the deep I called unto Thee, O Lord"-that describe the most authentic religious experience, and the deep is a deep of antinomies, doubts, and spiritual travail."
Now then, regarding mixed-sex prayer: this may be perfectly fine, or this may be a violation of halakhah. However, whatever it may be, it is very low on the scale of importance, and I have bigger things to worry about.
I’m not sure about the kittens, but I’ll be the first to pony up and say the Haredim aren’t all about rioting.
Frankly, I’ve always been under the impression that they’re all about study. Their knowledge of Torah and Talmud is remarkable, even if I disagree with their interpretations. So, I can certainly respect their committment to study.
That said, I do take exception to their almost pathological inability to deal with viewpoints not their own without some level of mob violence and saliva. The Haredim believe themselves to be Right, and all others so egregiously wrong that their thoughts, feelings, well-reasoned opinions, and personal safeties are to be disregarded.
Allow me to illustrate what I’m talking about. If you don’t mind, Mike, you’re my example. He’s Orthodox, I’m Reform. I respect his knowledge, even if I disagree with his interpretations and wonder at his understanding of Reform. I do feel as though he’s a spiritual person committed to leaving the world in better shape than he found it. Now, is he right? According to his understanding of the Covenant, sure. Why not? It works very well for him, it would appear, but it doesn’t work for me. When I daven, I want my wife davening with me, right next to me. We’re a family, and that’s just how we roll. And it certainly makes me no less, or more, a Jew.
Now, if Mike can say that, my respect for his belief and knowledge will just get that much bigger.
I am, however, sticking to my earlier assertion. The Haredim don’t give a hoot past their own noses.
Will someone please write an article about charedim and kittens to show that these folks arene all about rioting?
That was a good article, & a step beyond your suggestion of a security fence might be a gated community where they could draw up their own bylaws + specific fines/penalties for keeping businesses open at what they deem to be inappropriate times.
I don’t even know how to respon, its too long forget it – I said what I wanted to – although with the latest riots – I am pushing for a security fence around the Haredi neighborhoods.
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I’m sorry; let me clarify.
I was operating under the assumption that the Orthodox perspective is the correct one; that is, even assuming the Orthodox perspective is correct, most Orthodox Jews understand that their own being correct is not obvious to the non-observant, and that this lack of understanding on the part of the non-observant is not the fault of the non-observant.
But obviously, if the Orthodox perspective is not even correct to begin with, then we have much to talk about.
I honestly believe the Orthodox perspective is in fact correct, but I’d be willing to discuss this point and subject it to intellectual debate. My point, however, was not to discuss whether Orthodoxy is true, but rather, to make the point that even if it is true, the non-Orthodox cannot be blamed for not realizing this fact.
I’m just reading along here, dipping my toes into the potentially deep water of the comments section, when I come across…
"I truly don’t understand how the Haredim are so incapable of
comprehending the fact that not everyone realizes what Shabbat is.
Look, I personally wish every Jew kept Shabbat in the Orthodox manner.
But I realize that when non-Orthodox Jews violate Shabbat, they don’t
do it because they are anti-religious anti-Jewish atheists intent on
destroying Judaism. Rather, they just don’t appreciate that Shabbat is
something worth keeping. So instead of villifying the Israeli left as
an evil anti-religious organization second only to Antiochus and the
Soviets, why not instead engage them in philosophical debate,
rationally and intellectually discussing the merits of Judaism?
Following this course, one actually has a chance of winning the Israeli
left over to religiosity."
Now, speaking as a non-Orthodox, Friday-night-light-switch-flipping Jew, may I suggest that you may be a bit too young to appreciate the richness of the ways in which other schools of Judaism observe the Shabbat and, indeed, keep it apart and sacred from the rest of the week?
Please understand that I take no exception to your Orthodox practice, or Orthopraxis, but rather to your assumption, stultifying in its sweep, that Jews outside of your particular hectare of Judaism are spiritually bereft, empty of observance, and unaware of those facts. We aren’t.
It probably has more to do with a certain spinelessness the Israeli authorities have when dealing with religious extremists within than those without. From what I’ve seen of them, the Haredim know full well others don’t observe the same way they do. They just don’t care.
Other than that, hope all is well over there.
I think that eventually, the rules all become second-nature. It’s like mathematics or chemistry, for example; there are a million rules, but once you learn them well, they are second nature, and when you faced with a given problem, you instantly know which equation to use.
As for the cursing rabbi: Orthodox Jews are humans too. ;)
That level of minutiae could really become crazy-making, and I’m a fairly detail-oriented person! It leads me to wonder if there might happen to be a higher than usual percentage of people with OCD within the Orthodox Jewish community.
While you say your Shabbat experience was much easier while celebrating with frum families, I have actually witnessed an Orthodox rabbi impatiently tap his wristwatch, & curse (literally!) the sun for not setting faster so he could turn on his pc & check the news! I remember feeling a strong sense of relief at his impatience, because I’ve always thought of keeping Shabbat as a serious imposition, and I don’t think that if I had grown up in a Jewish home (even frum) I’d feel any differently.
Until reading your last post, I had never once considered the notion of spending Shabbat with a sick and grumpy Jew as a method to increase the pleasure of Shabbat, by say, being permitted to watch a televised baseball game. If it didn’t add to the Sabbath enjoyment, perhaps at least it could count torward the mitzvah of visiting the sick.
Reading your words, "If someone says, "Commit idolatry/ adultery/ incest/ murder or die!", you must choose death," reminds me of what I like best about Judaism: If you know the rules, you’ll hardly ever encounter a dilemma where you’re confused about what to do. There’s a memorable scene in the movie Liberty Heights (set in our home state of Maryland) where the main character, a Jewish teen named Ben, has been kidnapped & is told by the kidnapper (armed with a gun aimed at Ben) to touch this gal’s breast. Ben matter-of-factly says, "No." It was so great to see such a young, strong, + honorable teen boy! If he hadn’t been Jewish that scene would have seemed completely contrived & unbelievable, but having had a good Jewish upbringing, he knew he was to take the bullet & die with honor. (Fortunately he didn’t end up getting shot!)
I agree with you that we don’t want to kill anyone, so perhaps shutting off water is too much. I think whether we cut off the water depends on whether we are discussing shutting off utilities all week, or only on Shabbat. What about cutting off water on Shabbat, and cutting off electricity and gas and garbage pickup all week? But seriously, the point is clear without getting into details. ;)
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Regarding temperament: I think it depends on two factors:
1) How much the person appreciates the meaning of Shabbat, and
2) The kind of environment a person has.
To elaborate:
1) If a person believes that Shabbat violation is akin to idolatry, and almost the worst sin that one can commit, then one will probably have more fortitude to avoid violating Shabbat, no matter how miserable and boring the day might be.
2) To truly enjoy Shabbat, one must have the proper environment. When I first started keeping Shabbat, I was trying to keep it in my parents’ home. Now, my father and brother especially were not inclined to let anything in the home change, so they wouldn’t let me turn on lights and keep them on all day, etc. So basically, I had to spend the whole day in darkness, and I couldn’t set up my cooking to have the food cooking from before Shabbat, etc. In short, I was miserable. Nevertheless, since I was intent on keeping Shabbat, and since I appreciated what Shabbat observance meant (see 1 above), I kept Shabbat, even though I was miserable. But I could completely understand if for others, this would be asking too much. In any case, I soon realized this wasn’t working, and I started getting Shabbat invites with frum families. This of course was much more enjoyable, because their entire lifestyle on that day was centered around Shabbat; the lights were already on, the food was already cooked, etc.
So I think that a person should do whatever he or she can, given his current spiritual appreciation for Shabbat (1 above), and given his or her current environment (2 above). I remember I was at a Chabad shul, where the rabbi talked about the ten things a person can do to be a more observant Jew. He said that person should keep Shabbat. But if you can’t, he said, at least light candles. And if you can’t do that, he said, at least eat good food! (Yes, eating food is also a mitzvah on Shabbat. So what if you aren’t ready to keep the prohibitions? At least keep the positive commandments of the day!) The point is just to do whatever you can; G-d doesn’t expect one iota more than that.
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Regarding the Shabbos goy, I’ll summarize the laws. All of the following is assuming ordinary needs, i.e. nothing life-threatening or extraordinary.
(1) It is *always* forbidden to outright explicitly ask for *anything*. Period. You cannot say, "Would you please…"
(2) It is forbidden to benefit from a positive constructive benefit arising from something the gentile did for your sake, even if you never asked the gentile to do it! For example, if the gentile made you coffee, specifically for you, even *not* at your request, you may *not* drink the coffee. The only leniency is if the gentile did it for himself or another gentile, and the benefit for you is incidental and was never specifically intended by the gentile. For example, if the gentile made a 10-cup pot of coffee, with no intention for you. (The laws become detailed at this point: For example, a household servant is assumed to always do things for his master’s benefit, and so even if he made coffee for himself, any leftover coffee is assumed to have been intended for his master. – And if this is not true of your husband, we have bigger things to talk about than the laws of Shabbat! ;) – Or, if ten people are in the room and someone makes a ten-cup pot of coffee, exactly enough for everyone, it is obvious that you, the tenth person, were specifically intended to partake, and so you are not allowed to. But if someone obviously just filled up the coffee pot to the top, with no careful measurement to be sure that everyone could take, merely intending that some amount of coffee in general would be there, and not intending that enough coffee be there for anyone specifically, then for the Jew to drink would probably be permitted. The basic principle is: any labor done on the Jew’s behalf, even as an unrequested favor, it is forbidden for the Jew to benefit. The Jew is permitted to benefit only if the labor was done for the gentile himself or his gentile friends, and the benefit to you the Jew is incidental and unintended.)
(3) It is **permitted** to derive **negative** benefit. "Negative" means that it is not a new positive benefit, but rather, the removal of a nuisance, or some such. For example, if a gentile shuts off your alarm clock, or turns off your lights before you sleep, you may benefit. The reason is that these do not enable you to do anything you couldn’t already do; they only remove an annoyance. Or if you are sleeping in your bedroom, or soon going to, and the gentile turns on a fan; if the room was comfortable already, enough to sleep there, you are still allowed to sleep there, even though the fan is now blowing. The reason is that you were sleeping, or could sleep, there already; the fan doesn’t enable anything that wasn’t already possible. (However, if the room was far too hot to sleep in, and then the gentile turns on a fan, you are *not* allowed to sleep there. In this case, the gentile allowed something that wasn’t yet possible, and so this is a constructive positive benefit.) On the other hand, if a gentile turns the light on, allowing you to read a book, you may *not* benefit, because this is a positive constructive benefit. But just to turn off the lights, or do something else that doesn’t clearly enable you to do something you couldn’t already do (you can sleep with the lights on, only it’s uncomfortable), it is permitted to benefit. Moreover, you are allowed to *hint* to the gentile to do this, namely a negative benefit. For example, you can say, "You know, if someone turned my lights off, I’d sure be happy!" But hinting is of no avail in positive benefit – to hint for the lights to be turned on is forbidden, since benefitting is forbidden even if no request at all was made, as I said in (2) above.
(4) Positive benefit (turning a light *on*) is permitted if the benefit is only partial, and doesn’t allow anything that wasn’t already possible. For example, if the lights were dim, and you could still read, then if a gentile turns the lights on brighter, you may benefit. Or if your food was cooking, and it would eventually finish, but the gentile turns the heat up, making the food be finished sooner (but the food would eventually finish even if the gentile hadn’t done this), then you may benefit. Or if the fan was blowing, and the gentile turned the speed up a notch. In all this, the gentile didn’t really give you a benefit, because he didn’t do anything that wouldn’t already be possible without him. Or if the coffee pot was half-full, and the gentile filled it up, you may benefit, since there was already coffee anyway. In all these cases, the gentile didn’t give a "positive" benefit, meaning a benefit that allows you something you previously couldn’t do. —- HOWEVER, I don’t remember whether or not you are allowed to hint to the gentile for these. Are you allowed to hint for a gentile to make an already-lit light brighter? We know that you are allowed to hint for a negative benefit, but are you allowed to hint for him to create a *partial* *positive* benefit? I don’t remember; sorry.
Leniencies:
1) Life-threatening situations allow anything, even to violate the Shabbat yourself.
2) Certain types of moderate illness, in which the person is not in danger, but is very uncomfortable (moaning in bed) allow one to violate all Rabbinic laws, even though Torah laws remain binding. The laws against asking gentiles to do labor for your sake (or a Jew’s sake) on Shabbat are Rabbinic, and so for moderately sick people, it is permitted to ask a gentile to do anything. Let’s say the sick person wants the TV on; you cannot turn it on, but you can ask the gentile to do so, because asking a gentile to turn a TV on is a Rabbinic violation, which is permitted for the moderately sick person.
3) Great economic need – sometimes, for grave economic need, Rabbinic violations (including asking a gentile) are permitted. If you are in grave financial need, you may be allowed to conduct your business on Shabbat, as long as no Torah violations are committed.
4) Communal need – If the entire community’s welfare is at stake – for example, the lights in the shul went off, and no one can go to services – Rabbinic violations (including asking a gentile) are permitted.
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Now, the Maccabees were not being pacifistic! They fought all week! It’s just that on Shabbat, they thought they were not permitted to fight. Now, the leaders soon told them they were wrong. But if you believe Shabbat violation is almost akin to idolatry, it is obvious why some would think (wrongly) that fighting on Shabbat is prohibited. They thought Shabbat was something you have to give your life for, just like idolatry, adultery/incest, and murder. (If someone says, "Commit idolatry/adultery/incest/murder or die!", you must choose death. These Maccabees thought Shabbat was part of "idolatry".) In fact, the Talmud has a very difficult time justifying violating Shabbat to save a life! The Gemara finally permits it, but it takes a while. Now, the Gemara had already permitted violating ALL the mitzvot of the Torah in case of danger to life (save idolatry, adultery/incest, and murder) – the Gemara’s permission is based on the fact that the mitzvot were given "To live by them" (a Torah verse somewhere, Leviticus 18:5 I think) and "Not to die by them" (Gemara’s extrapolation) – so why did violating Shabbat have to have its own permission, after a general permission had already been given? The reason is that the Gemara thought perhaps Shabbat is part of idolatry, and so the Gemara had to determine whether or not violating Shabbat to save a person’s life is permitted. It finally decides that it is, but it was a difficult question.
Just a clarification – I was thinking about shutting off all utilities except water. This way they couldn’t heat it/keep it heated, so they would be left with cold running water only. On an ethical level, I couldn’t agree to shutting off all H2O, unless I was dealing with Hamas. The goal could be accomplished simply via the serious inconvenience of no gas or electricity. We don’t need to risk compromising the health of the highly stubborn due to no drinking water, washing water, or flushing toilets.
Regarding your suggestion to declare a new pesak halakhah that delivering water through pipes violates Shabbat. — We don’t have to resort to this. We can beat them at their own observance game, legitimately.
Incidentally, Mike, what are your thoughts on this theory–
No matter how observent a Jew is, s/he must have a certain particular temperment to enjoy keeping Shabbat for the full sundown to sundown requirement. You speak of "appreciating" Shabbat. I do appreciate it; but after a few hours I don’t enjoy it anymore. In all honesty, I can only remain grateful to God on Shabbos for probably 12 hours max, then I become completely obsessed with a seething desire for everything I’m forbidden to do.
Also, along these lines, sometime when you get a chance, regarding the shabbos goy, I’d like to know why it is traif for my Christian husband to brew a cup of coffee for me, if I have forgotten to set the timer on the coffee machine prior to sundown Fri evening. And, what if I left a note of request on the coffee maker, that was posted before sundown: Hon, if I ever forget, please hit the "on" button for me, thank you!
Lastly, switching topics here, I never knew the Maccabees let themselves be killed rather than fight on Shabbat. I’ve really lost a lot of respect for them now. Jews are not pacificists! We are not the turn-the-other-cheek religion! We are the ones who will kill you, before you can kill us! Now it is no wonder to me that Judith single-handedly took action to turn the tide of the war to crush the Seleucid Empire.
I look forward to your response. Your comments are a pleasure to read.
The Haredim don’t use hot water on Shabbat anyway because to use the hot water is indeed a violation. If they take showers on Shabbat, they in fact use cold water. And if they need hot water for drinking, they use a hot water urn turned on from before Shabbat. (Drinking hot water from the tap is dangerous anyway, as it leaches minerals from the plumbing, which is rather dangerous if you have lead plumbing.) As for cooking, their food is also pre-cooked from before Shabbat. (Actually, all the foregoing is true of all Orthodox Jews, and not only Haredim.)
So cutting off hot water wouldn’t work. Also, you cannot cut off hot water anyway; the home’s own water heater does that job, and the municipal authorities cannot go door-to-door to shut off the heaters. All the utility can do is cut off water altogether.
So let’s just have the utility declare a new pesak halakhah that delivering water through pipesviolates Shabbat. So what if this isn’t true?; the Haredim themselves violate the Torah in the name of the Torah, so why not let the secular authorities tell falsehood as well? Cut off the water and electricity, and bring the Haredim to their knees. Oh, and cut off garbage pickup as well. See how long they can wallow in filth.
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Regarding appreciating the Shabbat: I’ll concede your point, but I’ll say nevertheless, that if someone believes Shabbat is as important as halakhah says it is, viz. that its violation is almost akin to worshipping idols, then he’ll be likely to quit his job rather than violate Shabbat. At least, he’ll work on Saturdays with tears streaming down his face. The Maccabees let themselves be killed rather than fight on Shabbat, and while this was soon pronounced erroneous, we can learn from the fact that someone would even erroneously believe that keeping Shabbat meets letting yourself be killed rather than violate Shabbat.
So I’ll say that even if a given non-Orthodox Jew appreciates Shabbat but cannot help but work on Shabbat, this nevertheless shows that he still does not appreciate it the same way that an Orthodox Jew does; the latter would sooner go unemployed or take a menial job than violate Shabbat. (Additionally, if you tell your employer that you absolutely positively cannot work on Shabbat at all, even for your own sake (driving and cooking for your own personal pleasure, etc.) as a strict and uncompromising religious belief almost equal to your very belief in G-d, it’s quite likely that your employer will concede Saturday to you. I remember one time in fourth grade, in public school, the teacher assigned some huge assignment for the class, planning on students using both Saturday and Sunday to accomplish it. One Jewish student informed the teacher that Rosh Hashanah (okay, so no one was Shabbat observant in my class, but we did keep Rosh Hashana!) was that weekend and so she said, "Okay. For the Jews, the assignment is due on Tuesday, but for everyone else, it is due on Monday.")
Be all this as it may; the point is, neither I nor any level-headed Orthodox rabbi criticize the non-Orthodox for this, because we realize that whether their violation is due to ignorance or economic need, either way, their violation is not a spiteful willful violation. Historically, the death penalty for Shabbat, and the other sanctions against Shabbat violation, were made assuming a populace that fully understood the implications and importance of Shabbat observance. Moreover, anyone violating Shabbat was separating himself from the community, and being socially divisive. And since his Shabbat violation was assumed to represent atheism (since Shabbat testifies to G-d’s creating the world), it was assumed that a Shabbat violator would soon commit theft, murder, adultery, etc., since belief in G-d was considered the only sanction against these. (I might note that Christians were considered no differently; even though Christians often killed Jews for religious motives, there was a common saying in Eastern Europe that if you’re on a Christian’s buggy and he doesn’t cross himself upon passing a church, you should immediately disembark from the buggy; a Christian who didn’t cross himself wasn’t considered trustworthy.) But of course, every sociological fact I have just enumerated – the whole community keeping Shabbat as a unity, Shabbat violation being akin to atheism and leading to total social immorality, everyone in the community understanding the meaning of Shabbat – is no longer true of contemporary Jews, and so we cannot apply the same sanctions for violation, if the sociological presumptions of these sanctions are no longer true.
As for the Shabbos goy, I might note that in halakhah, the Shabbos goy is forbidden, except for life-threatening issues. Basically, a gentile was used only when truthfully, a Jew could violate the Shabbat as well. For example, in Russia, lighting a fire was considered a life necessity for the women and children. Truthfully, a Jew could light the fire himself in such circumstances, but instead, they got a gentile to do it. But generally speaking, if a Jew is forbidden, then he is equally forbidden to ask a gentile; the Talmud says that a man’s proxy is considered like the man himself. I cannot go into all the detailed laws now, but generally speaking, it is completely forbidden to ask a gentile to violate Shabbat. And indeed, the vast majority of Orthodox Jews keep this law fully; I have never seen a Shabbos goy in all the Shabbat-observant homes I’ve ever been in.
Mike, I agree with your line of thinking here:
"At the very least, cut off all utilities on Shabbat; tell the Haredim that if they are so intent on the parking lot being closed on Shabbat, then they should accept gas and electricity and water being closed on Shabbat as well."
The water can run, however the heating of the water would break Shabbat. They can take cold showers. ;)
But, I disagree with you that non-Orthodox Jews who violate Shabbat, do it because they just don’t appreciate that Shabbat is something worth keeping.
Most Jews would probably agree that it is worth keeping if they had the unlimited resources necessary to do so comfortably. Everyone would need an employer who allowed people to leave early on Fridays, & wouldn’t ever request employees to come in on Saturdays. They would need to be able to schedule everything in advance (such as transportation, and babysitters), prepare as much as possible ahead of time, (i.e. food, appliances on timers), and of course, lets not forget a shabbos goy.
I like your telling how much kiruv is done by burning garbage and plastic. Everyone will want to be religious now! (I don’t get it; everyone else marches and holds banners; why do the Haredim burn plastic? Do they love getting cancer or something?)
I truly don’t understand how the Haredim are so incapable of comprehending the fact that not everyone realizes what Shabbat is. Look, I personally wish every Jew kept Shabbat in the Orthodox manner. But I realize that when non-Orthodox Jews violate Shabbat, they don’t do it because they are anti-religious anti-Jewish atheists intent on destroying Judaism. Rather, they just don’t appreciate that Shabbat is something worth keeping. So instead of villifying the Israeli left as an evil anti-religious organization second only to Antiochus and the Soviets, why not instead engage them in philosophical debate, rationally and intellectually discussing the merits of Judaism? Following this course, one actually has a chance of winning the Israeli left over to religiosity.
Hmm…just like the Israeli conflict, there is no simple solution. Either you hurt the Haredism, or you give in to their demands. Either way, someone loses; either way, there is no free lunch, and you cannot have your cake and eat it too. Cf. http://michaelmakovi.blogspot.com/2009/07/israeli-conflict.html
But how about the following: cut off all utilities to the Haredim. Water, electricity, gas, you name it. Just shut everything off and see how long they keep protesting. At the very least, cut off all utilities on Shabbat; tell the Haredim that if they are so intent on the parking lot being closed on Shabbat, then they should accept gas and electricity and water being closed on Shabbat as well. Seems fair, no?
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