Says Rabbi Laura Bellows of Dayenu, "an organization mobilizing the United States’ Jewish community to confront the climate crisis," quoted in "Why reviving a 2,600-year-old spiritual practice made my life better" (WaPo).
This essay, by Michael J. Coren, begins with a focus on his own psychological wellbeing, as the essay title suggests, but it quickly devolves into a discussion of climate change, replete with suggestions of compulsory observance of the Sabbath:
A universal period of rest and reset has reemerged again and again as a way to deliver a more just world. “It is a hard ask, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a worthy ask,” says [Jonathan Schorsch, a professor of Jewish religious and intellectual history at Germany’s University of Potsdam]....
In 2019, Schorsch founded the Green Sabbath Project to incite a “mass movement to observe a weekly day of rest” for the secular and religious alike. This is not a spa day, but a modern version of what the ancients practiced: avoiding work in factories and offices, or even in front of our laptops; opting out of driving or flying, or using engines of any kind for the day; putting off shopping; preparing food in advance; and ceasing incessant doing.
Incessant doing and incessant carbon emissions.
The immediate effect among millions of people, he calculates, could dial back emissions for at least one day a week with no new technology or spending....
“Ultimately, as a society, we’re going to need to have ecological practices,” [Schorsch] says. “It’s not enough to impose laws. Do we solve [climate change] through technocratic solutions and policy, or do we solve it through new cultural, even spiritual approaches? One without the other is not going to be enough.”
Schorsch isn't saying not to impose it through law. He seems to want coercion and spiritual awakening. We could call it a Schorsched-Earth policy.
The article ends with some personal-level ideas of the sort I thought I was going to hear about when I read the headline:
Pick something you love just for the pleasure of it. If something brings you unadulterated joy, no matter how small or silly, this is the time to do it....
That's got a Marie Kondo vibe. Limit your Sabbath to items that spark joy. But, of course, don't go there by car.
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So, they want to emulate Hobby Lobby.
The biggest reason we have a climate crisis is that we have devalued the language to the point where nothing actually needs to be going wrong in order for people to freak out over the crisis. The climate is fully within historical norms and there is nothing unusual going on as far as storms and other environmental disasters. And yet otherwise rational people accept that this state of events is a crisis.
I can recognize the value of a Sabbath, a day when people slow down and just spend time with each other while doing not a whole lot (though it can't be 100% shut-down, can it? That's what we need immigrants for--to keep the supply of Shabbas Goys going).
It's a shame some people feel the need to stoop to manipulations like the environment rather than just encouraging it because you'll enjoy it and it's good for you.
In other words, the left's march to replace a religion devoted to God with a pagan religion devoted to leftist causes continues apace.
It used to be called blue laws. No store open on Sunday.
It’s all well and good to think you’re smarter than everyone else.
It’s not at all good when you drift into now I’m going to tell you what to do.
So, they want to emulate Hobby Lobby.
Good point - how will this jibe with New York's attempts to push Chick-Fil-A out of rest stops because they close on Sundays?
Barry Sullivan: "In other words, the left's march to replace a religion devoted to God with a pagan religion devoted to leftist causes continues apace."
Perfectly stated.
"We could call it a Schorsched-Earth policy."
Ha
Strange that a Jewish restrictive religious practice would be recommended to a Gentile audience for a phony fight against climate change . Jesus did away with all this nonsense. "And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath"
Next Sunday take a little time to ponder this.
"Shomer Shabbas!"
The immediate effect among millions of people, he calculates, could dial back emissions for at least one day a week with no new technology or spending....
Oh good, then all my spending on new technology will be offset by all those saps dialing back their emissions. Win-win.
Good for them- I am looking to up my own emissions without damaging the climate!
Sounds like the professor has rabbi envy.
Our House Group has just finished a a series of evenings on the Sabbath, and indeed, we discussed Why the Sabbath?, but we didn't try to shoe in climate change. A secular God that is. We sacrifice jobs, money, maybe even lives to satisfy its endless hunger.
It is both a Jewish and Christian tradition and good for the soul whether you think you have one or not. SDAs also observe a Friday sundown to Saturday sundown sabbath. We lived next to Loma Linda (in California) for years and they even had foregone Saturday mail delivery but did have US Mail on Sundays. Bad idea to codify it in law. Progressives would just blame Christian Nationalism anyway.
Some people like to get up early and go snowmobiling and what not...wayward and delinquent Lutherans probably, for the most part. It's not going to be easy to get them to stop. They love that stuff.
Those folks are going to need some stern and persistent instruction. And that's why you should donate today to help fund Dayenu's Happy Valley Shabbat Inculcation Camp where every day is Sunday and everybody learns to sleep late eventually. Or at least lay there with their eyes closed.
Shabbat (Hebrew: שַׁבָּת, also known as "Shabbos" or the "Sabbath") is the Jewish day of rest and celebration that begins on Friday before sunset and ends on the following evening after nightfall. It is ushered in with (late afternoon) candlelighting, prayers, and feasting on braided bread and other delicacies. And its end is marked with a multisensory ceremony as well.
Shabbat is the centerpiece of Jewish life and has been so since the infancy of our nation. According to the Talmud, Shabbat is equal to all the other commandments, and the term shomer shabbat (“Shabbat observer”) is synonymous with “religious Jew” in common parlance.
No where can i find that it says: remembering we’re not machines; we get to be human with all other life. That kind of connection is what powers environmental and climate movements.
Says Rabbi Laura Bellows of Dayenu, "an organization mobilizing the United States’ Jewish community to confront the climate crisis,"
Sorry but it strikes me as wrong to use a religion that stretches back thousands of years to bolster support and membership in a cult that stretches back a handful of decades.
“If something brings you unadulterated joy….” I love flying to foreign countries, I’m glad I have his blessing.
climate change?
IS there climate change?
IF there IS.. is it BAD?
do we WANT to live under a MILE of glaciated ice? DO WE? are we SURE global warming is BAD?
btW, if we all want to go back to closing the stores and all businesses on Sunday, go for it. Jewish merchants were at the forefront of getting rid of the laws enforcing the Sabbath Sunday rules against doing business. It'd be hilarious if they were somehow switch 180 degrees and come out for it.
Somewhat off-topic. One of TR's problems as Police commissioner was the Beer Gardens staying open on Sunday. Technically, they were all supposed to be closed on Sunday, but German immigrants had a tradition of going to the beer garden and relaxing after church service. TR's desire to enforce the law made him unpopular, and his response was either change the law or enforce it.
Personally, I think God meant us to rest on Sunday, which means no work - when possible. Not taking it to a silly extreme. If its ok to drink moderately 6 days a week, why shouldn't you do it on Sunday?
maybe GOD Almighty wants US to change the climate? Maybe THAT is WHY we are here?
I love how the WaPo just assumes we're all supposed to know what shabbatt is.
This is sort of the religious version of "I've suffered for my art, now it's your turn."
Maybe we could study the Old Testament, while we're at compulsory Sabbath Service.
For example, Malachi Chapter 4 Verse 1 [KJV] For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
The key to solving global warming appears to be (1) much more personal and societal humility and (2) repentance from our wickedness.
"I love how the WaPo just assumes we're all supposed to know what shabbatt is."
That was more me assuming it.
I highlighted a quote from the middle of the article. Earlier, there was this: "The first reference to mandated rest, however, probably appears in the Torah, where ancient Israelites were commanded to cease their toil from Friday evening until Saturday at sunset, a period known as Shabbat in the Jewish calendar, according to Jonathan Schorsch, a professor of Jewish religious and intellectual history at Germany’s University of Potsdam."
Only one T, by the way.
When you're retired every day is Saturday, some say.
So I'm doing my part.
I would love to Shabbat, If Biden promised me credit card forgiveness.
Hard to live in New York for a while and not know Shabbat. Manhattan would be less of a rich experience without its many Jewish influences.
Which reminds me that I have yet to report (not that anyone is asking) on my two months as a Gentile, wearing a prominent Star of David on my vest, around and about a smallish mountain town.
A couple of close looks out of, I believe curiosity.
One surly store clerk.
One woman, Jewish, who came up to me and thanked me profusely for wearing it.
One man in a grocery store who asked why I was wearing it, and then voiced his approval.
That's it.
Of course, I did not walk pass the small collection of Palestine supporters waiving signs at one of the intersections, but it was never on my way.
A universal period of rest and reset for the vagina has reemerged again and again as a way to deliver a more just world. “It is a hard ask, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a worthy ask,” says Clyde Lockitson, a starving, door to door chastity belt salesman and founder of the Cease Incessant Doing Project.
The pastor at my old church in East Highlands explained the differing "sabbaths" this way. Jews consider Saturday the first day of the week, but most Western Calendars use Sunday for the first of the week.
I do think it is interesting that in counterpoint to God who created the World in six days and rested on the seventh, Jews and Christians both opted to rest or worship and then work a week. Althouse is correct to assume we commenters are mostly aware of such things. She's probably learned way too much about us over twenty years.
We can debate the motivation(s) and to what extent shabbat observance has been coopted by secular(?) causes such as concern over climate change. However I greatly welcome when people discuss sabbath-keeping. During my twenty-six years of pastoral ministry I regularly emphasized the vital importance of reviving the practice of sabbathing. Nearly every important practice in Jewish and Christian religion is included in taking our foot off the gas for twenty-four hours or heck even twelve. Starting in 2006 wrote twenty-six short articles for the church newsletter = https://mangydogblog.wordpress.com/2020/04/13/sabbath-parts-i-xxvi/
This goes back to my undergraduate days at Cornell when I became good friends with someone who lived in a Jewish co-op. Every couple months would walk across campus and join her and her housemates for Sabbath dinner. It was amazing to see Cornell students take a twenty-four hour break (!!!) from study and assignments and just be. Some of my Christian classmates tried (with varying degrees of success) to emulate them.
This appreciation for sabbath-keeping was reinforced and developed in seminary. Our Old Testament professor structured the course around the centrality of worship (which includes sabbath-keeping). Little did we know the course was a prelude to his book The Torah's Vision of Worship (Overtures to Biblical Theology) = https://a.co/d/bpdtSIq
That pretty much explains chick-fil-A’s success. God gets wiser every year.
Dayenu means “enough.” Dayenu with the climate alarmism.
They're crying "crisis" that the Earth might warm 1-2 degrees Celsius. The Earth has been far warmer than that in the past. Just this morning, I watched the PBS Nova episode "In Search of Ancient DNA" that was broadcast last night. Researchers have been able to recover DNA fragments from northern Greenland that date back about 2.5 million years. That was in the Pleistocene epoch. Back then, the CO2 levels were about the same as today, the temperatures were warmer than todays, and the Earth looked quite different. For one thing, Greenland was covered by a thick forest. Large animals, including camels and mastodons, were living there. It was a good time for life, especially large mammals.
There is no climate crisis.
could dial back emissions for at least one day a week
More likely shift emissions.
A curious person might look at weekly emissions in Germany, where a lot of things are closed on Sunday, to those in, say, California, where Sunday closures aren't very rare. What does the Sunday closure (or lack thereof) do? If only journalists were curious to test hypotheses espoused in their articles.
Actually, the chief reason "we" have a climate crisis right now is that "we" are batshit crazy. Case in point, Rabbi Laura Bellows. Check your cat, Hon, I think it might be emitting greenhouse gases. Possibly at both ends!
Climate change (i.e. weather trends over a 30-year period) is a given. The assertion is that it is anthropogenic, catastrophic, global, and forced by the radiative effect of a minor gas in the atmosphere. The problem for the [catastrophic] [anthropogenic] climate advocates, is that their predictions have failed to be realized, and their models demonstrate no skill to represent reality. An alternative explanation for local and regional effects is the urbanization of large tracts of land, clear cutting to develop Green technology farms, the construction of real estate in vulnerable locations, etc.
I live in a suburban neighborhood that is increasingly Hasidic/Orthodox. Friday evenings and Saturdays are peaceful and quiet, which helps compensate for the numerous yeshiva buses during the remainder of the week.
Why only one day a week? Five days of quiet contemplation would be much better for Gaia, wouldn't it? No electrical generation during this period would bring us all closer to nature.
Sunday is not the Sabbath nor even a Sabbath. Sunday is the first day of the week. It is the day christ rose and gave us all a new beginning.
Saturday is the last day of the week, the seventh day when God rested.
It's never been changed.
In Spanish the word for both Sabbath and Saturday is The same:sabado.
El sabado es El sabado.
Some Christian faiths, like seventh day Adventist keep the sabbath. Others keep the lord's day.
It's all good.
John Henry
As a Jew, it is clear that this Dayenu nonsense is just left wing contemporary politics masquerading under a thin veneer of Jewish theology.
As a Jew, it is clear that this Dayenu nonsense is just left wing contemporary politics masquerading under a thin veneer of Jewish theology.
It's a nice sediment to take a day off from the prideful voracious profligate wrath of greedy gluttonous lustful one-click consumerism driven by envy and sloth.
But no. Because birthright: our bloated sense of entitlement and obesity takes many forms and it's all beautiful 😍
Fuck the planet and fuck the mud people. Jesus hates the meek and poor too lazy and stupid to be born American.
Party On, Garth.
Sounds like the Amish. Who knew the Amish were Jewish? Or, is it the other way around?
The sad thing is, the whole Climate Change protocol has absolutely skewered anyone's sense of agency when it comes to modifying their own personal behavior. The arguments have become so absurd, and the institution's credibility has become so damaged, that all of the focus is on these issues now. The article is worthwhile because it points out that we can still use some common sense and be economical with the use of resources. I do this daily - partly out of cheapness, but also because it really bothers me to see waste, especially unconscious waste, profligacy. We recycle what it makes sense, to recycle (mostly paper and aluminum) and trash the plastic. We limit water use, and edge the thermostats (this one is a household struggle). So while the writer's premise is a little absurd, mostly because he's drunk the Climate Panic KoolAid, I welcome the attention.
CBS national news blamed the recent destructive rainstorms on"human caused climate change". The local affiliate blamed it on "climate change". A few years ago Gov. Newsom blamed the California draught on climate change.
The rule seems to be blame whatever you don't like, including jock itch, on climate change.
Gaslighting or brainwashing?
There is no fucking climate crisis. Stop it already.
CAGW is the biggest scam in the history of the world and if it isn't stopped soon, it will cost Americans trillions and lives. I told the OPPD Board that last month.
Progressives on the Left and Evangelicals are two sides of the same coin. The are rooted in the radical pietists of the mid-19th century.
But by the nineteenth century, unfortunately, such was not the case. Most pietists took the following view: since we can't gauge an individual's morality by his following rituals or even by his professed adherence to creed, we must watch his actions and see if he is really moral.
From there the pietists concluded that it was everyone's moral duty to his own salvation to see to it that his fellow men as well as himself are kept out of temptation's path. That is, it was supposed to be the State's business to enforce compulsory morality, to create the proper moral climate for maximizing salvation. In short, instead of an individualist, the pietist now tended to become a pest, a busybody, a moral watchdog for his fellow man, and a compulsory moralist using the State to outlaw "vice" as well as crime.
--from Murray Rothbard's introduction to "Vices Are Not Crimes: A Vindication of Moral Liberty," by Lysander Spooner.
Both want to use the state to impose their morality. On the Left, their dogma is Marxism, their catechism enviromentalism
It is difficult to practice Shabbat or the Sabbath if you have a retail job, medical job, or are too poor or distant from others who might support you. My parents always told us that our Jewish townspeople volunteered to work on Christmas and Easter to allow Christian doctors and nurses and others to celebrate their faith. There were of course far fewer Jewish people, but they told us always to offer assistance in kind, something my brother lovingly did for the time he lived near Ultra Orthodox at Pratt. It strengthened his own faith.
Such rituals are made to bind together cultures, and here in America, except when they became a form of lawfare, they bind different cultures together too. Voluntary association, and voluntary reliance, are a beautiful part of the American experiment.
Religion substitute indeed; Gaia worship (in reality, statism) rather than G-d worship.
Larry J. wrote: "I watched the PBS Nova episode 'In Search of Ancient DNA' ..." So did I and I could detect the exact moment in the script when they shifted over to the climate change propaganda!
I should say contemplate God and bind together cultures.
There was a study highlighted by the web site "Watts up with that" regarding the climate (temperature) effects of water vapor vs C02 in climate models. The study showed water vapor was undervalued by a factor of 10 while C02 was overvalued by a factor of 10. Sounds about right to me. Works much better with the models too, so you won't see anything about it again.
Shabbos or Shabbat or the Sabbath is spectacular. Literally. It's fantastic. It's a 25-hour period where you detach from materialism and exist largely in the spiritual. It's very hard at the beginning. The restrictions include no electricity, cars, shopping, money, writing. Over the course of the week the family gives and receives invitations for meals from community friends and family. You consider what meal to prepare and whom to invite. Perhaps Thursday you purchase food and Friday morning and afternoon you prepare the food. Friday evening friends and family gather, you light the Shabbos candles and perhaps sing and those you love all come together for a wonderful meal filled with love.
Afterward the next day there is no active use of electricity (though you keep the lights on you would need). There is no phone. No iPad. No computer. No going shopping. No money. In that case all you have is G-d, friends, and family. There is no laundry to do. No checks to write. It's very hard at the beginning because you know you have these responsibilities. But as you let Shabbos into your life, all those worldly concerns simply disappear as Friday night comes. There IS no laundry to do. There ARE no checks to write. No worries. Your kids are not zombies on a phone. They are there with you playing Monopoly or cards or whatever. Or their friends are over for Shabbos or your kids are at their friends' homes.
It's absolutely wonderful. In my job I only work a half day on Friday. I speak with clients about it not infrequently. Nearly universally they all say "I want Shabbos."
It's fantastic.
“One of the reasons we have a climate crisis right now is a product of disconnection..."
I agree completely. If Greens were not disconnected from reality there would be no problem, except that if it was not climate change there would be some other made up reason for them to tell everyone what to do.
I am not convinced that we have that much ability to alter the climate for bad or for good. Opinions on that topic vary among Jews. However I am in favor of seriously reducing pollution so that all living things can live healthier lives.
I read the article and the comments and my reaction is that no good deed goes unpunished. When the do-gooders are Jewish you see the same old accusation that "Jews think they are better than everyone else." LOL. I did not get the impression that anyone was trying to impose Shabbat on anyone. Furthermore, great effort was taken to discuss so many other traditions that it is clear that the practice of a day of rest is nearly universal.
Some people who are newly practicing Shabbat for their own personal benefit, both physical and spiritual, are enthusiastically sharing their experience and hypothesizing that taking a day off could have larger benefits if more people chose to take a day off. It wouldn't have to be everyone taking the same day off, either. That there could be environmental benefits is obviously wishful thinking, there was no empirical data.
Be fruitful and multiply, says the Lord. Shabbat is the perfect time to carry out the biblical command. Not very GreenNewDeal-y, though.
Newer religions often borrow practices and rituals from older, more established religions to grow their popularity. This is a good example of that.
@Aggie - You sound like me.
They warned us--once people got used to electric lighting, they'd stay up late, or even all night!
Nice citation, JK Brown.
I don't know how long one can honestly keep calling something a crisis without an actual crisis manifesting. We are going on about 30 or 40 years now. Of course if you call something a crisis and you take actions to thwart it, then no matter how unmeasurable your actions are you at least get to feel good about yourself. And if you ultimately view life in some sort of social utilitarian/enlightened self-interest/hedonistic analysis isn't maximizing your own positive feelings the whole point?
"Pick something you love just for the pleasure of it. If something brings you unadulterated joy, no matter how small or silly, this is the time to do it"
Got it. Good advice. I take great joy in going to our favorite meat market 25 miles away, then I'll BBQ the beef we buy on the grill.
I'm here to do my part.
What about the Sabbath year? Or (wait for it) the Year of Jubilee?
It's been five years since Climate Nobelist AOC famously told us we had only 12 years to ward off the climate crisis.
Can anyone, anywhere, give any evidence of any GLOBAL climate changes since then to demonstrate we're nearly halfway to doom?
If so, please offer citations offering real-world data, not GIGO computer models.
If Biden followed up on his hinted threat to punish Russia by destroying the Nordic pipeline, he released enormous amounts of evil methane gas into the atmosphere, where it added to CO2's purported "greenhouse effect."
I wonder how many years he set back the EPA's climate agenda?
Some people won't be happy until there are no modern conveniences, all efforts to generate electricity are banned, and what few survive the primitive lifestyle they envision are disease ridden and completely dependent on the whims of their overlords. Using religion to promote this is evil. It's no different than removing hearts from unfortunate victims to appease the rain god.
Sabbath definitely has a environmental component, not least with the scaled up evey 7 years of giving land rest.
I have a whole lecture on Sabbath and why it's important, which includes a video of elephant seals I took on San Miguel Island about 15 years ago
It's all about rhythm, and good rhythms always include rests
Globalwarmingclimatechangeetc is bullshit as are the frauds who created and drive this rubbish. But, for sake of argument, we can begin to confront it by shooting down every private jet flying with any "elite fascist twats" in it. Then we can wait and see for a century or so to see what happens. The rest of the warmest hysterics can kiss my ass, lick my hairy balls and bugger right the fuck off. Klaus schwab and michael mann can be first. What a bunch of useless turds.
Yesterday I was thinking the Imago Dei is the most radical teaching in the Bible, but Shabbat has to rank right up there too. I've often thought a universal day of rest would do society a lot of good. Promote peace of mind AND reduce carbon emissions. It's a twofer.
I am getting more than a whiff of crystals and auras from just the little bit put forth in the post.
Jesus Howard. You're a miserable human being. Either get help or stick your head in the oven.
Remember:
1. "Climate Change" "Environmentalism is "Science", not religion, and
2. It's those Christian religious types who are the whackos who want to run everybody's lives.
Also--if you drive an electric car, none of the rules apply to you, because you are a Good Person.
"Of course if you call something a crisis and you take actions to thwart it, then no matter how unmeasurable your actions are you at least get to feel good about yourself."
Some of the people calling it a crisis are buying beachfront property. And they seem to fly around the world a lot. I don't know if that's what you had in mind when you said "take actions", but there it is.
That's funny, Rusty. You know me so well, brother. I pretty much put my whole body in an oven every morning. It's a cannabis grow tent with five 1,500-watt red heat lamps and one lizard uvb lamp. I cook in that first thing for 15-minutes each morning while doing Wim Hof breathing exercises. It is kinda miserable, but us non-combat Marines love overcompensating by embracing the suck.
Rusty: "Jesus Howard. You're a miserable human being. Either get help or stick your head in the oven."
Howitzer Howard loves attacking Christians while playing protector for the islamic supremacists.
Howard is emblematic of how easy it has been for the islamic supremacists and New Soviet Democraticals to align fully.
The concept of Shabbat- to stop your connection with the outside world, to focus inward on family, friends, and God (or your spiritual side), to set aside a day each week to do so- is a great concept. It is also very hard for many (or most?) to do in our busy, work your ass of to make your way lives. Plus the weekend is not always a few days off for many. And on and on. While many do observe Shabbat, much of the world does not. Christians have their Sabbath as well, but of course, it had to be a different day.
All that said, nowhere in the Talmud or Torah does it mention anything about following the Climate Cult. And I'm pretty fucking tired of secular leftists parading as Jews, even Rabbis, when it's clear their first priority is their Leftist leanings.
"Sunday is not the Sabbath nor even a Sabbath. Sunday is the first day of the week. It is the day christ rose and gave us all a new beginning.
Saturday is the last day of the week, the seventh day when God rested."
Yes, that's the way I learned it in Baptist Bible School at 5 years old. A modern Jesus would say, It's the resurrection, stupid!
Shabbat reminds me of Mork's cuss word.
"the result of undervaluing life, especially nonhuman life."
So true. But dangerous for a prog! Yes, let's start valuing life, all life, like, life in the womb, you know, babies. And nonhuman life, especially all the life-giving life, the domesticated animals from which so many have become so sadly disconnected. Listen up, vegans.
“It’s not enough to impose laws. Do we solve [climate change] through technocratic solutions and policy, or do we solve it through new cultural, even spiritual approaches?"
I'm doing my part, having decided not to get that private jet. But the spiritual approach I really recommend is to stop worrying. Progs! We're gonna be fine! Chill! Of course, that would mean giving up the compulsion to "impose laws."
This is just progressivism dressed up as pseudo-religion. Both Reform and Conservative Judaism long ago replaced authentic observance with progressive ideology, twisting, cherry-picking, and shoehorning certain ideas from Judaism into somehow supporting their preconceived agenda. The point of Shabbat is not to reduce our carbon footprint. (In fact, Orthodox Jews typically leave lights and an oven or hotplate on for 25 hours during Shabbat, never mind all the cooking and preparation that goes on the day before.) It's a spiritual retreat from the day-to-day activities to be with family and community, and to pray and study with the community.
Of course, that would mean giving up the compulsion to "impose laws."
Which would mean giving up being a prog.
I'm not radical or spiritual. I'm mostly aesthetical.
Nothing I've read here makes me question my own preferences and practices or tempts me to change my ways, but it's interesting to find out what others do with their itches.
The Left is continuing to switch places with the Right of my youth.
This guy wants to make the Sabbos compulsory.
He and his ilk would be the first to scream, "whatabout separation of Church and State, eh?!"
As a youngster, I hated Sunday blue laws. As much as I remember, until 7-eleven came along, nothing much was open on Sunday. To an 8 year old kid, it was Boooooring.
But as a old man approaching 70, it would be nice to live in an America where the old was new again. Does everything have be be almost 24/7? The local Fresh Market supermarket just went to a 7 a.m. opening, to compete with Publix, I suppose. At least Walmart and a few others thought better of being open on Christmas this past year. Not for the religious reason, but it serves a purpose to give your staff a day off after the hectic Christmas pre-week. I began work as a line cook in a family-owned restaurant that served dinner only, 500-800 dinners a night (full dinners, family style, not crap -- we did 1032 dinners on New Year's Eve the year I worked there, from 5 PM to midnight and I expedited behind the line -- none of this standing on the cool side) -- and they were closed on Mondays. When I was a GM at Victoria Station in Fort Lauderdale in the mid 80s, we began opening for lunch. I was told, the mortgage is getting paid 24 hours a day. "We've got cooks on staff, prepping, why not get them to cook lunch too?" Corporate. What don't they know?
“Schorsch isn't saying not to impose it through law. He seems to want coercion and spiritual awakening.”
Well, why not? The First Amendment is pretty much dead now anyway.
I'll be taking off Mondays, if the rabbi doesn't mind.
Shabbat is when I fire up the lawn mower and the leaf blowers, then smoke some pork shoulder on the grill.
Six days of the week a sailor shall work, and do all that he is able.
On the seventh that came the work is the same and pound the rust from the cable.
"Pick something you love just for the pleasure of it. If something brings you unadulterated joy, no matter how small or silly, this is the time to do it...."
OK. But what I love may not meet your definition of fighting climate change.
Lovely, Keith. There is something especially beautiful, and daunting, about being invited to someone else's religious sanctuary as a guest.
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