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The wire that transforms much of Manhattan into one big, symbolic home (2017)
201–210 of 313 posts
Re: The wire that transforms much of Manhattan into one big, symbolic home (2017)
#202Why not make a tiny 10cm wire at the north pole to do the entire planet? And bless the oceans for unlimited holy water. Anyone who goes to the beach is baptised.
The latter wouldn’t be valid, as baptism also involves an intentional act. Merely touching holy water doesn’t baptize you. In fact, you don’t even need holy water for baptism, strictly speaking. Any Christian can validly baptize any non-Christian by merely pouring any water over someone’s head and stating that they baptize this person in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. (Whether it is a licit baptism is another question.)
As for the former, that could very well be an example of the absurdities that Pharisaical thinking can lead to. On the one hand, there is the prudential application of the law. On the other, there is the semantic manipulation of the law even to the point where its observance is rendered comically vacuous and nonexistent.
Re: The wire that transforms much of Manhattan into one big, symbolic home (2017)
#203Earlier quoted context omitted.
My favourite in this genre comes from a physics DPhil student I knew in Oxford: He insisted that it was permissible for him to work in the lab on Shabbat because after all he was really just studying the works of God and so it was no different in character from reading the Torah. I'm not sure entirely how serious this argument was, but he wasn't entirely unobservant; he made a point of not playing in orchestra on Fri…
Just asked my wife about this, who grew up Jewish and also loves debating these things as she's a programmer. Apparently the rules describe certain activities that one is not allowed to do, which in practice block most people from doing their profession. Reading books is not on that list, but nowhere does it say that the book needs to be the Torah. So it would definitely be allowed to read research papers, as long as…
Starting a particle accelerator would be forbidden, as the electricity alone would be akin to starting a fire.
Re: The wire that transforms much of Manhattan into one big, symbolic home (2017)
#204Since people seem to be completely misunderstanding what the point of this is, or why it's even a problem in the first place, let's start with two simple definitions of what's going on: 1. In Jewish law, the definition of "work that is prohibited on the Sabbath" includes "moving objects outside the private domain". 2. The definition of "domain" has three kinds: "public domain" (such as a house), "private domain" (suc…
I love this notion that apparently god shares an appreciation for going against the spirit of the law on technicalities.
Re: The wire that transforms much of Manhattan into one big, symbolic home (2017)
#205Earlier quoted context omitted.
G-d is not your parents, and set and worded His rules with omniscience that your parents do not have.
Is character substitution a clever rule hack also?
No. As an extension of the rule about not taking his name in vain, and rules about preserving written instances of the name, observant Jews try not to refer to him explicitly. There's a bit of a dysphemism treadmill involved, but oh well.
Re: The wire that transforms much of Manhattan into one big, symbolic home (2017)
#206Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are hotels and apartment blocks that have physical locks as well as the swipe card. So you can use the physical key on the Sabbath.
I recently heard that an apartment block near me cannot have automatic emergency lighting or fire sprinklers retrofitted incase there is a fire on a Saturday. Forget about burning to death or falling down pitch-black stairs and breaking your neck, it is apparently more important that electrical circuits are not energized or a valve is not opened on a saturday! Absolutely absurd. I am indifferent to people stringing u…
Ah, but it would be forbidden to start the fire on the Sabbath, so there would be no need for sprinklers!
Re: The wire that transforms much of Manhattan into one big, symbolic home (2017)
#207[dead]
Please don't comment like this on HN. It's a path we don't want to go down here.
Re: The wire that transforms much of Manhattan into one big, symbolic home (2017)
#208Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Also, hopefully nobody actually takes these rules so seriously that they end up hurting or killing anyone. There was a bicyclist who was injured when one of these lines fell far below installation height, but I’m thinking more about, for example, people who need to use hospital equipment during the Sabbath. They are supposed to ignore these rules if a life is at stake. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pikuach_nefe…
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What are all those [brackets] and (((parenthesis))) in your posts supposed to mean? Do you need a refresher on HN’s half-assed version of Markdown (https://news.ycombinator.com/formatdoc) or something?
Re: The wire that transforms much of Manhattan into one big, symbolic home (2017)
#209Earlier quoted context omitted.
My Jewish friend once told me, specifically discussing this wire, that Jews consider finding loopholes in their own rules a national pastime. The same thing goes for the hotels where someone is paid to wave their hand in front of automatic doors so the guests don't force the door to "work" for them or the elevators that run 24/7, stopping at every floor so they don't have to even work by pressing a button.
I am not the brightest spark as it took me a few months of living in a heavily Jewish area to realise that the pedestrian traffics light were configured to run every cycle so they didn't have to press the button. Probably a lot more details I also missed.
I doubt very much this is related to any local Jewish population. Most traffic buttons are placebos these days; the pedestrian signals automatically signal alongside the traffic lights.
The exception would be low-pedestrian-volume areas with lights and crossings reserved specifically for pedestrians.
Re: The wire that transforms much of Manhattan into one big, symbolic home (2017)
#210I'm not religious so I'll admit I don't "get it." It's a neat idea. I'll admit, I especially don't get this part: > The series of practically invisible wires becomes a necessity that “benefits the most vulnerable people of the community.” He sees it not only as a way for communities to come together, but also as a way for the more affluent to give back. The eruv is funded entirely by the Jewish community, with a cons…
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