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Let’s bring back the Sabbath as an act against ‘total work’

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Re: Let’s bring back the Sabbath as an act against ‘total work’

#211

Post by mantas »

isostatic wrote: post #206
MrMorden wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not even remotely true that "[o]nly the most necessary jobs are done" on Sunday; restaurants have no restrictions whatsoever, just to pick one example.

Electrical power stations, security guards, newspapers (they work on Sunday to print the news for momray mornkng), tv and radio, isps, hotels, airports, trains, small shops. It's basically just big shops that close. Anachronistic practice that makes no sense. Go to Jerusalem on a Saturday and you'll see what "not working" means. Still plenty of people working though.

Don't they have quite large non-Jewish population that keeps working?

Re: Let’s bring back the Sabbath as an act against ‘total work’

#212

Post by kwhitefoot »

craftyguy wrote: post #36
ghaff wrote: post #24

As a student in Cambridge MA in the late 70s, very few stores were open on a Sunday. I often played rugby matches on Saturday and I remember having to often find a few hours in the afternoon free of classes when I could do various shopping. Just an anecdote but you don't have to go back to the truly distant past to find the vast majority of stores closed on Sunday.

Lots of (smaller) towns in Europe are still like this. It's very difficult to find stores open on Sunday, usually the only ones that are open are the large chain grocery stores.

Here in Norway shops that open on Sunday must be less than 100 square metres in area or sell only perishable goods. There really is no need for anyone to have to shop on Sunday. We need a day when it is quiet. Most people here generally avoid doing noisy diy or mowing the lawn on Sundays too.

Re: Let’s bring back the Sabbath as an act against ‘total work’

#214

Post by [deleted] »

jliptzin wrote: post #198
gavman wrote: post #35

As an Orthodox Jew who observes the Sabbath every week, while sometimes finishing up work and preparations beforehand can be stressful at times, there's no feeling like turning off all phones/laptops/etc Friday evening and leaving it all behind. There's a supreme serenity that comes with the knowledge of "I can't do anything about it, so there's no point in worrying". As soon as Sabbath starts I'm totally focused on…

I am Jewish and don't observe but know a lot that do and also talk about how great it is to be able to leave everything behind on the Sabbath. I can definitely see the value in disconnecting one day a week. However, they also do a lot of really weird things that I can imagine creates even more stress, just for the sake of interpreting religious law as strictly as possible. For example, my friend's cousin accidentally…

[deleted]

Re: Let’s bring back the Sabbath as an act against ‘total work’

#215

Post by kwhitefoot »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #48
avip wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As we live in a society, it makes sense to have a common day of rest - consider that schools, hospitals, public transit etc. are also resting. Plus your family and friends.

> consider that schools, hospitals, public transit etc. are also resting. Pretty sure two out of three of those aren't really resting. You think hospitals stop working or trains stop running? > it makes sense to have a common day of rest Eh, nah. I'm mostly a social democrat, and I'd be all for better worker protections in general in the US, but I haven't heard any socialists or labor advocates pushing for "oh yeah,…

> You think hospitals stop working

Here in Norway that is exactly what happens. Those who do not need round the clock treatment or monitoring go home for the weekend and the hospital runs with a very much reduced staff. I know this from painful first hand experience over the last three years and it works very well.

Re: Let’s bring back the Sabbath as an act against ‘total work’

#216

Post by goldenkey »

leyth wrote: post #200
icelancer wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uh. It's both, man. EDIT: Downvotes? For stating a fact about Jewish ethnicity and religion? OK, I guess.

Not possible.

https://nypost.com/2010/06/13/genetic-testing-raises-an-age-...

Re: Let’s bring back the Sabbath as an act against ‘total work’

#217

Post by yoz-y »

sonnyblarney wrote: post #191
yoz-y wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have the same thing in France with some weird exception for Paris. I was really glad when I moved to paris and could finally found a shop open at a time when it suited actually employed people. I strongly believe that people's work times should be as desynchronised as possible which would not only make it easier for everybody to handle administrative stuff without having to take off-time from work, but would also…

I find this position to be woefully lacking in cultural perspective. What is it about we Engineers that we want to put everything in such mechanical terms, like 'handling admin' and 'congestion'? There are considerable advantages in having most people off on the same time, not the least of bit the inherent deeper relaxation of knowing the rest of the world is off. It's completely another experience when everyone else…

Although our positions differ, one point we might agree on is that the current situation is not good at all.

What I see is a three hour congestion in front of my appartement in the morning and a four hour one in the evening. People easily spend 2 hours trying to move about 4 kilometres.

Then you have the admninistration. If you come as late as 15 minutes after opening time, you better have a very flexible work time or have taken a half day off because you will be waiting for at least an hour or two.

I don’t think that opening “a little” sooner or later would help. They need to either be open when people can get there or eliminate the reasons why people need to be there in the first place.

Re: Let’s bring back the Sabbath as an act against ‘total work’

#218

Post by dubbel »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #18

Kind of have this in Germany, where many businesses are prohibited from being open on Sunday. For example, grocery stores can't be open unless they're at a central train station or airport. In practice, to me it just feels really annoying and limiting. Means I basically have to plan any larger shopping trips for Saturday, even if that doesn't work well for my schedule. I get that they want to make sure workers have e…

> I get that they want to make sure workers have enough time off, but you could mandate days off for each worker without banning Sunday for everyone.

It is not about individual working hours. Those are restricted by other laws.

It is about having the same hours off as (most of) your family and friends, so you can spend time with them.

Re: Let’s bring back the Sabbath as an act against ‘total work’

#219

Post by disgruntledphd2 »

kwhitefoot wrote: post #213
tootie wrote: post #55

Bring back Saturnalia so we all get the week off between Christmas and New Years.

Move to Norway. In 32 years here I think I have only worked a couple of days in total between Christmas Eve and 2nd of January.

Literally move to anywhere in Europe, and save holidays. I always take minimum 10 days around the turn of the year, and its wonderful because the likelihood of coming back to 1k+ emails and 23 problems is reduced, as many other people will do the same.

Re: Let’s bring back the Sabbath as an act against ‘total work’

#220

Post by navaati »

jliptzin wrote: post #198
gavman wrote: post #35

As an Orthodox Jew who observes the Sabbath every week, while sometimes finishing up work and preparations beforehand can be stressful at times, there's no feeling like turning off all phones/laptops/etc Friday evening and leaving it all behind. There's a supreme serenity that comes with the knowledge of "I can't do anything about it, so there's no point in worrying". As soon as Sabbath starts I'm totally focused on…

I am Jewish and don't observe but know a lot that do and also talk about how great it is to be able to leave everything behind on the Sabbath. I can definitely see the value in disconnecting one day a week. However, they also do a lot of really weird things that I can imagine creates even more stress, just for the sake of interpreting religious law as strictly as possible. For example, my friend's cousin accidentally…

"Do people really believe God is maintaining a database [...]"

Well what do you think Oracle is ;) ?

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