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From: hbb@houxt.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish
Subject: Re: Ann Landers on Judaism
Message-ID: <457@houxt.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 2-Aug-84 15:47:05 EDT
Article-I.D.: houxt.457
Posted: Thu Aug  2 15:47:05 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 4-Aug-84 00:28:52 EDT
References: <154@mhuxv.UUCP>, <585@ihuxs.UUCP>
Organization: ATT Information Systems, Holmdel NJ
Lines: 50

The Ann Landers article raises questions  I  have  heard  before.
Generally, I consider the objections to be overstated.

One example is to the claim that since the members of a observant
Jewish  household  will  avoid  answering  the  telephone  on the
Sabbath, they are endangering their  safety  and  the  safety  of
others.

I find this objection difficult to understand.  As far as my  own
safety  is concerned, I haven't  thought  of  too many  instances
where  someone  outside of my immediate vicinity would  have  any
better  idea  of  my  well-being  than  I.  The  closest thing  I
could think of would be a next door neighbor attempting to inform
me that my house is on fire. I would guess  this  would make  the
telephone useful if the doors were ablaze (the neighbor  couldn't
knock  on  the  door  and  tell me the problem,)   but due to the
nature of this scenerio, the usefulness would be questionable.

In the event that someone would be in a  dangerous  situation,  I
cannot  imagine why they would call me. I am not an MD,  so  that
I could  assist  a person  who   is  ill.  Nor am I  a  policeman
where  I  could  assist people  endangered  by  crime.  Calls  to
people    in     these   professions      would      be      most
approprate    in  dangerous situations. Similarly would be  calls
to  the  Fire  department, hospital/ambulance  corp.  Even  calls
to  the  local  power company would be appropriate in case of gas
leaks or felled power  lines, etc. One would be  hard-pressed  to
come up with a reason to call on a computer programmer in case of
emergency (I'm referring  to  dangers  relating  to  Humans,  not
machines.)

With regard to the objection to  the  kosher   laws   and   their
inapplicability  to  "modern society," the objection is very much
like those against the observance of any (or all)  of  the  other
Jewish  laws.  There  have  always  been  individuals  who try to
observe the laws just as there have been those individuals who do
not.  These  arguments  simply  attempt to justify non-observance
with "straw man"-arguments.

It is the people that foster these arguments who have  introduced
the concept of time/technology into the issue of Kashrut. Neither
the Bible nor the sages ever associated these  issues.  The  non-
observant   individuals  decided  that  it  must  have  been  the
motivating  factor  in  issuing  the  laws,   and  so  could   be
eliminated when that reason was eliminated.

How convenient!
-- 
Harlan B. Braude
{most "backbone" sites}!houxt!hbb