Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site eosp1.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!down!eosp1!robison From: robison@eosp1.UUCP (Tobias D. Robison) Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish Subject: Re: When the Sabbath can be desecrated Message-ID: <1049@eosp1.UUCP> Date: Thu, 9-Aug-84 22:17:46 EDT Article-I.D.: eosp1.1049 Posted: Thu Aug 9 22:17:46 1984 Date-Received: Fri, 10-Aug-84 04:31:37 EDT Organization: Exxon Office Systems, Princeton, NJ Lines: 34 References: >> It seems to me that activating answering machines and timers to >> turn on lights during the Sabbath is just circumventing the >> commandements. If I rig some apparatus to fire a gun to kill >> soeone the next day, I don't think that I could use the argument >> that I did not actually pull the trigger! >> Herman Silbiger This memo shows a confusion of action and intent which it is instructive to unravel. If I activate timers and automatic machines to actfor me on the Sabbath (but absolutely not to be controlled by me during the Sabbath), then I am not WORKING on the Sabbath, nor am I causing the variations in fire (electricity actually) that the machine cause to occur, by my actions on the Sabbath. Thus I am complying with the law. The intentions of the no-work laws are not to make me have a miserable time or to crawl up in a corner, but rather to keep me from actively performing certain kinds of activities. it may seem peculiar that there is a big difference between turning on a light at 8pm so I can read, and having a light go on automatically at 8pm so I can read. However, there is quite a difference, which anyone can easily discover by practicing the Sabbath laws. The difference can positively affect one7s enjoyment of the Sabbath. In a similar vein, one can eat a dessert that looks like ice cream but is made from peanut oil and sugar, immediately after eating meat. The object of the milk/meat separation is literally to separate the eating of milk and meat, not what "feels like" milk and meat.