My favorite is the string they put all around Manhattan, so that they can trick God into thinking that they’re really at home while running errands on shabbat.
People are different. Some Hasidic groups (like those easy to see in Manhattan of what I’ve heard) do that and even more stupid things, similar to talismans and such. But Judaism frankly doesn’t even have an idea of schism, so.
Michael Chabon’s “The Yiddish Policeman’s Union” sent me down a rabbit hole of reading up on all the loopholes, I forget what they’re called now, but they’re pretty fascinating.
Eh, they don’t really view it as “tricking God”, because in their view you can’t trick God.
It’s pretty specific that you’re not allowed to transfer things between “domains” in specific ways, and that a domain is a property of enclosure, not ownership.
The intent was clearly to keep people from leaving their communities on the holy day, given that the stories talk about bringing things into and out of Jerusalem being the problem, and use “home” in the context where a new Yorker would reasonably call Manhattan home.
Further, if your religion is literally the source of “the spirit versus the letter of the law” reaction of Christianity, then it follows that your religion might take a more legalistic approach to religious interpretation than the breakaway sect that’s influenced much of the English speaking worlds conceptions of how people should engage with religion.
That’s awesome. “God, you specifically gave us a list of rules, one of which says we’re not supposed to listen to unilateral commands from the heavens, so you coming down and giving your opinion on this is kinda out of line” and then God’s just like “<checks notes>…You know what? Fair. Point taken, carry on.”
I love that that’s just a part of the religion, and it pretty clearly underlines the “you’re supposed to think about and debate this stuff” part.
My favorite is the string they put all around Manhattan, so that they can trick God into thinking that they’re really at home while running errands on shabbat.
People are different. Some Hasidic groups (like those easy to see in Manhattan of what I’ve heard) do that and even more stupid things, similar to talismans and such. But Judaism frankly doesn’t even have an idea of schism, so.
Michael Chabon’s “The Yiddish Policeman’s Union” sent me down a rabbit hole of reading up on all the loopholes, I forget what they’re called now, but they’re pretty fascinating.
Eh, they don’t really view it as “tricking God”, because in their view you can’t trick God.
It’s pretty specific that you’re not allowed to transfer things between “domains” in specific ways, and that a domain is a property of enclosure, not ownership.
The intent was clearly to keep people from leaving their communities on the holy day, given that the stories talk about bringing things into and out of Jerusalem being the problem, and use “home” in the context where a new Yorker would reasonably call Manhattan home.
Further, if your religion is literally the source of “the spirit versus the letter of the law” reaction of Christianity, then it follows that your religion might take a more legalistic approach to religious interpretation than the breakaway sect that’s influenced much of the English speaking worlds conceptions of how people should engage with religion.
It’s not so much “tricking God” as “shuddup God grown-ups are talking”.
That’s awesome. “God, you specifically gave us a list of rules, one of which says we’re not supposed to listen to unilateral commands from the heavens, so you coming down and giving your opinion on this is kinda out of line” and then God’s just like “<checks notes>…You know what? Fair. Point taken, carry on.”
I love that that’s just a part of the religion, and it pretty clearly underlines the “you’re supposed to think about and debate this stuff” part.