Kosher Elevators
Recently I’ve been trying to become more knowledgeable about what it means to be Jewish. While I have most of the basics down, I’m still learning the nuances, particularly the ones involving how you are supposed to live your daily life. Take this NY Times article on kosher elevators for instance (via). Not only was I unaware there was a controversy, I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a kosher elevator:
The question is at the core of a ruling issued by a group of prominent rabbis in Israel on Sept. 29 that seems to ban the use of many so-called Shabbos elevators: elevators fixed to stop on every floor from Friday evening until Saturday evening so that observant Jews do not have to press any buttons.
Since the 1960s, when high-rise apartment buildings became ubiquitous, the Orthodox rabbinate has made such elevators one of the few exceptions to Talmudic rules prohibiting 39 categories of activity on the Sabbath, including manual labor or the use of electrical devices. Like flipping a light switch, pressing an elevator button is considered the use of an electrical device.
Read the article to see what the controversy is about but what strikes me is how religion and modern living come together and the outcome is kosher elevators. I have so much to learn.
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