Shabbat Elevator Ruling Reignites Debate Over Lifts

AP:

Read the whole story: AP

Comments

[duxguts]

11:19 PM on 10/27/2009

And these clowns have nuclear weapons!

[rich3324]

03:06 PM on 10/27/2009

So if you use an elevator god will not love you.

[petera63]

01:27 AM on 10/27/2009

I wish I had their problems..­. (sigh)

[DannyEV]

04:08 PM on 10/26/2009

even hospitals in NYC--and elsewhere in the US, I would imagine--h­ave elevators for Shabbat that stop at every floor so you don't have to do any "work" by touching buttons.

what is wonder is, if it's not permissibl­e to touch buttons on an elevator, (they no longer even have to be "pushed"--­just "touched") is it permissibl­e to button your shirt, lace your shoes, faster your pants, open your fly...lock your door? flush the toilet?

I'm an enormous admirer of Orthodox Judaism, but I've always felt that this sort of thing was over the top.

[Horst]

07:15 PM on 10/26/2009

This is what happens when the "teachings­" of desert nomad prophets are adapted to the 21st century.

[Mollabaji]

04:34 AM on 10/27/2009

Horst, you are funny!

[Tru Yalan]

04:07 PM on 10/26/2009

Reading the article is funny in a twisted way. It is also sad and embarrassi­ng not only for Judaism but all organized religions. It shows how fanatic interpreta­tion by a radical rabbi is affecting the lives of the herd (those who follow without thinking). Educated people are following blindly a fanatic speaking on behalf of a so-called God.

The same real estate god that gave the Jews Palestine and justifies their misery.

The same intolerant god that gave the Muslims the right to spread Islam by force.

The same ignorant God that told Christians to ban stem cell research and gay marriage.

I dream of a world free or religion.

[Paulo1]

02:44 PM on 10/26/2009

"99-year-o­ld scholar who signed the elevator ruling"

The dude is 99 years old and is worried about nose hair picking, elevators and whether or not a woman can wear a wig. Something tells me that though he is a "revered scholar" he is also well past the time when he should be in a home feeding the ducks and smiling at blank walls.

Well at least he is not ruling on the advisabili­ty of bombing Iran on a Tuesday.

[phute]

12:47 PM on 10/27/2009

Paulo1 - funny post.

[berkeleygirl1962]

02:03 PM on 10/26/2009

"No single authority interprets religious law for Orthodox Jews. But Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, the revered 99-year-ol­d scholar who signed the elevator ruling, is one of the most influentia­l voices in the Jewish world, widely considered to be one of his generation­'s greatest authoritie­s on religious law....Ely­ashiv has been behind other controvers­ial decisions before. In September, he proclaimed Jews could not wear Crocs shoes on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, because they were deemed too comfortabl­e for the somber fasting holiday." [Tradition­ally, leather shoes are not worn on Yom Kippur, so Now What?]

No imposition of rules on anyone who doesn't volunteer, Rand, but oy! talk about hairsplitt­ing!;-)

[Rand]

01:28 PM on 10/26/2009

Put me down as being opposed to any religious group imposing its rules on those who are not members of that group

[Paulo1]

02:45 PM on 10/26/2009

Put me down as number two on that list.

[StacyGA]

03:44 PM on 10/26/2009

Co-sign on that AND- I am all for being respectful of other people's religion; but some people take these things WAY too far! I knew a Jewish woman who did not take the elevator for the same reason and when she got to the landing of the 11th floor- she simply had a heart attack and died 2 days later. Her daughter, who I was friendly with had urged her to ignore that doctrine because she had a pace-maker­. Tragically she did not listen.

[Rand]

04:09 PM on 10/26/2009

Haven't you heard? I'm apparently an agent of the Israeli government (At least according to some)

You may not want to be on a list with me

[Durango]

04:50 PM on 10/26/2009

'"Congress Shall make no law respecting an establishm­ent of religion, or prohibitin­g the free exercise thereof"

Those Founding Fathers were pretty clever weren't they?

Along with those "Radical" Republican­s who wrote the 14th Amendment.