Atlantic: Can You Read on an Amazon Kindle on Shabbat?

I originally posted this 12/23/2010. 

The questions keep recurring so we are bringing this post back. And by the way, I published a lot of books on Kindle since then, 

• The first was The Kindle Edition of God's Favorite Prayers (2011). 
• And then in 2011 I published the entire 30 volume Soncino Talmud. 
• And all these numerous (17) other Kindle titles - please click through.

Now back to the 2010 blog post...

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Our Jewish calendars have always told us what time to Kindle for the Sabbath, when to "Kindle the Shabbat Candles."

Nowadays we have another kind of Kindle to know about, the Amazon book reader. And the question arises, can you Kindle on the Sabbath?

We think yes, without any qualifications, that you can Kindle on the Sabbath. The e-ink device does not create actual light. You cannot read it in the dark. And it obviously does not create any durable writing. When you turn it off it goes blank.

In halakhic terms we find no transgression, no prohibition to using the reader. In fact it's a feat of great imagination to extend Sabbath prohibitions to that invention. It involves believing there is a set of electrical apparatus that is prohibited, or defining a broad category of technology-things that all are outside the spirit of Sabbath rest.

Is the Kosher Light Switch Really Kosher?

Is the Kosher Light Switch Really Kosher?

Rabbis are fighting over the new device called the Kosher Switch.
VIN news reports at length on the controversy.

New York - A new light switch that has been under development for several years and claims to be approved for Shabbos use is one step closer to being available to the public, but whether or not the device is actually halachically acceptable has become the subject of debate over the last several days.

A crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo  raised $50,000 for production of the UL certified switches, which developers say skirts any issues of chilul Shabbos by randomizing electrical impulses generated by the switch, within four days.  A video explaining the purpose and workings of the device garnered more than 90,000 views on YouTube over the same time period...

Note: I have had problems with one Indiegogo invention that I supported - a smart watch that never delivered on its promises. This suggests to me that Indiegogo has low or no standards to verify the claims of the developers who use the site. Accordingly, from the standpoint of technology and Jewish law, beware of putting your money into a non-existent and non-verified device.

JStandard.com: My Talmudic Advice Column for March: Kiddush Manners and Sports Coach

Dear Rabbi: Your Talmudic Advice Column
Published in The Jewish Standard

Dear Rabbi,

My husband and I were thrilled to be invited for Shabbos dinner at the home of a lovely, warm couple. This couple, always gracious hosts, had also invited four other couples. As we gathered around the table, the host, a gentleman who learns daily asked the men if anyone wanted to make kiddush. All agreed that they would be “yotze” the mitzvah with the host’s kiddush and not recite their own. Wine was poured, and all stood waiting for the host to begin. Just a few words into the bracha, a man at the table interrupted the host, correcting his pronunciation. Graciously, the host accepted the correction and finished the blessing.

The person who made the correction is known around town to be very learned. He wears a black hat, which he keeps on until after motzi. But I was really mortified to be sitting at the table where a host, or anyone, is embarrassed publicly. I said nothing at the table, but I do wonder if I should have said something and if it is halachically correct to correct/embarrass someone, even if it means a well-meaning bracha might be said with an incorrect pronunciation.

How far should we go, or should we go at all, to embarrass or correct someone, even if we see it as upholding Torah? This disregard for a person’s feelings under the guise of Torah values really disturbed me.

Troubled
Teaneck

The Jewish Week Exposes a New Crisis in Judaism: Orthodox Teens Text on Shabbos

From the Jewish Week a "dramatic" expose, For Many Orthodox Teens, 'Half Shabbos' Is A Way Of Life.

We have a sense that (1) it is not just Orthodox teens who step over blanket Orthodox taboos like this one against personal communications technology and (2) Judaism will adapt to this crisis of faith and will survive.

...The practice has become so widespread – some say half of Modern Orthodox teens text on Shabbat – that it has developed its own nomenclature – keeping “half Shabbos,” for those who observe all the Shabbat regulations except for texting; “gd Shbs,” is the shorthand text greeting that means good Shabbos...

We like this humorous take on the problem,

The frumsatire.net Website carried a fictional report that Modern Orthodox rabbis “have begun to consider texting during shul on Shabbos to curb talking,” in order to keep synagogues quiet during religious services.

Times: Where to Buy Shabbos Flowers in Brooklyn

Amazing to us that we turn the pages of the paper and find this story in the Sunday Times. Where to buy your Shabbos flowers in Brooklyn - and a perfect shop for Seder guests to buy flowers from Paul Berger, "Where Every Bouquet Tells a Story."

ON Friday afternoons, the headquarters of the Chabad sect of Orthodox Judaism comes alive as men in black jackets and hats stream like worker bees in and out of the subterranean entrance on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn. Those exiting scatter across Crown Heights to prepare for the Sabbath — Shabbos in Yiddish — many drawn a block east by the overpowering smell of lilies and the ebullient welcome of Chani Frankel to Mimulo, a flower shop on Albany Avenue.

“Shalom, rabbi! How are you?” she asked one customer on a recent Friday, greeting others with a “Happy Shabbos!” ...more...

Times: Cultural Study of the Sabbath

Judith Shulevitz wrote an article in the Cultural Studies series in the Times, "Creating Sabbath Peace Amid the Noise." We appreciate aspects of her book on the Sabbath, as we said in a prior post.

So nu, what's in this article? Two anecdotes about Jews who have their own ideas of the Sabbath, one from a Brooklyn Heights couple and one from a Persian Jew on the Upper West Side. Then for balance, Shulevitz appends two anecdotes about Christians who observe some sort of Sabbath. Voila, we have a "Cultural Study."

We are reminded that there actually are real cultural methods for analyzing and understanding the ideas and practices of the Sabbath. We served on a doctoral committee at the University of Minnesota for a thesis that applied leisure studies theory to the Jewish Sabbath and concluded that it was in large measure a deliberate and periodic re-creation of a wilderness experience within an urban culture. That was an actual "study" with references to a literature and theories.

As we suggested, Shulevitz has produced an essay that is mostly a faux study with charming anecdotage. That's too bad because her book has a whole lot more content and thoughtfulness (although intermixed with heavy doses of personal spiritual reflections). We find it discouraging that a writer apparently had to dumb down her presentation for the readers of the New York Times.

So here is a sample from the start.

THERE are people for whom the Sabbath never went away — Seventh-day Adventists, Hutterites, Jews whose fathers and mothers never stopped walking in the ways of their fathers and mothers.

And then there are the rest of us. The Sabbath, Jewish or Christian, is a distant memory for many Americans, the recollection of a quaintly tranquil day when stores were closed, streets were quiet and festive dinners were had. The Sabbath would seem to have no place in our busy, beeping world. The very word tastes musty in the mouth, as if it were a relic from another place and time...more...

We stop here since all this is problematic to begin with. The traditional Sabbath today is practiced as it was observed centuries ago. It is a relic-Sabbath -- and it is a relic from the past. Like a Renaissance Fair or Colonial Williamsburg, some people with no musty taste in their mouths do reenact the ancient Sabbath in modern times and that is the point of it all. But what then is the meaning of the original Sabbath?

We need a lot of work on this essay, Ms. Shulevitz. More accurate description would help it. And a layer of actual academic analysis based on real social and cultural theory would be nice. And yes, even a summary of Orthodox apologetics defending the reenactment of the Sabbath in today's world would help this article.

We do like the illustration that accompanies the article.

A few new books we read about and one new book we sort of read

We found 3 book reviews worth noting for one reason or another in the Times and we actually read quickly through one other new book that we have to return Monday to the otherwise wonderful Teaneck library because another patron has it on hold. And our reading time was minimal today because our home was filled most of the afternoon with at least eight children ages six and under, five who were our grandchildren with whom we'd rather spend time playing than to do anything else in the universe.

In the time left for reading, we selectively pored over Judith Shulevitz', The Sabbath World, and have mixed reactions to it, but mainly because we don't know what to make of what she calls her "spiritual autobiography." This is a work of diligent and extensive research and thinking about so many aspects of the phenomenon we call the Sabbath. And it is also an account of many chunks of the life of the author mixed in with her discussions of the practice and conceptualization of the Sabbath throughout history and across cultures. For us, that whole stratum of the book could have been dispensed with altogether. We aren't that much interested in Shulevitz after what we learned from her slightly banal yet pompous interspersed accounts of selected chapters of her rather offbeat Jewish upbringing, education and life experiences. The book, without that information, would stand quite strong as a rapid overview of the Sabbath idea broadly construed.

Next, 3 items covered in the Sunday Times Book Review, linked below:

Judt's book thankfully does not seem to attack Israel; Miller' book looks promising; Martel's metaphor gets a kinder gentler review here than we have seen elsewhere, where it has been slammed pretty hard.

‘Ill Fares the Land’ By TONY JUDT. Reviewed by JOSEF JOFF. Tony Judt argues that Britain and America have succumbed to greed and egotism in this passionate book championing European-style social democracy. Excerpt | Profile of Tony Judt

‘Heaven’ By LISA MILLER. Reviewed by MARK OPPENHEIMER. A journalist’s tour of the afterlife, across religions and through the ages.

‘Beatrice and Virgil’ By YANN MARTEL. Reviewed by ROBERT HANKS. The author of “Life of Pi” returns with new animals still laden with metaphor. Excerpt

Times: Kosher Shabbat Elevators

One facet of Orthodox Judaism is observing a set of Sabbath taboos - categories that quantify what is "rest" and what is "work."

This is part of the meditative mindfulness that is built into rabbinic life. Instead of observing a subjective day of "rest" Orthodox Jews have to mind many everyday activities to insure that they are observing an objective day of "rest."

That mindfulness can get tricky at times as the Times' writer points out in this story on Shabbat elevators, "Another Landlord Worry: Is the Elevator Kosher?" by PAUL VITELLO.

...Does that elevator “know” how many people are on it?

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....more...

Friday Night Lights: Bold Theft of Infiniti Wheels on Shabbos Eve from Street in Front of a Teaneck Mansion

Imagine our shock when walking up Warwick Avenue in Teaneck last Saturday noon to Shabbos lunch at friends and seeing a nice late model black Infiniti automobile up on cinder blocks.

All four of its wheels had been stolen the night before!

It's a scene we'd more expect to see in the old South Bronx.

On the way back from lunch we watched the Teaneck police process the crime scene. They expressed neither shock nor surprise at the crime.

We can't/won't say whose house it was parked in front of.

Neighbors: Do you have wheel locks on your car?

The Jew and the Carrot in the New York Times Magazine!

She is in the NY Times Magazine "Lives"!

Hooray to Leah Koenig -- of the best Jewish blog in the world (for today) The Carrot, blog on Jewish life, food and sustainability.

And by the way you know that this reminds us of the Shalom Auslander narrative,in his "Personal History" called "Playoffs" where the characters walk a long way on Shabbat to attend a hockey game! Koenig is so much more serious and meaningful -- really...

Lives
Wedding March
By LEAH KOENIG

When it arrived in my boyfriend’s mailbox last summer, the invitation to the September wedding of a college friend immediately posed a problem. “It’s on a Saturday,” he said, scanning the R.S.V.P. card. “In Maryland.” Saturday meant Shabbat — the day of rest when Sabbath-keeping Jews like him (and more recently me), abstain from driving, using electricity, spending money and engaging in the 39 types of “creative work” identified in the Torah. Dancing after the ceremony was fine. Traveling there by car was not.

Still, my boyfriend was determined to go while following Shabbat’s laws. The nearest hotel was four miles from the wedding. We could arrive Friday before dark, he reasoned, wake up late and walk to the midafternoon ceremony with time to spare. “Sure,” I said, when he asked if I would go with him. “Sounds like fun.”

As the day approached, my excitement about our journey began to build. I remembered a line from my days as an environmental-studies major: “Walking is the great adventure, the first meditation.” Was that Gary Snyder or John Muir? No matter. We’d walk the terrain that Shabbat afternoon and pray with our feet! When the day arrived, we set out from the parking lot of our hotel with enthusiasm and plenty of time to make it.

Less than a mile into it, however, it was clear that our route was not meant for walkers. The few existing stretches of sidewalk dwindled away, swallowed by the hot highway. Cars hurtled around sharp bends. But we continued, past gas stations and car washes. Past enormous housing developments and swaths of undeveloped land with For Sale signs sticking like birthday candles out of the soil. Make a wish! Buy your dream home!

One mile became two. Under the sun’s glare, the relaxing Shabbat evening we’d spent in the hotel slipped away, and so did my poetic sentiment. Freckles of sweat dotted across my boyfriend’s T-shirt as he trudged a few steps ahead of me. I thought about my slinky black dress, now crumpled in his backpack. Kicking a pile of dusty stones, I drained my water bottle, irritated that I’d neglected to bring reserves. The “not purchasing stuff on Shabbat” rule was still new to me.

“Maybe we could knock on one of the houses and ask to fill up,” he said. But the homes gave off an impenetrable air, like fortresses with cul-de-sacs. The manicured lawns were absent of children. There were no women in wide-brimmed hats aiming garden hoses at the begonias. Living in New York City for four years, I have grown accustomed to the clamor of pedestrians on the sidewalks. But the only people we passed were two young Hispanic women heading toward one of the houses from a bus stop. “They must be cleaning ladies,” I said aloud, alarmed by my assumption and the suspicion that I was right.

Around Mile 3, a rummage sale on the side of the road appeared like an unlikely mirage. “Did your car break down or something?” asked the man sitting in a lawn chair, surrounded by bric-a-brac. We assured him we were fine, throwing him shoulder-shrugging smiles. How, in exurban Maryland, could we explain that we were actually walking on purpose?

My thirst was starting to get serious when we heard the faint sound of drumming. It was celebratory, slightly militaristic. An S.U.V. streaked by trailing colored streamers; a high-school football game was nearby. We practiced asking for water as we approached the outdoor stadium. “Should I explain that it’s Shabbat and we can’t pay for a bottle?” I asked. My boyfriend said, “No need to answer that question if it’s not asked,” showing far more experience than I with moving through the world as an observant Jew. The woman at the gate raised her eyebrows, but she took the empty water bottle from me to refill it.

When we finally “pulled in” to the small farm where the wedding guests were gathering, I felt my dreamy naturalist euphoria return. “We made it,” I said, grinning. My boyfriend said, “Thank you.” I went into the bathroom, splashed more water on my face and neck and changed into my miraculously unwrinkled dress. Outside, I found him looking handsome in dress pants and a tie, coming from the bar with a drink for each of us. We quietly agreed not to bring up our walk to the other guests. The walk was ours, but the day belonged to the bride and groom.

Later that evening the late summer sun set, signaling both the end of Shabbat and the party. We hitched a ride with a guest back to our hotel — back past the stadium, the cul-de-sacs and the gas stations. I strained my eyes in the darkness, trying to catch familiar glimpses of the landscape now blurring by at 40 miles an hour. It took us more than two and a half hours to get to the wedding that afternoon. The drive back took 10 minutes.

Leah Koenig is a freelance writer and editor of The Jew & The Carrot, blog on Jewish life, food and sustainability.

Aaron Kotler's Music Video?

Here is a repost of one of my favorite YouTube videos.

A search of "Aaron Kotler" on video.google.com brought me face-to-face with the send-up-video of frum Judaism with music by Aaron Kotler.

I have no way of verifying any relationship between the Aaron Kotler of this video and the anti-zionist gadol hador rabbi, Aaron Kotler. Having viewed this video, I can presume with some certainty that the latter would not approve of it.


As described: Seen SNL's Lazy Sunday... now check out Lazy Shabbos, a hilarious music video for Jews and Goyim alike.

New Book: A fun way to be shomer shabbos?

Here is a new book in the genre of Judaism is fun if you don't take it too seriously. The reviewer wonders about the target audience for such a book. Could Gentiles be interested? The publisher does not think so.

Suburban Mom Offers Fun Way into Sabbath Observance

by David Klinghoffer, Religion BookLine -- Publishers Weekly, 2/21/2007

For most American Jews, Sabbath observance--including the once-cherished Friday night Sabbath meal--largely went out the window in the 20th century. Meredith L. Jacobs would like to help restore the lost institution with a sprightly new book, The Modern Jewish Mom's Guide to Shabbat: Connect and Celebrate—Bring Your Family Together with the Friday Night Meal (HarperCollins, Feb.). A suburban Maryland wife and mother, Jacobs grew up without traditional Sabbath observances, and says of herself even now, "I'm not shomer Shabbos"–meaning Sabbath-observant–"but in the book I talk about how the more I learn, the more I want to do" in embracing other Jewish traditions. Jacobs finds meaning in the link the Sabbath gives her with the Jewish people, past and future. When she lights Sabbath candles on Friday night, "I feel connected to every Jewish woman who has ever been and will ever be," she said. The book includes chapters on creating the right Sabbath mood, another on recipes, along with a selection of discussion topics for the family based on the weekly Torah reading. That may sound like serious stuff, but neither Jacobs nor her publisher wanted to create another somber Judaica title. "It's really fun. It's really cute," said Jacobs of the book's cheerful, colorful packaging. "I can't wait to see it on the Judaism shelf with all those brown and black covers. It's hot pink!" And a book, perhaps, with an appeal even outside the Jewish community? "In our first meeting with her, I remember thinking, 'I wish I was Jewish because this sounds terrific,'" recalled Jennifer Hart, v-p and associate publisher for Harper Paperbacks. She said the book will publish initially with a 12,500-copy printing, bolstered with targeted advertising to Jewish publications and trifold author business cards including a Jewish Sabbath prayer. It's not unthinkable that the book could interest Christian readers looking for ways to incorporate Jewish customs into their spiritual lives–a significant phenomenon in some Christian circles. But Hart isn't depending on that: "To get the book established we need to reach the target Jewish audience. To go much wider would be difficult." This article originally appeared in the February 21, 2007 issue of Religion BookLine.

Making the Aaron Kotler Video Lazy Shabbos

You have to see the original Aaron Kotler Lazy Shabbos video first, then watch this one. Funny stuff.

Dana, Aaron's brother, commented on our earlier blog post,

the aaron kotler of this video is my brother. the video was made by medical students at the albert einstein college of medicine for our skit night. it was written by eric siskind and ari gladstein, and directed/produced by myself and joe sabat. my brother aaron, who is a musician, created the background track for us.

as far as your other thoughts, we are not directly related to the rabbi aaron kotler, though it is possible that there is some more distant relation of which we are not yet aware.

Here's the new one.