Blind Leaders of the Blind?
November 1996
The Orthodox Jew is a good example of those who follow the law
blindly. The law said that a fire could
not be kindled on the Sabbath day (Ex. 35:3).
The Orthodox consider electricity to be fire and will use no electricity
on the Sabbath day. They will not start
their cars, although they will ride in an airplane that began its flight before
the Sabbath.
There are kosher elevators where there are large numbers of the
Orthodox. They stop at all the floors,
so the Orthodox do not have to push the button, or wait for someone to push it
for them. It is all right for them to
ride the elevator if someone else has pushed the button, or if it is a kosher
elevator. You must commend their zeal,
especially if their room is on the sixtieth floor.
They have a real problem if they have to stay in modern hotels
over the Sabbath. These rooms do not
have keys anymore, but operate by electronic cards. Therefore the Orthodox have to leave their doors open, and try to
persuade the maids not to close them.
Dietary laws are a real problem.
Tuna fish is o.k., but there is a problem if it is suspected that a
dolphin or some other unclean animal is caught in the net and even a tiny
portion of the contents of the can is dolphin.
The tradition of eating ham at Easter was the Christian witness to
liberty in Christ. Rightly or wrongly,
it was a sort of in-your-face response to those who blindly followed the
law. Return
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