On a Jewish Sabbath
I was in Israel with Linda in 1994, and we were staying in a very nice hotel in Jerusalem. It was a Friday evening, the sun was down, and we had entered into the Jewish Shabbat, or Sabbath. As we were walking down the hallway on our way to dinner, an elderly man stepped out of his room, stopped me in the hall, and asked me if I could help him. I said, "Sure."
So he strolled over to the door of his room, opened it, and invited us in. He waddled a short piece to the bathroom door, stopped, and pointed to a light switch. Then he said to me, "Would you please turn on the light to the bathroom?"
I thought I was going into his room to hoist a dresser, lug around a suitcase filled with lead weights, or something like that. But all he wanted me to do was lift my finger, flick the light switch up, and turn on his bathroom light. I thought that was odd. He seemed capable of doing that himself. But he went on to rhapsodize that he often during the night had to vault from his bed and run like American Pharaoh to the bathroom. So he wanted to make sure the light was on once he hit the racetrack.
Now mind you, this was about 7 pm on a Friday night. So he wasn't in bed yet, and he had plenty of time to activate the switch both now and later before he climbed into the hay and prepare for his midnight fire drill.
So he stood there waiting for me to place my digit on the switch and push it up so the light would illuminate and he would be set to charge like a madman into the bathroom when he couldn't stand it any longer.
If you read the New Testament, you will be educated fairly quickly about Jewish legalism and all of the ridiculous ways the Jews practiced their religion based on rules that had been invented over thousands of years on how to make God happy. In spite of this, I was not thinking of any of this when this gentleman asked me to perform this simple task.
So I said to him, "Why in the world did you ask me to come in here and turn on this light when you are standing right next to it and could do it yourself?"
He casually said, "I am Jewish and the Law of God says that I cannot - now get this -"light a fire on the Sabbath" because that is work, and we Jews are not allowed to do any work on the Sabbath. If anyone does any work on the Sabbath, he is going to hell."
So, to save this old man from charging toward the bathroom in a mad dash in a pitch black room where he may be tempted to turn on the light and then go to hell, I reached over and nonchalantly flicked on the light and walked out the door, never to see him again.
But I got to thinking about this whole thing later that night. This old codger didn't want to start a fire on the Sabbath so HE wouldn't go to hell, but he was perfectly satisfied if I started a fire on the Sabbath and went to hell myself.
So he strolled over to the door of his room, opened it, and invited us in. He waddled a short piece to the bathroom door, stopped, and pointed to a light switch. Then he said to me, "Would you please turn on the light to the bathroom?"
I thought I was going into his room to hoist a dresser, lug around a suitcase filled with lead weights, or something like that. But all he wanted me to do was lift my finger, flick the light switch up, and turn on his bathroom light. I thought that was odd. He seemed capable of doing that himself. But he went on to rhapsodize that he often during the night had to vault from his bed and run like American Pharaoh to the bathroom. So he wanted to make sure the light was on once he hit the racetrack.
Now mind you, this was about 7 pm on a Friday night. So he wasn't in bed yet, and he had plenty of time to activate the switch both now and later before he climbed into the hay and prepare for his midnight fire drill.
So he stood there waiting for me to place my digit on the switch and push it up so the light would illuminate and he would be set to charge like a madman into the bathroom when he couldn't stand it any longer.
If you read the New Testament, you will be educated fairly quickly about Jewish legalism and all of the ridiculous ways the Jews practiced their religion based on rules that had been invented over thousands of years on how to make God happy. In spite of this, I was not thinking of any of this when this gentleman asked me to perform this simple task.
So I said to him, "Why in the world did you ask me to come in here and turn on this light when you are standing right next to it and could do it yourself?"
He casually said, "I am Jewish and the Law of God says that I cannot - now get this -"light a fire on the Sabbath" because that is work, and we Jews are not allowed to do any work on the Sabbath. If anyone does any work on the Sabbath, he is going to hell."
So, to save this old man from charging toward the bathroom in a mad dash in a pitch black room where he may be tempted to turn on the light and then go to hell, I reached over and nonchalantly flicked on the light and walked out the door, never to see him again.
But I got to thinking about this whole thing later that night. This old codger didn't want to start a fire on the Sabbath so HE wouldn't go to hell, but he was perfectly satisfied if I started a fire on the Sabbath and went to hell myself.