[MiguelHudnandez]

As far as I understand it, some orthodox jews are not permitted to do any "work" on the sabbath.

Some factions believe that flicking a light switch is "work," or that pressing a button is "work." So some enterprising fellows have been creating ingenious inventions to allow observant orthodox jews to live comfortably while still not technically violating their rules.

It all seems pretty silly to me, but you have to admit, it is indeed hacking and I think the devices are clever.

One specific example is an elevator, which has a sabbath mode. On the sabbath, it will stop and open its doors at every floor, over and over, so that an observant rider can simply walk on, and walk off at their desired floor, without the perceived sin of pressing the button for their floor.

[howardr]

One of my friends said that his grandparents would light their stove before sundown on friday and leave it lit until sundown Saturday so they would not break kosher laws

I have also heard that a lot of devices have kosher mode. E.g. refrigerators lights not coming on and power randomly going in and out much like this swith

[_delirium]

The random-refrigerator-compressor one is something I read about recently and would never have occurred to me. The reasoning is that in a normal setup, the compressor's operation is driven by internal temperature, which is impacted by opening/closing the door, so opening/closing the door is indirectly "operating" an electric motor, the compressor. To avoid that, in Sabbath mode the compressor runs on a non-thermostat-based schedule, so its operation is not being directed by any human activity.

Some electric ovens and stoves also have a Sabbath mode that lets them stay on all day; in the normal mode most have an auto-shutoff after 12 hours, under the assumption that an oven left on for more than 12 hours was probably an accident.

[lywald]

It seems to me like the goal is to lure jews into studying their religion intensively by giving them forced free time. And if that's the case then switching a light on indirectly is still wrong because you are wasting time and focus trying to switch it. A better alternative then would be automation. Switch on given a schedule, or switch on when entering the room, ect...

[JerusaEnt]

Another "hack" us Jews use very often is a timer. We have a timer hooked up to an outlet, and plug things into the timer, so you can set certain times to allow the electricity through, and other times not to.

[corin_]

It seems to me that "hacks" like these are just missing the point - though I'm an atheist, so maybe I'm just missing the point.

If the logic is that God didn't want a fire lit, surely that is because he didn't want the fire, not that he didn't want someone lighting it.

Isn't it all a little bit like a scaled down, less immoral, version of saying "No, I didn't kill him, I just pushed him into the ocean - blame the water"?

[aidenn0]

It seems to me a timer is fine; the point isn't to be in total darkness, the point is to not do the proscribed things. You are free to sit in front of a fire, so long as you didn't light it.

Things like the switch in this article seems really silly though. Of course having a gentile to push elevator buttons for you seems silly to me as well.

[ajuc]

I'm not a Jew, but I've read the Old Testament, and God depicted there cares about intentions a lot more, than about effects. For example - God wanted Abraham to kill his son not because he wanted Jakub death, but he wanted blind obedience from Abraham. Which is still illogical - because first - God knew beforehand what Abraham will do, second - it's strange that God prefers people to be obedient, than ethical (one can argue that killing son because of God order is not unethical, when we assume God is always right).

Anyway - omnipotent and omniscient God is logical contradiction already, either logic don't work on God, or it's all bullshit. So religion doesn't have to be logical.

[JerusaEnt]

Well there are scores of books on these issues, and some great Rabbis hold exactly what you are saying. But some say that since there is no action on the Sabbath, and the act is before the Sabbath, and before the Sabbath it wasn't an issue. So then even though the result is on the Sabbath, it's not actually an issue.