Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site ucf-cs.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!unc!mcnc!duke!ucf-cs!yiri From: yiri@ucf-cs.UUCP (Yirmiyahu BenDavid) Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish Subject: Shabbat electricity and geder Message-ID: <1520@ucf-cs.UUCP> Date: Sat, 22-Sep-84 21:33:06 EDT Article-I.D.: ucf-cs.1520 Posted: Sat Sep 22 21:33:06 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 26-Sep-84 06:57:37 EDT Organization: UCF, Orlando, FL Lines: 21 According to what I've read, the decision to forbid the use of electricity on Shabbat was because it was classified as fire rather than being simply a geder. However, that raises another good question: how desirable is a geder? It seems to me that if a person desires to be observant, then s/he knows best how much safety fence s/he needs and even if the advice of the rabbis is sought (a healthy thing), there would be no need to impose it as a law since the observant person who sought such advice would want to do it. (The sages recognized and preferred keeping the spirit/intent of the law rather than simply the letter of the law as imposed externally.) On the other hand, if a person does not desire to be observant, a geder is futile. The non-observant person observes neither. It appears to me that the net result is that the IMPOSITION of a geder AS LAW is a futile effort wasted on the non-observant and an unnecessary burden when IMPOSED on some of the observant. In the context of second temple Judaism, the Sadducees (and I think the Zadokites, Essenes and most others) saw the imposition of the geder as contravening Torah (Dt. 4:1-2 & 13:1). (The Pharisees were the only sect I can recall which recognized the authority of a geder. Of course, most of the modern traditions stem from the Pharisees.)