Posts in : December, 2013 - Orthodox Ketubot
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by Esti Horwitzposted in BlogComments Off on Invention of the Day: The Kosher Switch
Here at Orthodox Ketubot, we love neat inventions that help us satisfy our obligations as Jews, while also helping us live in the modern world.
Today, we discovered one such device: the Kosher Switch.
What is it?
It’s a bit hard to understand from the webpage (Note to the Kosher Switch guys if you happen to stumble upon this: please explain what you do in a much clearer way!) but after being intrigued by it and digging through their pages, it seems to do something like this:
A special type of light switch so that: if you press it while it’s Shabbat, nothing happens. But then, the circuit has a random coin toss, and that may or may not result in the light being turned on. This satisfies the halacha because, the action of you moving the switch does not result in the light being turned on, neither directly nor indirectly. Instead, adding in the random factor, adds the uncertainty of outcome — thus making it comply with the Halacha.
We love it! We’d recommend everyone try it out! We will!
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by Esti Horwitzposted in BlogComments Off on Editorial: “Why non-Orthodox Judaism is a disaster for Israel”
There’s a powerful article by Rabbi Avi Shafran in Ha’aretz, Why non-Orthodox Judaism is a disaster for Israel.
Excerpt:
Those of us who believe that the Torah, both its written text and accompanying Oral Law, were bequeathed by God to our Jewish ancestors at Sinai, and that its commandments and prohibitions remain incumbent on Jews to this day, obviously hope that those Jewish movements who lack these beliefs remain marginal forces in Israel.
But that’s a hope born of the perspective of a particular belief system (albeit the shared conviction of all Jews’ ancestors until two centuries ago). Leaving such blatant subjectivity aside, though, would the growth of non-Orthodox Jewish theologies be a boon or a bane to Israeli society qua society?
The answer may lie in the example of the United States, where the Reform and Conservative movements, as well as less popular groups like Reconstructionism and Humanistic Judaism, had and have free rein to lay claim to Jewish authenticity. And here in the American diaspora, the results of the Jewish Pluralism experiment? Decidedly binary.
This article is worth the read in its entirety. Two thumbs up from your humble writer here.
Of course, this opinion is not necessarily shared by the entire staff of Orthodox Ketubot. I speak only for myself!
