Shame on Gizmodo | Shame on Us Too

I find that non believers have a hard time understanding religion and they tend to see us all in term of black and white. When I say that I keep kosher (or Shabbat), people are surprised. They can’t understand how a rather modern looking person can possible adhere to such “old-fashioned” ideas (their thoughts of course, not mine). It would make sense to them if I looked like a female version of an aytollah but since I don’t they just don’t know what to make of the information.

Really? Like he was waiting for a slow news day to start the religion flamewar?

Do you have the link from your blog?

You wrote:

Those are not the times to sue because you have been made uncomfortable in your adherence to halacha.

There may be great merit to the lawsuit. I find that all irrelevant. I think, avoiding a legal brouhaha over halacha is more important than the principle of who is right and who is wrong in this situation.

I do not understand your position at all! There is an entire section of Shulchan Aruch that does insist that a person’s proprietary rights are worthy of fighting for, when compromised by various sorts of mischief.

That mischief may be something as subtle as a neighbour’s prying eyes, or a bad smell being produced by a neighbour’s activities. Why should a “halachic” nuisance be any less actionable?

And how can you propose a blanket policy of waiving your own proprietary rights in the face of these kinds of challenges? You may want to go lifnim mishuras hadin for yourself, although I don’t see the merit personally, but to suggest that you’d advise this to others doesn’t sit well with me from a choshen mishpat perspective.

What am I missing?

I’d like to hear your response…

Simon Synett and I had a big halachic tweetup on this story a while ago as well

Do you mean “illegal” or is “unreasonable” enough? Either way that’s already a question that needs to be put to judges, no?

I think you are missing the point that the Jewish homeowners are not able to go out of their house on Shabbat because then the motion sensor would go off.,That is why the article headline is that they are trapped in their house as a result of their religious beliefs. They have agreed to pay to put the lighting back the way it was and if the building does not comply then they are trapped inside. How is the East Coast, Rabbi Fink??

Rabbi Fink,

If they came to the building and this light was existing, they would have no case. But installing this motion detector light infringes on their basic religious right to walk in the hallway without having to compromise their halachic beliefs. Also they did offer to settle the issue at their own expense by going back to old lighting system.

“There is a normal Orthodox Jewish couple who have a vacation home. Originally, the building did not have motion sensing lights but recently changed the system to a motion sensing system.”

The couple is NOT normal. Tens of thousands of Orthodox Jews live in apartment buildings or on streets that have lights with automatic sensors, that can’t be avoided, when they leave the place they live.

DO THEY ALL SUE?

“On Shabbos one may not act in a way that will automatically produce a desired result that violates Shabbos. Completing a circuit to turn on a light is a violation of Shabbos.”

The second sentence contradicts the first.
The second sentence should be: Completing a circuit when the desired result is to turn on a light is a violation of Shabbos.

If the couples electricity trips and they walk outside, to activate the light, so they can read a book – that is mechalel shabbos.

If they walk outside their apartment to walk to shul and the light happens to turn on – its not mechalel shabbos.

There are times when due to Halacha we do things which might annoy outside society and we should do whatever Halacha demands, regardless of the consequences. But why annoy the rest of society when its not demanded by Halacha?
That’s just insensitive and is EXACTLY the type of thing that leads to dislike of Jews.

The way those snobby, stuck-up Jews acted is DISGUSTING and reflects poorly on the whole Jewish community. Thank G-d the vast majority of Torah observant Jews act differently. And thank G-d there are many Torah observant Jews who speak out against such behavior.
That is the point Rabbonim SHOULD be making.

Gizmodo has officially lost me as a reader today. After reading 2 anti-Sony article in as many days, I can longer stand the vendettas they seem to have against anything not Apple or Nintendo or Microsoft.

They had one editorial about what’s more useless tech…motion controls or 3D…with pictures of the PS3 only.

Then they write this completely slanted rant about how sad it is that Sony has lost E3 and the console war in general…contradicting themselves the entire way thru.

Avoid Gizmodo. I don’t know what’s gotten into them recently…the slant they have is unbearable. It might be the free XBox 360 they got from Microsoft (like all who attended the Microsoft conference at E3). They have people with titles such as “editor” and “reporter”…they’re just bloggers with a bit more access than everyone else…it doesn’t make them journalists…in fact associating them with real journalists is an insult to those who actually provide a fair and unbiased view of the industry.

I know. Big let down for me too…

But truthfully, it is just this one writer, they have a big staff and this guy is usually lame anyway.

Your line of reasoning is flawed. The SA is dealing with people who all must adhere to its rules. When dealing within our halachic Jews then you must exercise your Choshen Mishpat rights.

Alas, that is not the case. We are guests on a foreign land with foreign rules. Would you sue someone because their food is unkosher?

The building owner is not bound by halacha so using your religion as basis for a suit is just asking for trouble. If there was an unalienable right that was being deprived I would agree a suit may be necessary.

Look, I did not say, they have no right to sue or that they are wrong for suing. I said I think they shouldn’t sue. The potential for misunderstanding halacha and the ensuing chillul hashem is too great.

I think frum Jews should be as innocuous as possible. Unless you are certain to make a kiddush hashem, then be visible.