Litigious Electric Jews

There is the most ridiculous story in The Times newspaper today about an Orthodox Jewish couple who are suing the owners of the block of flats they live in. They claim that they are trapped in their appartment on Friday and Sunday nights because of the sensor-activated lights in the communal areas. They will not use any Electricity on these days and feel that activating the lights breaks that practice. So they’re suing under the Equality Act 2006 and the Human Rights Act 1998.

I really don’t care what beliefs people hold but I’m glad that the Law enables people to hold any belief they want to, so long as it does no harm. Of course I think that most religious beliefs are nonsense – the rest being interesting in an evolutionary manner, something I’ll discuss another time. However I don’t believe the Law should protect your right to protection under those beliefs. If that were the case then Creationists would simply be able to sue schools for teaching Evolution and I could make up a belief system that prohibited the use of computers on Wednesdays and then I could sue my employer for requiring me to use one. i.e. The enforcement under law of protection of rights is categorically farcical as a concept.

Within every community there are of course the sensible and the daft. Leslie Bunder, editor of SomethingJewish.com, is quoted as saying, “It’s a bit arrogant. It’s an embarassment, it’s giving reasonable Jews a bad name.”

Anyway, what about this rule (belief)? The prohibition of concern here is that about doing no work on the Sabbath. Specifically not creating Fire. Chanie Alperowitz, the director of an Orthodox Jewish group claims, “When using electricity, one causes a fire as there are sparks created by electricity.”

REALLY?! And what kind of schooling do these people have to think such preposterousness!?

What is fire? It is the name we give to the heat and light produced by the rapid oxidisation of a material, combustion.

What is an electric spark? It is a flow of electric current, electrons, between two objects at different potentials. There is heat and light but there is no combustion. Yes lightning can cause a fire but it is not itself fire. And anyway the tiny sparks in light switches don’t cause fires (often) and even if they did it would not be because you did any work to cause it. I can hardly be considered to have been trying to do some work if my house catches fire due to a lightning bolt…

So, yes, it’s simple. Electricity is not Fire. So all you Orthodox Jews out there please do whatever you like with Electricity on the Sabbath – it’s not work and it’s not fire.

The ultimate irony will be if their court date is a Friday.