Seven children are being flown to Israel after dying in a fire in Brooklyn. The fire was started by a common practice among Ultra-Orthodox jews. Since they believe God does not want them to use fire or engage in any work (including the turning on of appliances) on the Sabbath, they turn on hot plates before the Sabbath and leave them on. In this case, the hot plate caused the fire that trapped the children and badly injured their mother and another sibling. The father, Gabriel Sasson was at a religious . Lost are Eliane, 16; Rivkah, 11; and Sara, 6; and boys David, 12; Yeshua, 10; Moshe, 8; and Yaakob, 5.
At the time of the fire, Sasson, a religious education instructor was at a Shabbaton, an educational retreat.
We have previously discussed the curious practices used to circumvent the limitations by the Ultra Orthodox including elevators that require all riders to stop on every floor to avoid the need to push a button. Other practices are more serious including dangerous practices associated with circumcision. In this case, a prohibition on fire does not apparently prevent the use of electrical heat but only if you do not actually turn on the device during the Sabbath.
The deaths have caused ultra orthodox families to discuss this practice which is widespread in the community.
Forgive my complete ignorance of Orthodox Jewish practices. If the restriction is to not use fire or engage in work, why are they trying to fudge/cheat around the restrictions? Can’t they just live one day without?
Prepare everything you need the day before and take the day off. Read books. Nap. Take a walk in the park.
Terrible tragedy that might have been avoided if they weren’t trying to cheat.
I have been a Shabbos Goy many times. In fact I lived around the corner from where this took place for about a year. The houses in that area are often wood framed and go up like a torch at the slightest provocation. This is truly a tragedy.
*find means to reconcile
Nick Spinelli says:
My prayers for the family. Trooper York lives in Brooklyn. He knows many Jews. He is a strong defender of Jews. I know he has prayed as well.
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Nick, I thought YOU were Trooper?
If you aren’t how much do you know him? You tend quite often to speak for him!
In reading how the Kosher Electric Switch that Pogo mentioned operated, I thought the inventor might have had Schrödinger’s cat in mind.
Sorry, Pogo. it is religion!
Accident due to distraction is natural, but this is a prohibition, a religious prohibition, the squirting of which leads to tragedies such as this one. Trying to go around the ideals of a faith is common to all religions, and it is usually due to a lack of awareness of the intent or ideal behind the prohibition. Most people respecting the Sabbath have never looked into its aim. Same as for other religions, most adherents never looked into the reasons why they can or cannot do any part of it, which makes sure they keep trying to find reconcile letter to spirit in a self-deceptive manner, which makes their faith more of a burden than anything.
Of course, no one mentions the hypocrisy of following the letter of the law and violating its spirit.
My prayers for the family. Trooper York lives in Brooklyn. He knows many Jews. He is a strong defender of Jews. I know he has prayed as well.
IF, they had a dog, and, IF they listened to the dog, they would have taken the dog’s guidance and not left the burner on. In fact they do not need to be Eighth Day Dog Adventists to take guidance from a dog and it would not be against their own Faith to take some guidance from a dog. God put Dog on Earth to give guidance to mankind. God did this on the 8th Day. After that God sort of went off planet and left guidance up to the Dog. This is why the Ultra Orthodox are misguided.
If you are of that sect then keep quiet and get a dog. It is not against the Ultra Orthodox Faith and you can then get some guidance from God’s creature on Earth. God spelled backwards is Dog.
May Dog be with you.
What an unspeakable tragedy. Why were not a single one of them unable to get out? Were the smoke detectors not working, or not turned on? That poor father must be heartbroken. Whenever I hear about children dying in house fires, which are sometimes preventable, it just breaks my heart.
I have seen ultra strict religions adapt to modern life with loopholes before, like the Amish hiring the “English” to drive them places.
I think the rabbis in the community need to address the dangers of practices like this for the safety of their people. It is my understanding, and I may be wrong about this, that the prohibition against using fire and working on the Sabbath was to make people and their animals rest on at least one day of the week. So this prohibition against electricity does not make sense to treat it the same as fire. To use fire in ancient times, you have to laboriously chop wood, gather kindling and tinder, strike your flint on an iron oxide bearing stone at juuuuuuuuuust the right angle, and then build that tiny spark into a roaring cooking fire one shaving of tinder and blow of breath at a time. It was hard work to build a cooking fire, which is why fires are often banked or smoored. There is no comparison to that and turning on an electric appliance.
When I looked through the owner’s manual for our new stove, I found that it had a “Sabbath Setting,” In that mode, the oven, controlled by a timer, stays on at a low level but the burners will not light.
You can mock religion all you want. I certainly do. However, this was simple stupidity. People leave stuff on the stove because they got a phone call or some other distraction, leave the house and then come back to a black fog throughout the house-oops I’ve said too much, all the time. You don’t need to be religion to be scatterbrained.
If your religion has stuff in it that is basically benign and does no harm to anyone including yourself, then it is just part of that wonderful tapestry of myths, fairy tales, and tradition that make life interesting. This is simple stupidity and although the parents must be in agony, they are no different than the idiots that leave a loaded gun in the nightstand for their children to find and with which to ‘accidentally’ kill each other.
Heck, there’s already a device (a kosher electrical switch) made for the Sabbath:
Problem solved.
It will not be similarly easy to fix the false-Koran-burning murders.
I feel for their loss. This has to be horrible for the family. Since it is a common practice you would not expect problems. R.I.P.
“Religion, taken to its limits looks remarkably like stupidity.”
Not just religion.
Government, science, law, art, etc., etc.
It’s easy to mock this; too easy.
People die from similar electrical mishaps all the time in the US for non-religious reasons: Christmas tree fires, fires from portable heaters, ovens or irons left on, outdoor barbecues too close to the garage etc., etc.
It is not a religious issue
As I noted, an electric timer would likely solve the problem.
Why not just use a timer?
Evolution in action. Teach your children stupidity and your grandchildren may die.
Religion, taken to its limits looks remarkably like stupidity.
At least I would claim it is stupid to leave a hotplate on and unsupervised.
The basic idea of not using fuel or electricity one day a week is a good way to conserve energy. A healthy diet of fresh uncooked fruits, nuts, and vegetables one day a week would be healthy for everyone. A change of pace in one’s activities is also probably healthy. The problem with religious practices is that they’re not based on reason, but on the whims of charlatans who make rules apparently just to control other people.
I recall as a young child of five or so being called by an elderly lady from across the street to come over to her house, pull a chair over to a chain attached to the light and to pull it, shutting off the light. I never understood why she couldn’t pull it herself until years later. It’s a wonder that there aren’t more fires leaving on hot plates for so many hours, what a senseless tragedy.
Religious insanity is dangerous to humans.
Shabbos goyim are expected to serve them. Come flip the lights on and so forth…. for a perceptive and encompassing treatment of the subject, try book “Jewish History, Jewish Religion” by Israel Shahak. http://www.amazon.com/Jewish-History-Religion-Israel-Shahak/dp/074530818X