Seriously, Get A Hobby
Ultra-religious Jews in Jerusalem have long had trouble with the whole "live and let live" approach to religious-secular relations. From throwing rocks at moving cars to shutting down malls, they're very touchy about the whole "other people having fun on the Sabbath" thing. But now they're just getting silly:
A new phenomenon is spreading across Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods: Pay phones are being locked with chains on weekends and during religious holidays "in order to prevent Sabbath desecration". Boaz Atzmon of Shinui, a member of the Jerusalem City Council, says that "At first they used to tie the phone receivers with a standard lock, and then I would come on Saturdays and break the locks. Now they use a special lock that requires electric tools in order to break it, and the regular cutter is of no use."
One imagines that those locks are very expensive. Wouldn't the money be better spent alleviating the suffocating poverty in Ultra-orthodox communities? And wouldn't the time that it takes to install those locks be better spent, you know, doing a real job?
A new phenomenon is spreading across Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods: Pay phones are being locked with chains on weekends and during religious holidays "in order to prevent Sabbath desecration". Boaz Atzmon of Shinui, a member of the Jerusalem City Council, says that "At first they used to tie the phone receivers with a standard lock, and then I would come on Saturdays and break the locks. Now they use a special lock that requires electric tools in order to break it, and the regular cutter is of no use."
One imagines that those locks are very expensive. Wouldn't the money be better spent alleviating the suffocating poverty in Ultra-orthodox communities? And wouldn't the time that it takes to install those locks be better spent, you know, doing a real job?
