Welcome to the Forward‘s coverage of Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest.
Shabbat
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Fast Forward Benjamin Netanyahu Can’t Block Shabbat Railroad Work: Court
JERUSALEM — Israel Railways can do repair and construction work on Shabbat, at least temporarily, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled. The interim ruling issued Tuesday prevents Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from ordering a halt to the Saturday work, according to reports. Lawmaker Zahava Galon, head of the left-wing Meretz party, had filed a petition to have…
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Community The Olympics is Based on Bad Ideals. Judaism Has a Better Option
Here’s something dictatorships, economics and the Olympics all have in common: each projects the notion that strength, agility, and efficiency define human worth. There’s a corollary to that shared vision, too. In each of these systems, the less strong are automatically second class. After Gold, there’s just Silver, Bronze, spectator, and pariah. There’s nowhere to…
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Fast Forward Nice’s Jews Will Gather for Shabbat Despite Terror Attack That Killed 84
— Nice’s Jewish community decided to hold Shabbat activities as planned despite the slaying of dozens of people in the city in southern France, in what French President Francois Hollande said was a terrorist attack directed at revellers celebrating the country’s national day. The attack was carried out by a 30-year-old man who drove a rented white…
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News Does Rabbinic Key Card Ruling Mean Shabbat Has ‘Lost the Fight Against Technology’?
Consider the key card: a piece of plastic no bigger than a business card, flimsy and seemingly innocent. And yet it’s also possibly the trigger to a cascade of changes that could transform the experience of the Sabbath by making a bevy of other devices, from iPads to stoves to cars, permissible on the traditionally…
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Life At a Chabad House, Looking for Love, Finding Myself
I was having Shabbat dinner with the Hasidic family who lives down the street, as I sometimes do. I like to meet new people and have new experiences, and in the sleepy, ocean-breezy, rather homogeneous neighborhood of Santa Monica, California, where I’ve recently relocated, dining with a deeply observant Hasidic family can feel like an…
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Fast Forward Bring on the $129 Foldable Shabbat Hot Plate
(JTA) — First there was KosherLamp, the bedside light that could be turned on and off on the Sabbath. Then came KosherSwitch, the controversial toggle that allows users to control lights and other electronic appliances on Shabbat. Now there’s HotMat, a new foldable hotplate designed to give observant Jewish consumers a safe, portable and rabbinically sanctioned…
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News Hillary and Bernie Clash in Nevada’s Shabbat Showdown on the Strip
LAS VEGAS (JTA) — Jewish voters in Nevada suffer the same affliction as anyone else ahead of caucuses in the presidential race: No one is quite sure how the damn system works. “A big part of what we do is to educate people about what a caucus is,” said Joel Wanger, the point man for…
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Fast Forward Utah Ski Slope Hosts Shabbat on the Mountaintop
(JTA) — It may be the most elevated Shabbat service in the country, and not just because of the spirited singing. Held in a rustic cabin in the woods off a ski slope at Deer Valley resort, the service is situated at about 8,800 feet above sea level, and it’s the nation’s — and possibly…
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