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May 9, 2007
My car keeps shabbos!!
My car keeps shabbos! That is the new way I can describe my car.
"New?" you ask. What is the old?
The old description is "my car was drafted to the army". But that is for another post.
So what is this new thing about my car keeping shabbos?
Shas MK Yehuda Margi is proposing a new law that would require car owners to not use their car one day of each week and let it sit idle. The car owner would choose which day of the week the car would sit idle. The owner would register his car for the specific day, would stick a registration sticker on his windshield stating which day is his car's "day of rest" and life goes on.
Of course that means on that day the driver would not be allowed to drive his car. He would get a hefty fine if caught driving on his chosen day.
The idea of it is to cut down on energy waste, traffic accidents and air pollution.
The precedent for this is after the Yom Kippur war a similar system was instituted to save on fuel consumption, due to the energy crisis at the time.
So, if I had to choose a day, I would choose shabbos, Saturday, and then I could officially say, "My car keeps shabbos".
If they really want to give incentive for people to stop driving one day a week, he should give some sort of reduction in the car taxes. We find this commonly among insurance providers who offer a discount for people who do not drive on shabbos, because the car is off the road one day a week. We find it on cellphone deals, and in other service providing fields as well. A deduction in the taxes and registration fees would be a nice addition to this law.
"New?" you ask. What is the old?
The old description is "my car was drafted to the army". But that is for another post.
So what is this new thing about my car keeping shabbos?
Shas MK Yehuda Margi is proposing a new law that would require car owners to not use their car one day of each week and let it sit idle. The car owner would choose which day of the week the car would sit idle. The owner would register his car for the specific day, would stick a registration sticker on his windshield stating which day is his car's "day of rest" and life goes on.
Of course that means on that day the driver would not be allowed to drive his car. He would get a hefty fine if caught driving on his chosen day.
The idea of it is to cut down on energy waste, traffic accidents and air pollution.
The precedent for this is after the Yom Kippur war a similar system was instituted to save on fuel consumption, due to the energy crisis at the time.
So, if I had to choose a day, I would choose shabbos, Saturday, and then I could officially say, "My car keeps shabbos".
If they really want to give incentive for people to stop driving one day a week, he should give some sort of reduction in the car taxes. We find this commonly among insurance providers who offer a discount for people who do not drive on shabbos, because the car is off the road one day a week. We find it on cellphone deals, and in other service providing fields as well. A deduction in the taxes and registration fees would be a nice addition to this law.
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לֹא-תַעֲשֶׂה כָל-מְלָאכָה אַתָּה וּבִנְךָ וּבִתֶּךָ, עַבְדְּךָ וַאֲמָתְךָ וּבְהֶמְתֶּךָ, וְגֵרְךָ, אֲשֶׁר בִּשְׁעָרֶיךָ ומכוניתך
ReplyDeletethe passuk does not include keilim.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that you realize that the Shas MP is only initiating this law as a sneaky trick to try to force people to keep Shabbat, and his motive is so blatant, that it will , of course as always, only backfire and make non-religious people more angry at the religious that are trying to force religion on them.
ReplyDeleteBesides the fact that it is a stupid law. If you were not religious , what day would you give up your car? if you drove to work every day, as many people do, or your job included driving, as a delivery person for example, what day would you not go to work?
yehudah - yes I agree with the unstated objective.
ReplyDeleteIt is, but I guess the driver would pick one day and that day he would have to take the bus/train or whatever. I would imagine if such a law was seriously considered, there would have to be exceptions for travelling salesmen and others who need their car all the time...
What about, say, if it was your day to drive carpool? Or how about drafting a law which makes it illegal for your car to belch huge black clouds of black smoke?
ReplyDeleteThe version of the law that I would like to see would be to pick a 24 hour period (which onw could change weekly). This way, even Sabbath-obsevent Hebs could go places Saturday nights.
:)
changing weekly is a good idea...
ReplyDeleteif it was your day to drive carpool, let's say on a Tuesday, for example, you obviously would not pick Tuesday as your no-driving day
your car and the rabbis ox! oy
ReplyDeleteRemember, this is the party that was willing to continue daylight time for a bit longer, but then suggested that they change the clocks for Yom Kippur (to make the fast shorter (!) and change them back again.
ReplyDeleteThis law is about as logical.
My husband wants to know if you are willing to forgo driving on Motzei Shabbat as well, or whether the law is going to apply from sundown to sundown?
if you are asking me personally, I would not mind giving up the car Saturday night. I almost never drive saturday nights anyway. Of course, that is with exception, but usually not. The problem would be if we went away for a shabbos.
ReplyDeleteI do not know if the proposed law is 24 hours or the day itself...