The two issues complement one another. Gaza residents using less power reduces the amount of carbon dioxide that would otherwise have been produced as a result of making all that electricity!
:-)
In all seriousness, I wonder if the greenies considered the amount of carbon dioxide which was produced in the dissemination of their message. It went out electronically, so people are sitting at their computers that much longer reading the message, articles about the campaign, or posting on blogs about it. That extra network traffic and computer use carries some CO2 overhead.
considering that we pasken that all candles after the first are simply for hiddur, and the rishonim certainley had limited "environmental" knowledge regarding co2 emmissions, this isn't such a far-fetched idea.
B"H Here's some good news: Aryeh King started a site exposing Peace Now. For now it's only in Hebrew: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/124475
There's a lot of work to be done to wake up Jews both in and out of Israel from their numbness, and inform them as to how truly evil these people are.
shaya - I thought of that as well, but it has become standard already. I think in earlier times it was much more common for people to not be able to afford candles, so if they could not they would light only one. Nowadays, our poor people are not as poor as they used to be and even our poor can almost always afford to buy (and they do) enough candles for the hiddur (with exception I guess for the occassional poor person who cannot afford it...)
that's all very nice, but it's still a hiddur. I am not agreeing or disagreeing with the idea of lighting one less, but it certainely isn't k'negged any halachot. even the first night, we could light one less meorah, or only one as the sefardim do, and we would still be within the geder of mehayam hamitzvah.
as an alternative, perhaps they should turn off all the lights in their house, not use any electricity and walk (instead of driving) for the eight days to offset the emissions from a lovely mitzvah like chanukah candles. they'd be helping the environment heaps more that way.
A more practical idea (practical in the sense that there's no diminishing of the hiddur mitzvah, so more people may actually listen to it) would be to extinguish the lights after 1/2 hour. A lot of candles burn for almost exactly 1/2hour, so there would be nothing to do. But for those who use the longer candles or oil, this is a doable idea.
The two issues complement one another. Gaza residents using less power reduces the amount of carbon dioxide that would otherwise have been produced as a result of making all that electricity!
ReplyDelete:-)
In all seriousness, I wonder if the greenies considered the amount of carbon dioxide which was produced in the dissemination of their message. It went out electronically, so people are sitting at their computers that much longer reading the message, articles about the campaign, or posting on blogs about it. That extra network traffic and computer use carries some CO2 overhead.
regarding chanukiah:
ReplyDeleteconsidering that we pasken that all candles after the first are simply for hiddur, and the rishonim certainley had limited "environmental" knowledge regarding co2 emmissions, this isn't such a far-fetched idea.
B"H Here's some good news: Aryeh King started a site exposing Peace Now. For now it's only in Hebrew: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/124475
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot of work to be done to wake up Jews both in and out of Israel from their numbness, and inform them as to how truly evil these people are.
But, this is a good effort.
shaya - I thought of that as well, but it has become standard already. I think in earlier times it was much more common for people to not be able to afford candles, so if they could not they would light only one. Nowadays, our poor people are not as poor as they used to be and even our poor can almost always afford to buy (and they do) enough candles for the hiddur (with exception I guess for the occassional poor person who cannot afford it...)
ReplyDeleterafi
ReplyDeletethat's all very nice, but it's still a hiddur. I am not agreeing or disagreeing with the idea of lighting one less, but it certainely isn't k'negged any halachot. even the first night, we could light one less meorah, or only one as the sefardim do, and we would still be within the geder of mehayam hamitzvah.
as an alternative, perhaps they should turn off all the lights in their house, not use any electricity and walk (instead of driving) for the eight days to offset the emissions from a lovely mitzvah like chanukah candles. they'd be helping the environment heaps more that way.
ReplyDeleteThats exactly why i don't read the news.
ReplyDeleteA more practical idea (practical in the sense that there's no diminishing of the hiddur mitzvah, so more people may actually listen to it) would be to extinguish the lights after 1/2 hour. A lot of candles burn for almost exactly 1/2hour, so there would be nothing to do. But for those who use the longer candles or oil, this is a doable idea.
ReplyDelete