4 ms·
A clear fishing wire is tied around the island of Manhattan
- satisfice 4mo agoSomebody at a fishing line company won salesman of the month.
- kweks 4mo agoVisible on Google maps: https://maps.app.goo.gl/MvPQhHgjkKMJpPws5 https://maps.app.goo.gl/MvPQhHgjkKMJpPws5 Full line boundary on maps: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&ll=40.834593000000005%2C-73.996353&spn=0.121826%2C0.219727&z=12&mid=1AJc3ptGTXtSJvLlCmLfmFMCT0To https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0... original NPR article: https://www.npr.org/2019/05/13/721551785/a-fishing-line-encircles-manhattan-protecting-sanctity-of-sabbath https://www.npr.org/2019/05/13/721551785/a-fishing-line-enci...
- WarmWash 4mo agoFor people without exposure to Hasidic Judaism, it's way more "deranged cult" and way less "Jewish people". I don't know any Jews who have anything good to say about them. Nor does anyone else for that matter. You may argue I'm being antisemitic, but I'd counter that they don't get to hold a religion hostage so they can be totally off the wall insane.
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- keane 4mo agoI lived in a Hasidic neighborhood in Los Angeles and only have had good interactions with them. Always liked seeing their Hatzalah ambulance staged down the block.
- dvh 4mo agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KosherSwitch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KosherSwitch
- pvaldes 4mo agoChristians: the symbol of the fish represents Jesus Jews: Hold my beer, guys. We need to do something.
- IveSeenItAll 4mo agoSame thing around the ex-island of Amsterdam: https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=1K9JpabMj1Wgdjy6O41Tqk_nvKes https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=1K9JpabMj1Wgdjy6O41T... Learned about that years ago when I ran into one of the maintainers on a walk. It's... not something I understand, but do respect, given that it's ancient history that is older than, well, most living people, and entirely well-intentioned and harmless to non-believers.
- 4gotunameagain 4mo ago[flagged]
- throw-the-towel 4mo agoIt's not like Israel's goal in Gaza is to extend the eruv.
- IveSeenItAll 4mo agoOh, bother... Fact: the Amsterdam eruv has been around longer than the state of Israel, and is in no way, shape or form related to its policies.
- 4gotunameagain 4mo agoI thought we were extending the discussion about religion in general, not a single custom.
- IveSeenItAll 4mo agoI sincerely doubt that's what's going on here at all. Plonk
- Animats 4mo agoThe biblical idea is that you're supposed to stay home. The first level of cheat was that multiple buildings surrounded by a wall could be defined as "home". The next cheat level was that the concept of "wall" was defined down. I'm surprised that some clever religious type hasn't figured out a cheat to define the whole planet as "home". It's all kind of tacky, like kosher elevators and kosher light switches. You're supposed to suffer a little.
- keane 4mo agoIt’s much more complicated and interesting than this. Books have been written about it (eg. Circumventing the Law: Rabbinic Perspectives on Legal Loopholes and Integrity by Elana Stein Hain). One of the ideas is that halachic loopholes are meant to be discovered. It’s also been compared metaphorically to the difference between tax evasion (impermissible) and tax avoidance (legal means to reduce our obligation created by the authority’s design) which is something we all do.
- awakeasleep 4mo agoWhat is really incredible and worth dwelling on is how self-deception can be so clear and obvious to every person except the self. This, of course, applies to us all equally.
- IAmBroom 4mo agoIt honestly feels like a corollary to the Dunning-Kruger Effect: Your ability to morally justify a cheat to yourself is proportional to how badly you want to win.
- nuc1e0n 4mo agoWhy bother 'cheating' at all? If you don't want to follow those precepts, then just don't.
- xnx 4mo agoAs others have pointed out, as long as they're inventing rules and then imagining technicalities to avoid rules, they should just tie a string around a stick and make everything outside the stick inside the eruv. It would make just as much sense.
- comrade1234 4mo agoAround Santa Monica too and into the ocean so that people of the Jewish faith can go to the beach and swim in the ocean on the sabbath. I love that as part of their religion they think that they can trick their god. It just seems healthy to me, as an atheist.
- DougN7 4mo agoThat’s what surprises me. To truly believe and live your life by a set of rules, and then think you’ve hoodwinked the Creator. I’d like to know exactly how they expect their final judgement to go. There must be more going on in their thoughts than appears.
- amenhotep 4mo agoIt's not tricking, though. The rules come from holy texts, they're perfect, if you find what seems like a loophole then it must obviously be intended. It's blasphemous, even, to think that you understand what god means better than he did when he had the texts written. Seems odd that his precepts would be satisfied by stringing a wire from some sticks, sure, but he's god, presumably he has his reasons.
- johnea 4mo agoWhy am I not surprised to find that this weird clickbait topic is tied to some nutjob religious idea? Once you take the leap of believing there is some big invisible guy in outerspace, pretty much any belief is possible after that...
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]