Projo Subterranean Homepage News

Bottom-up journalism from the pros: News, tech and culture by Sheila Lennon
· Headlines · 25 words · Photos · Tag cloud · RSS · MultiBlog
« James Madison, Harriet Miers, Yassar Arafat, Osama bin Laden and 100 open-source downloads | Main | Mp3s: Hendrix '68; Checkers cracked; Tax non-filer acquitted; Iran arrests spying squirrels; Fake Steve Jobs »

'I Was an eBay Voldemort'; Harry Potter launch on the Sabbath is a problem in Israel

10:19 AM Thu, Jul 19, 2007 |
By Sheila Lennon    Email this author |   Email this entry

I Was an eBay Voldemort: When his order of Deathly Hallows from Deep Discount arrived Tuesday, he put it on eBay...

harrypotter1.jpgYishai warns stores over Harry Potter book launch on Shabbat - Haaretz, Israel.

Harry goes on sale at 2:01 a.m.on Saturday, the Sabbath, when most businesses, by law, are closed.

The deputy prime minister and minister of industry, trade and employment, Eli Yishai (Shas), opposes the launch of the new book in the "Harry Potter" series on Friday night. Yishai said he intends to issue indictments and impose fines on local distributors of the book who violate the Hours of Work and Rest Law.

Yishai called on book stores not to sell the book on Shabbat, and instead to begin selling it Friday morning or postpone its sale until after the Sabbath.

...Yishai said Tuesday that "there must be a limit to the desire to be like other nations."


Wikipedia: During Shabbat -- between Friday night at sundown and the appearance of three stars in the sky on Saturday night -- 39 categories of activity are prohibited:

1. Sowing
2. Plowing
3. Reaping
4. Binding sheaves
5. Threshing
6. Winnowing
7. Selecting
8. Grinding
9. Sifting
10. Kneading
11. Baking
12. Shearing wool
13. Washing wool
14. Beating wool
15. Dyeing wool
16. Spinning
17. Weaving
18. Making two loops
19. Weaving two threads
20. Separating two threads
21. Tying
22. Untying
23. Sewing stitches
24. Tearing
25. Trapping
26. Slaughtering
27. Flaying
28. Tanning
29. Scraping hide
30. Marking hides
31. Cutting hide to shape
32. Writing two or more letters
33. Erasing two or more letters
34. Building
35. Demolishing
36. Extinguishing a fire
37. Kindling a fire
38. Putting the finishing touch on an object
39. Transporting an object between a private domain and the public domain, or for a distance of 4 cubits within the public domain

All modern activities are traced back to these 39, with lively debate about which is the grandfather principle.

I have no idea where selling Harry fits here. Maybe "38. Putting the finishing touch on an object"?

Bookmark and Share

1 Comments

trudy said:

That's a pretty long list, but most of it is stuff no one normally does every day, except writing, and transporting stuff, and I guess houses burn down? Saturday must be a paradise for an arsonist.

Probably 39 means the kids couldn't carry the books home. Reaping maybe includes making a profit, and writing maybe includes sales transactions. Just guessing.

Link | July 19, 2007 2:00 PM
Report Abuse


Leave a comment





Type the characters you see in the picture above.