I decided last week at synagogue that I would no longer do anything work related on Shabbat. You're probably wondering what I was doing working on the weekend anyway, but my job is sort of a 24/7 effort, in order to keep the man (the professor) happy. But no longer will I come home from synagogue to answer his silly questions and requests. No sir. It's Shabbat, darn't. And it shall be treated as such!
I still get on the computer and flop from site to site and heck, even update my blog. I also manage to send some personal e-mails. But that isn't work. On the upside, I never have to turn my computer on :) I wonder if there's something written by the rabbis about how clicking a mouse is work ... though, since I have a laptop ... it isn't so much clicking as tapping!
Since it's beautiful here today, I'm going to trek over to Wicker Park and get my read on. I'm almost done with Dara Horn's "The World to Come" ... and boy oh boy do I have a smashing review to give it. Then, I'm *finally* going to read Chaim Potok's "The Chosen" -- lended to me by a coworker's wife. She's interested in Christian studies, I believe, but has some stellar Judaic studies selections. Edit: But not before I give Abraham J. Heschel some more love ...
Enjoy the long weekend, folks. The next one won't come for a while!
Sep 1, 2007
Life is Beautiful.
1:28 PM
Chaviva Gordon-Bennett
3 comments:
Wandered over here while browsing through blogs written by copy editors.
I loved "The Chosen," as well as everything else by Chaim Potok.
Ben and I have been toying with the idea of trying not to do any work on Sundays this year. We'll see how that goes!
As both a professor and a Jew (by recent choice), I certainly would not expect you to answer my "silly questions" on Shabbat! But then I wouldn't be asking them, either. There are six other days for that.
I quit doing any work related to my profession on Shabbat a while ago. But I have several Jewish colleagues who would think nothing of scheduling a meeting or review session or other university business on Shabbat.
This past year I decided no longer to attend our graduations, as long as they remain on Saturday, and I declined an "invitation" (quotation marks because it came with a small dose of pressure) to attend a new graduating students' awards dinner--which was, of course, on Friday night. Sorry, students and colleagues, but some things are just transcendent.
--AviShalom of Ararat Scrolls
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