Picture Perfect

People never cease to fascinate me, especially familiar faces.

Of course, we all know a familiar face are those people who you say day-to-day, but never really speak to. Nonetheless, you grow accustomed to seeing them around - be it that lady with the funny hair-style you pass on the way to work, or the elderly gentleman who walks 15 minutes each way every morning to pick up his daily paper - always the daily telegraph - in those odd shoes he always wear - dark brown, the look of leather, worn at the front and sides - which you're convinced are slippers, but aren't quite sure. 

Today, I went to the house of one of my familiar faces.
No, I didn't break and enter just for kicks; I didn't event stalk him. I happen to be friends with his nephew, who said "let's pop into my uncles house!" Ever ready to meet new people, I agreed - and it happened to be a gentleman who I see about twice a week. Ironically, I introduced myself to him just hours before, on a whim that he was related to my friend (my friend's dad and this fellow look quite similar). You should have seen the look of surprise on his face when he came down the stairs to see me sitting on a chair in his living room.

This house was small, the walls covered in books, the people in it gloriously happy and very chatty. A young family, as far as I could tell, it was made up of two parents, three girls (I put their ages at 9 [she looked like she was 5, but she said she was 9...] 14 and 15) two boys (aged 11. I never saw the other). But wait until I get to the good bit: it turns out they have a few pets. A bird, which I'm told by my friend bites - and its wings aren't clipped and yes, they let it fly around the house (i had to duck every so often. Being tall, I didn't fancy my chances as ending up as its perch) - some other things (I forget) and a snake (the other pets pale in comparison to this one). It's called Sammy, apparantly. Sammy the Snake (or, as I said to the girl holding her when I thought she was 5 - "Sammy the squirming squiggly snake!" You know the voice, high pitched, patronising. Thaats. the one.

The point of this post is to tell you: kids, I touched a snake. That's right. I fear nothing and no one. No snakes. Not even moths can bring me down (as Moth Monument on my ceiling shows. I have half a mind to take it down, though. It's been a few years...).

That is all I have to say.  

As you all know, this blog is at the forefront of social, economic, political and religious issues, unafraid to pose any question to anyone or turn over any stone, no matter what kind of ceepy, scary bugs will crawl out from under it.

Once again, my blog rises to the challenge where conventional media is silent, bringing to your attention the need to divest, boycott and generally refraining from supporting Fairy Liquid. That faries are ground up and the resulting fluids used for washing your dishes is, quite frankly, disgusting. For too long the faries have suffered! For too long have we washed dishes with their magical selves! It is no wonder that there remain sceptics to their existence, for fairies surely do not wish to be caught, squeezed and ground up for their juices and thus have learnt to stay away from all humans. We do ourselves no favours by angering magical peoples.

It is clear this must stop and it must stop now, along with the abomination which is "baby powder," "baby oil," and "baby shampoo" - stop the senseless killing!

What is the sabbath? Explain in detail! Thus asketh Arty Of America, student of English.
Let us check the bible.

For six days you may perform melachah [work], but the seventh day is a complete Sabbath, holy to the L-RD ... it is an eternal sign that in six days, the L-RD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed. -Exodus 31:15-17

So, essentially, the Sabbath is an "eternal sign" ordained by God to signify that he rested on the seventh day.

But what is "melachah?" I have put "work" in brackets there, as that is the best English translation, but it does not actually mean "work" as such. For instance, it would not be permitted to carry a needle in the street on the sabbath, yet you could spend the entire day shifting heavy furniture from one part of your house to another. Others see"work" in terms of employment: which would mean that a rabbi wouldn't be able to give a sermon or lead the services on the sabbath, for that is his term of employment. So, as Arty correctly asked: just what is defined as work?

God forbade the building of the tabernacle on the Sabbath. Thus, all things required to build the tabernacle are forbidden to do on the Sabbath. There are 39 main catagories (called "av melachot" or, literally, "father of works") of things one must do to build a tabernacle. They are:

sowing, ploughing, reaping, gathering, threshing, winnowing, sorting, grinding, sifting, kneading, cooking, shearing, whitening, combing, dyeing, spinning, stretching threads on a loom, preparing to weave (vie heddles), weaving, separating threads (unweaving), tying a (permanent) knot, untying a (permanent) knot, sewing, tearing, trapping, slaughtering (killing), skinning, salting (tanning), smoothing/scraping, cutting, writing, erasing, building, demolishing, extinguishing, kindling, finishing an object, carrying from one domain to another.

Group I = Numbers 1-11
Group II = Numbers 12-24
Group III = Numbers 25-31
Group IV = Numbers 32-33
Group V = Numbers 34-35
Group VI = Numbers 36-39
Group V = Numbers 34-35
Group VI = Numbers 36-39

Group I is connected to the field work.
Group II is connected to the making material curtains
Group III is connected to the making of leather curtains
Group IV is connected to the Krushim (beams of the tabernacle)
Group V is connected to the putting the walls of the tabernacle up and down
Group VI is connected to the final touches of the tabernacle.
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Then, there are those things which are explicitly forbidden by God in the bible, which is different to those things above and have nothing to do with the building of the tabernacle. The third and final type of thing forbidden on the sabbath are those things set up by the rabbis to ensure none of the catagories above are violated. For example, it's forbidden to cut your hair on the sabbath. But what if you pulled out your hair? That's not biblically forbidden, but someone pulling out their hair one by one may get the person frustrated and it may escalate to reaching for the scissors to cut more comfortably - and that, of course, is forbidden by the bible. Thusly, a "fence" was set up to ensure things like that don't actually happen.

And there we go! That is your guide to the Jewish sabbath.

Any questions, ask.