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I want to see how many of us are not getting a day off?
Me. Not all places are closed…
I’m working. By choice.
My children who live at home are all working tomorrow. My son is covering for people who ARE taking off. I am “working” as I do every day, babysitting my 18 month old ainekel. It’s a dirty job but SOMEBUBBY has to do it! Somehow I will muddle through 😉
I’m volunteering at a soup kitchen, where I’ll be helping distribute toys to poor gentile children.
Learning is an important value in Judaism, so working is a chillul Hashem.*
*That’s obviously nonsense, but the reasoning is not much worse than rd’s in the above referenced thread.
I worked all day today, unlike Erev R’H, Erev Y’K, Erev Sukkos, Erev Pesach, Erev Shovu’os when I took off all of these days.
But if I would go to work on Xmas, I would be disciplined/ prosecuted for trespass and probably fired for the offense of having trespassed.
rd: Can I ask why that’s Muttar? It sounds like a nice idea, certainly. But won’t it make them be Azil Umodeh?
I am still working as I work for myself. No employees today though.
Canadians & Britons are observing Yom Tov Sheni by not working on Boxing Day.
Sam2,
The holiday for them isn’t so much about religion anymore. In any event, I don’t believe their religion is vadai avodah zarah, in line with the shita of those poskim who don’t categorize Christianity as avodah zarah.
rd: Those Poskim are an extreme minority based on a misunderstanding of Rabbeinu Tam’s position. Who, exactly, are you relying upon to be Mattir Shituf for them?
Christianity is not monolithic. Different denominations have differnet beliefs. I think most of Judaisms response has been in reference to Catholism but most of the US (Not in Northeast) is Protestant which have differnet belifs. And some might surprise you.
Unitarians for example do NOT belive in the trinity nor do they have icons (Catholics and Lutherans have icons) Southern Baptist, Methodists do not
My boss’s line is “You get off Yom Kippur and Tisha B’av. I think that is enough” So yes, I worked yesterday.
The Meiri and the Rema, for starters, don’t believe Christianity is avodah zarah. Same applies to the shita of R’ DZ Hoffmann and others. I wouldn’t classify their approach as an extreme minority.
Unitarianism, for certain, wouldn’t be considered avodah zarah by any account (R’ Henkin allows Jews to enter Unitarian churches), and this would apply to other denominations that don’t believe J.C. was a deity. (J. Witnesses, etc.)
rd: The Meiri and the Rama come for entirely different reasons. The Meiri on this is probably the most minority Shittah in existence (he holds that Hinduism isn’t Avodah Zarah) and the Rama didn’t have the Sefer HaYashar so he didn’t know what Rabbeinu Tam’s Shittah actually was.
Unitarians aren’t Ovdei Avodah Zarah. There are very few Unitarians. All Catholics are Trinitarians, as are most Protestants. Did you make sure that only Unitarians were at this soup kitchen, though?
I don’t believe Christianity is avodah zarah, and neither do the others who advocate interfaith relations (eg R’ David Rosen, R’ Shear Yashuv Cohen, etc.). It’s not an issue, afaic.
A God who would condemn me for donating time to help poor children is a God I wouldn’t want to believe in, quite frankly.
rd: Donate your time 364 other days a year when you’re not causing them to be Azil Umodeh L’Avodas Kochavim. Let other non-Jews (who have no Issur of Lifnei Iveir) do it that day.
This promotes good relations with non-Jews, as this allows the Christians to spend their holiday with family.
I participated as part of a JCC “Mitzvah Day” group.
Back in my pre-aliyah days, I got permission every year from my boss to work on Christmas and New Years Day. I was the only one in the building, so I was able to install and upgrade software on all the computers, make sure the anti-virus software was working, and work on some hardware and network issues as well. I was able to use the days off in January instead, when my kids had their winter school break.
(I also worked the day after Thanksgiving as well; it became my annual office clean-up and clean-out day. I would invite my boss in the following Monday to prove to him that I actually had a floor in there!)
I’m not working tomorrow.
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