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Friday 7 July 2017

A Sabbath Day's Journey


In the hotel there are two lifts/elevators to choose from.  This is inconsequential most days of the week, but come the Sabbath (Friday sunset) it becomes religiously and practically significant.

The notice tells us that the lift on the right is the Sabbath Elevator.  You could enter it as a Gentile but, inviting though it seems, it stops at every floor (7 in the case of this hotel) while the door opens automatically and closes.  By doing so it prevents the devout from having to operate electrical switches (work) on the Sabbath.

I did get in it once.  I stood for a second or two with nothing much happening and decided to use the non-Sabbath elevator (even though I was on Sabbatical).

For me the Sabbath Elevator was too much like hard work. 

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