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The Shabbat Elevator and other Sabbath Subterfuges: An Unorthodox Essay on Circumventing Custom and Jewish Character Kindle Edition

by Alan Dundes (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
3.4 3.4 out of 5 stars 4 ratings
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There are literally hundreds if not thousands of books written about Judaism and Jews, but this book is unlike any previously published. It focuses on the topic of 'circumventing custom' with special emphasis on the ingenious ways Orthodox (and other) Jews have devised to avoid breaking the extensive list of activities forbidden on the Sabbath. After examining the sources of Sabbath observance as set forth in the Old Testament, the New Testament, and rabbinical writings, some of the most salient forms of circumvention are described. These include: riding a special Shabbat elevator, unscrewing the lightbulb in the refrigerator, constructing an eruv (a space extending one's domicile so that objects may be carried outside the home), and relying on the services of the so-called 'Shabbes Goy,' among others. Dundes respectfully analyzes such facets of Jewish characteristics as an undue concern with purity, and a long-established tradition of indulging in nit-picking and argumentation. The resultant picture of Jewish character is drawn from an unusual mixture of religious written texts and oral tradition (jokes and proverbs). The sources range from ancient Israel to works from the twenty-first century. In many ways, it is an authentic and striking Jewish self-portrait that is painted for the very first time in this fascinating volume.
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  1. ISBN-13
    978-0742516700
  2. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  3. Publisher
    Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
  4. Publication date
    January 21, 2002
  5. Language
    English
  6. File size
    761 KB
  7. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

To the voluminous literature on Jewish resourcefulness and Sabbath observance Professor Dundes has added a most engrossing discussion of the 'Sabbath subterfuge' --the ways traditionalist Jews legitimate their sidestepping of burdensome Sabbath restrictions in the modern world. The author's psychoanalytic and folkloristic background makes for a refreshingly humanistic perspective. (Stanley F. Chyet)

In [Dundes's] latest book, The Shabbat Elevator, there is much material to recommend. . . . Although the research is book-based, rather than ethnographic, it reveals a depth of scholarship that is accessible, yet scholarly and discursive..... (Journal Of American Folklore)

This is a creative, lively, rich, and entirely novel theoretical approach to a vexing topic. The book is truly unique in Jewish and Biblical studies--a real tour de force. It is full of wonderful parallels and interpretations, and excellent creative integration of jokes into religious matters. (Eric Silverman)

In [Dundes's] latest book, The Shabbat Elevator, there is much material to recommend. . . . Although the research is book-based, rather than ethnographic, it reveals a depth of scholarship that is accessible, yet scholarly and discursive. (Journal Of American Folklore)

Dundes' greatest strength as a scholar is his vast erudition. The Shabbat Elevator is a remarkable book-length essay on Sabbath subterfuges. (Western Folklore)

About the Author

Alan Dundes is professor of anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, and a leading authority in the study of folklore. He is the author or editor of more than thirty books including Two Tales of Crow and Sparrow: A Freudian Folkloristic Essay on Caste and Untouchability, Holy Writ as Oral Lit: The Bible as Folklore, and International Folkloristics.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00FVYR53U
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (January 21, 2002)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 21, 2002
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 761 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 217 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.4 3.4 out of 5 stars 4 ratings

About the author

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Alan Dundes

Alan Dundes

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Customer reviews

3.4 out of 5 stars
3.4 out of 5
4 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Sfek-Sfeika
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2017
A must read for anyone interested in Jewish law and ritual.
One person found this helpful
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Ploni ben Ploni
4.0 out of 5 stars The oddest look at Jewish law you are likely to ever come across
Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2005
This most obvious thing to say about this book is that it is completely sui generis. There is nothing else like it on earth, which ought to be good enough reason in itself to read it.

Dundes is a folklorist, not a halachist, and he's CLEARLY not an observant Jew, yet he takes on an astonishing task - to puzzle together a coherent picture of Jewishness from the quirkiest corners of Jewish law. He is fascinated by the odd, self-referential moments where the halacha apparently prohibits an act, but then provides a loophole wide enough to effectively circumvent the prohibition. For example, there are restrictions on carrying items on Shabbat, but watches, jewelery, etc. are permitted to be worn. So if you need to take a housekey with you when you walk to shul, it is permitted to wear the key as jewelery -- either as earrings, or more commonly, as part of a belt buckle. The probibition of carrying is circumvented by redefining the key as jewelery or clothing, something that Dundes would call a "legal fiction." His tour of such legal fictions includes eiruvim (circumventing the prohibition of carrying on Shabbat), prosbul (circumventing prohibitions for lending at interest), the use of a gentile servant to perform acts on Shabbat prohibited to Jews (a "Shabbos goy"), substituting a cloth instead of your clothes to tear for mourning, sale of chametz for passover, and sheitls (wigs) as a hair covering for married women. He is unfamiliar with Jewish law, and it shows in his mistakes - for example, confusing the 2000 amot boundary (t'chum) with the boundary between private and public spaces, and misunderstanding technical terms such as "patur" (which literally means "exempt," but halachically means "rabinically prohibited"). Still, it is a heroic effort, and, for the most part, accurate enough.

In the middle part of the book, Dundes attempts to make sense of this gallery of halachic oddities, but he takes a significant detour to argue that Mosaic prohibitions are based not on fear of death (apparently a common psychoanalytic interpretation) but on avoidance of feces. His main evidence seems to be a series of excremental free associations and a misunderstanding of the Hebrew terms "tahor" and "tumah," commonly mistranslated "clean" and "unclean." Highly speculative and drawn more from Dundes' own dreamscape than from any Torah or rabbinic material. I suppose, though, that if you have to explain the primal origin of halacha, it's as good a guess as any.

When the book eventually comes back around to the theme of circumventions, Dundes proposes that they demonstrate a kind of perverse self-referentality that exemplifies "Jewish character." This of course sets off the alarm bells, because the last folks to write with such ardor about "Jewish character" were wearing brown shirts. But Dundes is off on his own weird discourse, and has to be taken within the context of his psychoanalytic framework. His wry sense of humor also helps to alleviate the discomfort of his appraisal. And his bibliography is a treasure trove. Dundes clearly had the assistance of some fabulous Judaists, because the bibliography lists nearly every important rabbinic work in English, including some obscurantia that an outsider like Dundes could never have come across on his own. For a bibliography like that, I can forgive nearly anything, even the fecal aspersions.
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