Word: sabbaths
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
What took ingenuity was figuring out how to operate a modern hotel at a profit and still provide for the 613 commandments Orthodox Jews must ob serve at all times. An Orthodox Jew cannot so much as press a button on the Sabbath, so the elevators are preset to go up and down automatically all day long, stopping at every floor. Since Jews can operate stoves if they are turned on before the Sabbath, all food in the kitchens is cooked before Friday sundown and then left to simmer through the night. Tearing toilet tissue is also forbidden by halacha...
...sundown, the telephone operators at Tel Aviv's sleekly modern Hotel Deborah close down the switchboard. Guests at writing desks in the lobby put away pens and snuff out cigarettes. Desk clerks lock up the cash register. For the Orthodox Jew, all servile work is forbidden on the Sabbath -and the rule is strictly observed at the Deborah, the world's largest strictly kosher hotel...
Even for Gentiles. Owned by four Austrian-born brothers named Knoll, the Deborah is named after their devoutly Orthodox mother, who was so shocked by the Sabbath violations at Tel Aviv's other hotels that she insisted on building a first-rate place where Jews could stay in good conscience. Most hotels for Orthodox Jews are little bet ter than boarding houses, but the Deborah would look impressive even in Miami Beach. Its 16 stories make it the tallest hotel in Israel, and the high quality of its food and service has even attracted Gentile guests, who are offered...
...Black Sabbath is a three-part demonthology. The Drop of Water tells what happens to a nurse who steals a jewel from a corpse: she is hounded to her doom by a fiendish faucet. The Telephone tells the story of a girl who gets a phone call from a boy friend she sent to the gallows. "I want that beautiful body of yours," he murmurs lustfully, and later he comes to get it. Terrified, she stabs him to death with a kitchen knife, but an instant later the phone rings, and when she answers it the voice of the dead...
...there are enough that the Chief Rabbis can keep hotels, restaurants, airlines and ships kosher by threatening to place them off-limits. The choice of Unterman and Nissim means that many of the religious strictures so galling to nonobservant Jews will continue. Telegraph service is curtailed on the Sabbath (Saturday) and on religious holidays, and in most cities and towns there is no public transportation. Except for a few Christian Arab areas, pork products are not for sale, although nonkosher shrimp is available. El Al airlines does not originate or terminate flights in Israel on Saturdays or religious holidays...