The worldwide launch of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, scheduled for this coming Shabbat, has provoked a furious response from Shas minister Eli Yishai. Yishair threatened to employ the full weight of Israel's Hours of Work and Rest Laws, which preclude labor on Shabbat, against book stores that participate in the simultaneous worldwide launch, scheduled for 2:01 a.m. Saturday morning. Not to be outdone, the head of the Ashkenazi fundamentalist UTJ went further, condemning the Potter books "defective messages", clearly upset that Christian fundamentalists had beat him to this point six books ago. (Magic is clearly avodah zarah, unless it involves aged rabbis blessing amulets that can be used as Shas campaign props.)
However, I'm sympathetic to the conflict between Potter-mania and Shabbat. (Fortunately for me, one of the benefits of living in the treifa medina is having Amazon.com deliver your pre-ordered copies to your doorstep.) Therefore, I would propose a couple of compromise solutions to the dilemma:
1. Deliver the books with a Shabbat Floo Network, programmed before sundown to run continuously between the book stores and Israeli homes.
2. Have the clerks, after enjoying a full and restful Shabbat, employ Time-Turners on Motzei Shabbat to travel back to 2:01
3. Employ House Elves as Shabbes Goys.
3 comments:
I read your post about Matt Yglesias's selective reading of M&S and found it spot on.
MyYglesias is trying to bend over backward to prove his "progressive" street credibility by critcising Israel as much as possible.
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