I got dragged to a shiur last night. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The teacher was fairly engaging and actually managed to hold my attention through his public speaking skills (it definitely wasn't the subject material). The shiur was on hilchot Shabbat. It was interesting to be there as an outsider. Sometimes I think I should become an anthropologist. Anyway, a few things struck me during the course of the shiur.
- At some point he made a casual mention of the death penalty for violating Shabbat. No one else even blinked, but to me now, it is unbelievably abhorrent to stone someone to death for anything, but particularly for something as benign as weaving a basket. It's sickening, but the thing that really struck me was that no one questioned that the ideal state of being for the Jewish people is one where that would happen. All these Jews longing for Mashiach -- do they ever think of how cruel that era could be? Of course, they say that the death penalty was rare in the times of the Beit Hamikdash, but that it even existed in principle is bad enough for me.
- He admitted that there are some key definitions not given (e.g., for grinding, what tools may/may not be used; how small is grinding, and what may/may not be ground). He claimed that the answers to these questions were arrived at logically by the rabbis but it seems to me to be anything but. For some reason, non-food items and vegetables and fruit can't be ground, but other food items can be. How on earth did they come up with this one? It just seems very random.
- He was talking about why a knife may be used on Shabbat, but a grater may not. His explanation, that a grater is designed to cut things too small, doesn't wash with me. It all seems like part of the plot to keep women in the kitchen for longer. Especially when he said, "I don't have to worry about this, but you do" (it was a women's shiur). Jeeeez, what century are we in here?
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