A Jewish couple in Bournemouth, UK, are suing their neighbours because said neighbours are “forcing” said Jewish couple to “work” on their sabbath.
It’s all to do with “motion sensors that turn on the lights in their communal stairwell, which they claim make it impossible for them to leave their flat during the sabbath”, says WorldWide Religious News, quoting The Times.
Like many Orthodox Jews, Dena and Gordon Coleman will not use electricity between sundown on Friday and Saturday night, which they regard as a day of rest. But since the sensors were installed at Embassy Court in Bournemouth, the lights come on as soon as the Colemans set foot outside their front door – which they say makes them responsible for switching them on and therefore prohibits them from leaving the building.
You’ve gotta laugh. But here’s a solution. All you have to do is imagine the lights are on by default (so you won’t have switched them on as such), but that their “offness” is caused by the absence of movement. So it’s the absence of movement that has done the “work” of switching them off.
You are doing the “work”, therefore, by remaining in your flat, and causing them to be off. So you can go out on the sabbath totally free of guilt.
Er, well, it sounded OK when I first thought of it!
