6 ~ THE BULLETIN, Thursday, October 19, 1978
How can a rabbi work on Shabbat?
The Sabbath is a day of rest, yet the rabbi himseif **works** on that day and Ispaid to offer his services to the community. If he is officially working and receiving^a salary, how
can he justify himself with reference to Jewish law?
It is said that the famous Reform rabbi, Emil G. Hirsch, who had Sunday sefvices instead of Sabbath services, used to boast that he was the only rabbi in Chicago who kept the Sabbath! To be serious, however, "work** is defined by the rabbis as creative, physical endeavors, such as baking, harvesting, cooking, writing, weaving, hunting and so forth.
Styding and teaching the Tprah or, for that matter^ all other purely intellectual activities, dp not qualify as "wprk'Vforbidden oh the Sabbath. So the question of "work" does iipt arise. *
It is forbidden, for example, to act as a night-watchman pn the Sabbath, even though no actual work is involved, since  one then 4 gains
of watching, it is permitted, since he is not paid for the Sabbath alone. This is why a Jewish inn-keeper is allowed to accept payment for his Sabbath services.
Some authorities go further and permit employment for religious services even if the employment is only for the Sabbath on its own. Their reasoning is that the prohibition, since no actual "work" is involved, is rabbinic and the rabbis grant a concession where one is employed to carry out religious activities.
AH this explains the following ruling in the Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chayyim 306:5) and it deals adequately with your question: "It is forbidden to hire chazanim to recite the prayers on the Sabbath but some authprities permit it. But if the chazan is hired on a monthly or a
the Sabbath. But, according to the yearly basis, it is permitted accord-din, if a man is engaged for a period   ing to all the authorities.'*'
a
Recently, a young woman, the victim oir a vicious attack, was kept alive for 60 hours on a life-support system. The doctors then decided to switch off the machine because there was not the slightest chance she could ever have recovered. What are the halachic rules regarding switching off the machine in such cases?
of a span of life, no matter how short:
In the classic case recorded in the Talmud (Baba Kama, 26b), if a man hurls an infantfrom a roof in such a manner that the infant will die as soon as it hits the ground, anyone who kills the infant in mid-air is nonetheless held to be a murderer. But if A- throws an earthenware vessel from a roof in such a manner that it will be brokenin pieces when it hits the gorund, B has no liability for the loss of the vessel if he breaks it with a stick in mid^air.; The distinction's ob:^ious.' In the
'It Is good to give thanks unto the Lord.-
Bible Psalm 92:2
"PRAYER IS A STEP on which we rise from the self we are to the self we wish to be. Prayer is not an escjapie" from d substitute for the dead. Prayer seeks the powertodb wisely.it helps to re-enforce the act rather than to replace it. Our prayers are answered not when we are given what we ask, but wheii we are challenged to be what we can be." ' h-.-:y. ^
^ Morris Adier, Americiart^
"TO PRAY is to take notice of the wonder, tpregainasense of the mystery that animates all beings. Prayer is our humble answer to the inconceivable surprise of living.**
Abraham Heschel, American Theologian.
"YOU OBJECT that prayers are repetitious. So are birth and and joy and death. The basic emotions areiiot many^ Ever^jgreat symphony repeats a limited number of niusical ideas. But they set off great surges of feeling in the listeners." ^ V
Jacob Weuistein, American Rabbi.
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First, according to the halacha, it: is an act of murder to kill a person who will, in any event, die in a very short time if left alone: Since all men die sooner or later, the^ definition of^ , , ^ , , murder covers even the takihg away Vcase of the:vessel,\once it has left the
roof It is unusable, so that, as the ^Talmud formula^    B has broken ' "a broken v^SSeij*^^^^^^ already worthless. But i^ the case of
a huhian being about .to^^l^ the deprivation^ 0^^ that constitutes the ac^^ Gpiiseque^ of
yieW^ ^
question of e\ithana»
.^e qw
this act from terrible suffering or frorn aiyegeto This ^s obviously; an bxtriei^ moral decision to have to make, i: Agaiii^ thplTa to ■the: eviddht piennissibilit^ that a^s nierci-^ftii;v ieleas^i^^ and Hah |o
gerhiahe to the issue, there being ah obvious distinction between praying that a person may die and taking physical steps to end his life.
But the tragic case yoii mention did not involve any physical act on the person of the poor girl. It invplved, rather, swtiching off the machine so that her life was not prolonged: artifidaliy. This in a very different categoi^ the usual discs of eiithanasiaV
Switching off the machine could hardly be construed as an act of murder since the girl died from her injuries, not from the act which took
away the artificial means that kept her alive where otherwise she would certainly have died.
Relevant here is the following ruling in tfie Shulchan Aruch (Yoreh Deah 339, 1). When a man is on his deathbed it is forbidden, for example, to move his limbs if this will have the effect of speeding his death. It is, however, permitted to remove any external cause, such as the noise of a hammer outside his room, which prevents "thedeparture of hissoul."
Thus, a direct act is forbidden, but an indirect one, the removal of the noise of the hammer^ to which switching off the machine is exactly analogous, is perniitted^ It would seem, therefore, that, according to the halacha, the doctors were right to switch off the machine.
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Is a Jewish boy who has had no Bar-Mitzyah considered to be an inferior Jew?
Strictly speaking, a boy at the age of 13 does not have to have a Bar-Mitzvah; He is Bar-Mitzvah, **a son of the commandments," one obliged to keep the precepts. Bar-Mitzvah is a state, riot a ceremony or an event, and it is a state attained autohia-tically. In fact, the spe^cial ceremonies associated with Bar-Mitzvah are medieval and some of them — reading the Haftorah, for example. — are only 100 or so years old/ ' According to Jewish law, there is no obligation at all to be Bar-Mitzyah in the sense of carrying put certain ceremonies.
Once ia boy reaches the age of 13, he acquires the status bf a Bar-Mitzvah for the rest of his life. The same applies to a girl, who from the age of twelve acquires this status (Bat-Mitzvah) for the rest of her life. Thus every one of us is a Bar^ or pat-Mitzvah.
It follows that a boy who had no Bar-Mitzvah is no way inferior to one who did, since both enjoy the same status and, apart from the ceremonies, there was nothing to be "had,** in any event. • I am not advocating abolition of special Bar-Mitzvah cereriionies; they do serve a useful purpose. But it is important for it to be realized that these are not binding in any way nor do they affect the Jewish status of either boy or giri.
(Copyright JCN & FS)
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