Luke 11:46

Jesus replied, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.

From Background Notes [BN] for September 1^st & 2^nd  written by Pastor Bob Brown:

Among the 613 commandments were instructions for keeping Sabbath, dissected down to the distance one could walk from their homes on the Sabbath, or when clothing one wore became a burden they carried. Such rules had to do with work: when an action was work and when it was not so that Sabbath might not be broken. Jesus saw the irony in such regulations: rules about Sabbath-keeping become burdens for Sabbath-keepers on the Sabbath Day! Here’s a contemporary example:

JERUSALEM — Four influential ultra-Orthodox rabbis in Israel have decreed that Jews may not use so-called "Shabbat elevators," which enable observant Jews to use elevators without breaking rules against manual labor on the Sabbath. This is the first time a group of such eminent rabbis has banned the use of Shabbat elevators, which have been in use for decades. Generally, Shabbat elevators are set to automatically stop on every floor for 20 to 30 seconds on ascent and descent, precluding the need for people to press a button, which is considered a form of labor.

Religion News Service, “Israeli rabbis rule against ‘Shabbat elevators,’” USA Today, October 5, 2009.

In effect, not even concessions to modern technology can escape the watchful eye of the rabbinic edicts! Not all modern rabbis feel this way, however:Many Jews expressed concern that the ruling does not address the use of Shabbat elevators by the ill and elderly.

Rabbi Yisrael Rozen, director of the Tzomet Institute for Halacha (Jewish Law) and Technology, told Ynetnews that the rabbis had failed to consider all sides of the issue. "I'm glad the majority of the public does not buy (into) rulings in this manner," Rozen said.

Jesus, like Rozen, saw the flaw in traditional reasoning about such matters. That is why he praised the Father that ordinary people like the disciples better understood Torah than the rabbis did, for they saw life in practical terms — where the burden of work just to live was a sufficient burden, and no additional burden ought to be imposed by religious teaching.  [BN, 2-3]

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* Saturday 6:00pm
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