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JUDAISM DISCOVERED 942 MICHAEL HOFFMAN
Shabbos
B. The laws of the Sabbath, festal offerings, and sacrilege—lo, they are like
mountains hanging by a string,
C. for they have little Scripture for many laws.
Mishnah Hagigah 1:8 (b-c) admits that Judaism's "many" Sabbath laws
have "little" Biblical justification.
Much anxiety stems from the once-a-week holyday, the Friday to
Saturday Sabbath or "Shabbat" in which hundreds of trivial rules must be
observed. For example, not even dirty dishes can be washed after the Friday
night meal, unless they can be proved to be for use for the Saturday morning
or afternoon meals. If a Talmudic housewife can't prove that contention, then
all other dirty dishes (and pots, pans, cups, glasses, utensils etc.) must
remained unwashed. Judaism's concealment hermeneutic has a loophole for
inquisitive gentile sleuths: the rabbis can lead inquiring gentiles to the
statement of poskim at Slamas Chayim 1:75 that makes it appear as though
it would be "antisemitic" to accuse Judaics of being so obsessed with rabbinic
trivia as to refuse to wash their soiled dishes on Shabbos. The decoy text
hinges on the pretext that all the dishes being washed are being cleaned for
use on the next Shabbos weekend, and not for any use during the week
(Sunday-Thursday).
We apply the criterion of what is being actually practiced in Talmudic
homes. The majority of these actual practices adhere to doctrine that is not
necessarily disclosed to gentiles: that it is customary for the majority not to
wash what is not needed for additional Shabbat meals (i.e. what is not
needed for "seudah shelishis" cannot be washed), based on the majority
rabbinic rulings that Judaics are told hold the force of law, not the unheeded
minority decisions presented to curious or sleuthing gentiles in order to
mislead them. The halacha on dirty dishes (and it's a testimony to how
ridiculous Judaism is that there is a body of laws on this trivial subject), is
ample. We'll cite the leading rulings: BT Shabbath 118a; Rashi and Ra'avad
(Hilchos Shabbos 23:7); Maimonides, (Magid Mishneh); Tehilah l'David 302:6
and Tzitz Eliezer 14:34-2. However, in most cases one cannot wash Shabbos