Success

[rhu]

Last week I bought two sets of Bananagrams as I mentioned I might after the NPL con. Friday night after the kids were in bed I decided to try using them to solve that day's NYT puzzle. It worked out pretty well --- they were a pleasure to handle; it was easy to lay fingers on the tiles I needed. A board with ridges to help keep things lined up would be helpful (for Patrick Berry's delightful puzzle that was less of an issue because of the way the lights aligned).

This morning we took a picture to document the successful experiment.


As you can see, I ran out of a few letters: P, S, L, and C. I think purchasing a third set is justified.

Comments

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

I already had a Bananagrams set when I got one for my birthday. You can have the spare if you like. :)

[elainetyger.livejournal.com]

Ha, interesting idea. I don't believe in any religion, but find the laws fascinating. Typing on the computer is not ok but rearranging the letters is ok? Cool.

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

I have a spare copy of Wordplay --- wanna trade?

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

ObDisclaimer: what follows is how I understand and follow the laws. Others may -- and do -- have different understandings.

The activities that are forbidden on Shabbat are the thirty-nine "parent actions" which were activities directly involved in the construction and operation of the Tabernacle in the desert. In this case, the relevant one is "writing two letters" (to identify which pieces fit together; the idea of "insert tab aleph into socket aleph" is thousands of years old). So there's no prohibition against solving puzzles, but there is a direct prohibition against writing solutions down.

There are also "generations" of derived prohibitions. So, for example, writing a single letter is rabbinically prohibited as a fence around the prohibition against writing two letters. Buying and selling is prohibited because it almost invariably requires writing contracts, receipts, or ledger entries. Handling money is a second-generation derived prohibition, since it's a protection against commerce. There's a practical difference; second-generation derived prohibitions can be suspended under certain conditions, so, for example, if there's money sitting on the table and you need the space for serving food, you can remove the money from the table as long as you do so in an unusual way, so that you're still respecting the purpose of the second-generation law which is to remind you not to actually use the money to buy something. But I digress.

The use of a computer on Shabbat involves a significant number of second-generation derived laws, and in general should therefore be considered forbidden. I suspect that there will be further evolution in this area as the technology and our relationship with it evolves; in particular, I suspect that we will in our lifetime see e-book readers that can be used on Shabbat. But for now, solving in AcrossLite remains forbidden on Shabbat. (Not to mention frustrating on weekdays; I'm still a paper-based solver.)

But arranging a handful of tiles such that they can be read, pro tem, as words does not contravene any of the thirty-nine primary prohibitions, nor any of their derivatives. I know several people who play Scrabble on Shabbat afternoons (and keep score by moving bookmarks through a tome). And solving puzzles is one way that I increase my oneg Shabbat, my enjoyment of the Sabbath, which is a positive obligation.

This is a fine example of a seeming contradiction that leads to a skewed view of my religious observance, which is partly why I'm taking the time to explain this in such detail. Sometimes, because the way activity A is usually done would be prohibited, people grow to assume that activity A itself is prohibited; when someone thinks of a way to do activity A that does not violate the laws of Shabbat, it's perceived as cheating. But it's not cheating, because it was never activity A itself that was prohibited. Shabbat elevators, for example, are not a problem because there's nothing wrong with riding in an elevator; it's pushing buttons that's a problem. Drinking coffee with artificial milk substitute after a meat meal isn't a problem, but it was controversial when first introduced.

[elainetyger.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the explanation. I know you're too earnest about following the Jewish laws to invent a way to circumvent one for convenience.

Also you're intelligent enough to do it right. Once I stayed at a camping-type resort in the Catskills for a weekend. They wouldn't allow me to put milk in my coffee, even if I fetched it myself from the kitchen, because meat had been served within the previous 3 hours; yet the "non-dairy" creamer they provided instead contained casein, which is milk protein. They would hear none of it: casein-containing creamer or drink it black.

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

Sure!

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Actually, that makes sense to me.

If the "non-dairy" creamer (which, as you note, actually WAS dairy) was heckshered as parave, then somebody already looked at that issue.

Either that person screwed up, in which case the error is on THAT person and not on a person following the ruling in good faith, OR they looked at the production of the casein, and ruled that, at some point during the production process, it went through some sort of change which meant that it lost its "dairy-nature".

Another option, of course, is that the non-dairy creamer was NOT heckshered pareve, and whoever bought and served it screwed up.

In either case, though, it is likely that the mugs that you were using were set aside to be meat dishes, and therefore could not have milk in them.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Also -- to go back to the larger issue:

Engaging with the laws of Shabbat in this manner, looking at what they are, and what they are not, and figuring out a way to do crosswords that is still within the law -- to my way of thinking, that's actually a way to show RESPECT to the laws, to honor the Shabbat, and to learn and study it.

When you look at questions of "so, what am I doing, and why, and how", you find yourself wrestling with the very nature of the rules. And that's a way to learn about them, and to care about them, and cherish them.

The purpose of the laws of Shabbat is not to cause discomfort or pain or even inconvenience. They're to set aside a day of the week as being something different. And to be able to think about it being different, and experience it as different.

I see this as a way to celebrate the difference.

Please excuse me if I intrude, I intend no offense.

[rymrytr.livejournal.com]

Curiosity killed the Cat (and the Clam), but the cat at the least, died nearly satisfied! :o)

I once had an ancestor named Omega Isaacks, born in 1790 in North Carolina. As a disjointed Israelite of long ago, my knowledge of Judaism is limited in the extreme, having been raised in the Southern Traditions of the "New Testament". This is a serious question, based upon my "need to know", as the Clam said in an unpublished poem, "just for the knowing."

When you say: "The purpose of the laws is to set aside a day of the week as being something different to be able to think about it being different, and experience it as different."

Is that "thinking" and "experiencing" involving a furthering of the knowledge of God or is it to allow you to understand that you are "not a Gentile"? I guess I'm saying, was it to make one more aware of who spoke to Abram, or why He spoke...?

Possible answer found.

[rymrytr.livejournal.com]

After I posted this question, I found you entry:
Shabbat, Letter Tiles, and the Spirit of the Law

Hold off on your reply to me, and let me read further; it may save you from repetition! :o)

Re: Please excuse me if I intrude, I intend no offense.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Honestly, both of those, and other things, too.

I wouldn't state "not a Gentile," though -- I'd state in in the affirmative, as "a Jew" -- a member of a family, tribe, tradition, history, and community that celebrates Shabbat. It's not a question of what you're not, but rather, what you are.

And it is also about connection to G-d. And other things, too, which are different for different people.

The Kindness of your reply

[rymrytr.livejournal.com]

is most welcome! I've butted into a lot, on the Internet, over the years and have few eyebrows and lashes left, from leaning in, too close to the "flames". :o)

Where you say "what you're not, but rather, what you are.", you are more right than you know. My life has been a series of half-knowledge. I'm not as bad off as a pure Orphan, but I do have a great gap in my heart, as to the question of to whom or where, I belong.

Thanks again, for your kind response! You have given me something to think about, indeed.

Re: The Kindness of your reply

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm a Hebrew School teacher myself, so I really love thinking and talking about these things.

I don't actually DO all the things I think about -- I am not shomer shabbat, like 530nm330hz is -- but I think I understand WHY 530nm330hz does things, and I rather feel the appeal of it, too.