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Franklin AIR HORN? — Brooklynian

Franklin AIR HORN?

anonymous
anonymous
edited November -1 in Crown Heights/Prospect Lefferts Gardens
Anyone else notice the blaring air horn on franklin ave this past week? Whats the deal with that? I can hear it from my bathroom, which is no where near the street...

Comments

  • stacey
    stacey

    Subject: Re: Franklin AIR HORN?

    ____ wrote: Anyone else notice the blaring air horn on franklin ave this past week? Whats the deal with that? I can hear it from my bathroom, which is no where near the street...
    Since it is Passover this week I think its the horn signifying sundown for the Orthodox community.
  • daver
    daver

    Subject: Re: Franklin AIR HORN?

    stacey wrote: Since it is Passover this week I think its the horn signifying sundown for the Orthodox community.
    In case they neglected to notice the darkness?
  • lilbangladesh
    lilbangladesh
    The airhorn always goes off twice on Friday afternoons to herald Shabbas, the first as sort of a warning: Hurry up, get home and get those candles lit!, and the second ten minutes later as the actual start of Shabbas. In Orthodox communities, Shabbas infractions are pretty serious. You can't light candles, turn on the light, cook food, not even tie your shoes on Shabbas, so if you haven't lit your candles by the second air horn, you're eating dinner in the dark. Which would be unfortunate because blessings have to be said over the candles. There's also a bit of safety margin. Candle lighting time is always BEFORE sundown just to make sure that you don't commit the sin of lighting candles afterwards.

    I find the airhorn annoying, too, but we live in a Hasidic community and these sorts of things are Real Important to them, so we have to lump it and deal.

    The one thing that intrigues me is why would Orthodox Jews smoke? You can't light a cigarette on Shabbas and I would imagine spending the day jonesing for a cigarette would be a miserable way to spend Shabbas. (I asked a couple of Lubavitcher smokers and the shamefacedly admitted to me that they smoked on Shabbas anyway.)
  • MOD
    MOD
    lilbangladesh wrote: In Orthodox communities, Shabbas infractions are pretty serious. You can't light candles, turn on the light, cook food, not even tie your shoes on Shabbas
    Seriously? :shock: you can't tie your shoes?
    What about velcro?? A boy can't even pump up his Air Jordans on Shabbas?!


    time for Daver to insert a Big Lebowski clip
  • daver
    daver
    image
  • sweet tea
    sweet tea
    [quote=daver]image
    walter, you're not jewish.
  • lilbangladesh
    lilbangladesh
    Mamacita wrote: [quote=lilbangladesh]In Orthodox communities, Shabbas infractions are pretty serious. You can't light candles, turn on the light, cook food, not even tie your shoes on Shabbas
    Seriously? :shock: you can't tie your shoes?
    What about velcro?? A boy can't even pump up his Air Jordans on Shabbas?!


    time for Daver to insert a Big Lebowski clip

    Yeah, it's one of the 39 forbidden acts. They wear slippers or loafers on Shabbas. Those don't have laces. Obviously the 39 forbidden acts were codified before velcro was invented, but I would imagine the rebbes would have found something wrong with it. (Or maybe not. I should see what Jewish kids wear on their feet on Shabbas to be sure.)

    I *had* the complete list of forbidden acts on Shabbas somewhere, but I don't know where I put it. I have a sinking feeling I left it in my mom's house in Boston. Maybe I'll try my googlefu later.
  • lilbangladesh
    lilbangladesh
    Wikipedia is your friend:

    Here's the link all about Shabbat:


    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shabbat



    Which also reminds of one of the *permitted* activities of Shabbat:
    Sexual relations between husband and wife, particularly on Friday night. (The Shulkhan Arukh describes this as a "double mitzvah," as it combines procreation with enjoyment of Shabbat, both of which are considered to be mandated by the Torah.)
    Our favorite! Many Conservative and Reform Jews think that sex isn't permitted on Shabbat, but they're wrong.

    But let's follow to the next link, about breaking Shabbat:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabbath_breaking

    The Shabbat (Jewish Sabbath) lasts from dusk on Friday evening until nightfall Saturday night. During the Sabbath, there are 39 specific forbidden acts, derived in the Talmud from the construction of the Biblical Tabernacle.
    Halakha (Jewish law) derives many further forbidden acts from these 39 (toledoth and shevuth), with varying severity, that may not be performed save for preventing severe illness or death. Unwarranted violation of any of these precepts is termed chillul Shabbath (profanation of the Sabbath). Although there is no physical punishment nowadays, people who consistently violate the Sabbath are generally not considered reliable in certain matters of Jewish law.


    It's interesting to note that one of the Lubavitchers who admitted to me that he smoked on Shabbas also habitually tries to mooch money from me, not that he succeeds! I call him my pet Lubavitcher because I seem to have inherited him from the neighbor two floors below me who got evicted. I don't think his standing in the community is very high.

    There ya go. Enjoy. Shabbat Shalom everyone! I will be *gasp* working!
  • anonymous
    anonymous
    This is the original poster.

    Interesting, but no, that can't be what I was referring to at all. First of all this was somewhere on north Franklin, probably north of Park Pl - nowhere even remotely hasidic (unless you count the Satmar absentee landlords.) And it was many airhorn blasts when I was home to notice it, all of them early in the afternoon or late in the morning.
  • whatchuwant
    whatchuwant
    I know that the shuttle was honking here and there last week...they usually never do, but maybe they've been working on the track in which case they'd be blowing the horns.
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