Welcome to Gaia! ::

Oh that Kinky! He had the best bumper stickers when he was running for Governor. Unfortuantely, Texas sucks entirely too much to have a Jewish governor.

I heard his maternal grandmother was Jewish...he didn't practice, I know that, but I thought he was Jewish heritage wise...

Grey Area, you're technically not supposed to ride with anyone on Shabbat.

Ok here's all the stuff you cannot do on Shabbat according to Jewish Law

Sowing
Plowing
Reaping
Binding sheaves
Threshing
Winnowing
Selecting
Grinding
Sifting
Kneading
Baking
Shearing wool
Washing wool
Beating wool
Dyeing wool
Spinning
Weaving
Making two loops
Weaving two threads
Separating two threads
Tying
Untying
Sewing stitches
Tearing
Trapping
Slaughtering
Flaying
Tanning
Scraping hide
Marking hides
Cutting hide to shape
Writing two or more letters
Erasing two or more letters
Building
Demolishing
Extinguishing a fire
Kindling a fire
Putting the finishing touch on an object
Carring anything outside your house

That covers everything.

Only like 2 of those things apply to me. I sometimes go tanning though. blaugh

For sowing and planting, that also involves dragging anything on a dirt surface, because it makes a furrow and someone might drop a seed in accidentally. For lighting fires or extinguishing them, that also means turning electricity on or off.

For writing, that also involves typing on a typewriter, because the keys hit the ribbon like hammers (hammering), and then the key presses the ink out of the ribbon and onto the paper (wringing), and then the ink makes a mark on the paper which is meant to last past Shabbat (planning for the future). Writing also involves the use of a computer, because you're using/manipulating electricity, as well as planning for the future (writing something you want to last past Shabbat). And, yes, it involves drawing, because you're making marks that you want to last past Shabbat.

We don't count or measure, so no games that involve keeping score, no weighing yourself no matter how obsessed a Weight Watcher you are.

Cooking also includes taking a pre-cooked item out of the refrigerator and setting it in an oven that's already on, or on a stovetop burner that's already on.

It's pretty extensive, what we don't do. But for everything we don't do, there's something we CAN do. Shabbat is about interacting with the divine, and about interacting with one another. Imagine sitting down and talking to the people you love, caring what they have to say, having them want to know what you have to say -- instead of eating, then running out to play sports or video games, or clean something, or make/spend money. On Shabbat, we have no choice but to stop the I-it interactions and delve right into the I-you interactions. Stop futzing around with gadgets, and spend real time with one another. It's bliss.

You could always go to temple or shul. You might not be a member of the congregation but I've never heard of a synagogue casting out a jew for showing up uninvited to shabbat.

I don't know where one is, and I have no way of getting there either.

It made sense.

And, whelp, I tried to do shabbat last night and today, but ended up failing rather miserably. My candles went burned themselves out by 10 pm, and left me in pitch black until I fell asleep at 3 am. I woke up at 1 pm and got halfway through reading the book of Genesis, and at around 5 pm family showed up and I didn't have a choice but to stop observing.

I also was unable to prepare food for myself beforehand, as anything I tried to prepare was just put back in the fridge by my family who forgot that I wasn't allowed to cook. Dinner tonight would have been an open bag of doritos, since the other food would require cooking (sunday is our shopping day, so we're low on food right now).

I think that if I'm going to observe Shabbat again, I'll need to do it with people, rather than alone.