In September of last year (2010), Alan Brill posted a short piece about Orthodox teens texting on Shabbat on his blog:
I was asked by an Jewish educator- principal if I know what it means when current HS kids ask each other if they keep “half shabbos” or “full shabbos?”
Since I know the lay of the land, I said sure it is texting.
He said: Your right. The kids call someone who texts (and tweets and posts) on Shabbos as keeping half-shabbos and those who dont full shabbos.
This phenomena is more widespread than just the average modern orthodox. I have seen rabbinic kids here who wear black hats admit that they text on shabbos.
The educator said that the kids consider it part of daily verbal communication.
Steve Lipman of The (New York) Jewish Week wrote a longer article about the same phenomenon (printed 6/22/2011). Lipman writes:
The practice has become so widespread – some say half of Modern Orthodox teens text on Shabbat – that it has developed its own nomenclature – keeping “half Shabbos,” for those who observe all the Shabbat regulations except for texting; “gd Shbs,” is the shorthand text greeting that means good Shabbos.
Not surprisingly, because of texting’s high-tech nature, it is the frequent subject of bloggers and discussion groups on the Internet.
My own observations, standing on one foot, as a parent of four present or former adolescents, rabbi, educator, Orthodox Jew, and non-expert on technological issues:
- Many (Modern) Orthodox Jewish responses to the real or perceived dangers of social networking, websurfing, and texting imply a sense that the young generation is particularly vulnerable to temptation (in Hebrew: yetzer hara).
- Is it true that the young are particularly vulnerable to temptation? Perhaps they have worse judgment; certainly they have less experience, as a group. But I don't think their susceptibility to temptation is greater.
- In what way are social networking, etc., a new sort of temptation? Granted, we have here new fora for people to interact. New ways of communicating are novel. Yet--temptation is temptation. I remember reading of the adolescent delinquency connected with the consumption of gin in 18th century England. Nowadays, gin is not powerfully associated in the popular imagination with violence or grieving mothers! Social networking, etc., will become domesticated. Perhaps young people don't like the thought of that--they enjoy texting as a sort of generational prerogative.
- Can there be "Half" of a "Shabbos"? Isn't Shabbat all or nothing?
- Says who? Granted, in halachic terms, a violation of Shabbat is a violation of Shabbat. However, if someone spends 23 hours of Shabbat observing it according to the halachah, the fact that s/he spends 1 hours involved in a halachically forbidden activity does not negate the 23 hours of rest/menuchah. Surely that rest counts for something.
- At the least, learned Jews should recognize that this question is not a simple one among the early authorities (Rishonim).
- "How can we reintepret such rebellious activity as texting on a cellphone?"
- Sometimes, texting comes together with other 'non-Shabbosdik' behavior. Sometimes it does not. Which leads us to the next point:
- A Halachist needs to be careful in his/her language. What precisely are the violations of Halachah, biblical, rabbinic, customary.? These are not simple matters.
The options that Orthodox children are presented, when it comes to Shabbat, are basically two: either one is shomer(et) Shabbat / Sabbath observant or one is not. The phenomenon of "Half-Shabbos" rejects this either/or. Halachists may not have a way to make sense of this: How can these kids claim to be at all shomer(et) Shabbat? But we Jews, living our lives, make messy decisions. (Sometimes these messy decisions do not adversely affect others: A Jew indulges in some forbidden activity, endangering noone, in private. Sometimes those messy decisions make life a misery for others and ourselves: Think of the tragic cases of a pious rabbi who sexually abuses his young students. Yes, a single person may be pious and sinful. Yes, human beings are complex.)
Perhaps 'Half-Shabbos' represents the rediscovery old ways of being Jewish. Before there were generations of pious, highly Jewishly literature, Shomer Shabbat, Orthodox Jews, there were traditional Jews who evinced greater or lesser punctiliousness in their performance of mitzvot. My maternal grandmother of blessed memory, a native of a small Jewish community in Lithuania, was one such. As we have lost Yiddish, as we have moved across oceans, as we have reestablished Jewish community, we have lost the art or the practice of being traditional. Perhaps 'Half-Shabbos' represents the return to a more organic, more sloppy, more comfortable way of being Jewish: a more traditional one.
Here is a pearl pulled from the sea of tears that has surrounding Half Shabbat: The fact that kids are comfortable to assert themselves as keeping Shabbat and, at the same time, texting (for example)--and texting publicly!--implies that they are confident that their community is strong enough to survive their delinquency. I see "Half-Shabbos" as a vote of confidence in the strength of Orthodoxy in America.
If Orthodox Jews want their children to withstand the temptation to text on Shabbat, I think the best approach is to model the joy of Shabbat that we feel. If they can feel our joy, they are more likely to want to experience, and more willing to make the effort to discipline their desire for weekday diversions. As for new technologies, let us exploit them in ways that build Jewish community; let us not mistake them for 'the enemy.'
At any event, I favor a positive approach (here is what Shabbat can look like) over a negative one (focusing on the perceived evils of new technology).
