Q&A: Sabbath acronym: on the Sabbath read pamphlets, or are they mundane documents?
Sabbath acronym: on the Sabbath read pamphlets, or are they mundane documents?
Question
One of the irritable people in the synagogue shouted this Sabbath that it is forbidden to read the pamphlets, because their content counts as mundane documents: more or less explanations from the weekly Torah portion about why Bibi-ism is good and how we are only beautiful, good, successful, and winning in the war in Gaza and Lebanon… and also a lot of baseless hatred toward anyone who thinks differently—that’s the content. Also the advertisements, which are probably most of the pamphlet. In his opinion, all of it is forbidden as mundane documents.
I, may I live long, argued that there are no mundane documents in these pamphlets, because nowadays it is not customary to correct spelling mistakes and the like with a pen while reading a pamphlet, and in general “Sabbath” is an acronym for “On the Sabbath, read pamphlets,” and that is indeed the actual practice.
And regarding the content: if someone, poor soul, this is his level, then this is his level, and there is no Sabbath prohibition against reading them, only other prohibitions, which usually the idiots for whom this is their level do not admit exist, nor the stupidity involved in it, since they really are there. The problem with those idiots is not mundane documents.
Who is right?
Answer
I don’t know why you decided that the prohibition of mundane documents is out of concern that one might come to correct them in writing. In the simple sense, it is an extension of “pursuing your affairs and speaking of such matters.” But in my opinion this is relevant only to advertisements, not to politics. The fact that there is a lot of garbage and propaganda there is of course true.
Before you call the saner part of the nation “idiots,” you should learn to use punctuation marks correctly.