A Jew of the modern Orthodox tradition, U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman observes the Sabbath on Saturday, which conflicts with many of the state’s political confabs and citizen forums and the like. This creates anti-Semitism in reverse, better known as Jew-envy, from veteran, weary pols who would have just as soon be in synagogue, even if they are Presbyterians, rather than suffer through political conventions.
No place on Earth has had more idiosyncratic, weird experiences related to remembering the Sabbath and keeping it holy than has Connecticut. I have it on unreliable authority that a team of Connecticut experts on Sabbath peculiarities has been commissioned by France to go over and help that nation with its experiment begun this month to stop resting on Sundays and actually get some work done.
France, which has a long tradition of establishing work rules and anti-business regulations as if it were governed by Connecticut’s General Assembly, has, under pressure from President Nicolas Sarkozy, allowed virtually all nonfood stores in 494 towns and special tourism districts to open up on Sundays and engage in bloodless, Godless commerce and industry.
France didn’t officially establish a Sunday closing law until 1906, which would be considered practically yesterday by Connecticut’s historic record on such things. While the colonial-era Sunday closing laws in Connecticut were a bow to Sabbath observance, the modern-era closing law in Connecticut was a hilarious, patched-together creature invented by various lobbyists working their magic at the General Assembly. Some businesses wanted to be open, some businesses wanted to be closed, but the businesses that wanted to be closed didn’t want to be closed unless all of their competitors were closed, while the larger retailers wanted to be open, whether the local small-fry were open or closed.
The state Supreme Court put the hideous thing out of its misery in 1976, but the justices suggested that the legislature could perhaps establish a “common day of rest,” which would sort of, kind of, be a sneaky Sabbath-observing thing, without actually acknowledging it.
The new, unimproved version had enough exceptions and exemptions to make the angels weep with sorrow and the justices giggle.
As one justice explained the law, drug stores could sell blankets on Sunday, but a bedding store could not. Once again, the court tossed the law.
Interestingly enough, the biggest fan of the Sunday closing laws in Connecticut was Joe Lieberman, who was state Senate majority leader at the time.
One wonderful bit of controversy from those days was the issue of whether bank ATMs could “work” on Sundays, or whether even electronic robots were God’s children, entitled to a day of rest and prayer and youth soccer tournaments.
Residue of the old Connecticut “Blue Laws” closing restrictions kept popping up for years. As late as 1998, state auto dealers were prohibited from opening on Sundays, until, once again, the state Supreme Court killed it.
Ah, the good old days. I’m tired just thinking about them. I think I need a day of rest. But the editors here are tools of Satan. Joe Lieberman, can you help me?
Laurence D. Cohen is a freelance writer.
