#I'm not judging people who observe Shabbat differently than me

[unbidden-yidden-deactivated20240]

One might wonder why I'm so specifically hung up on the driving issue on Shabbat, when I tend to be liberal on other issues. So let me explain.

In addition to the fact that it is inarguably melacha (forbidden work), I have some major ideological and just practical issues with it, too.

First, by having your community within walking distance, you create a real community. People know where others live and eat by them and socialize more and better. You don't have the immediate "pack everyone up in the car and drive off" flurry after services, but rather more leisurely conversations as you stroll home or to another person's home, or to the park, or to mincha, etc. The instant everyone lives all over and has the ability to just take off to another part of town, you ruin both the slow pace of the day as well as lose out on the closeness of community. (There's also a lot that could be said about Jewish participation in white flight from city centers and how this enables it, but that's a can of worms that I'm not sure I want to open.)

Second, it's a way of treating creation as sacred, because that is a whole 25 hours during which you are not driving your vehicle and therefore burning more fossil fuels. Shabbat is meant to be a day of rest after the seventh day of creation; what better way to honor it than by reducing your impact on the environment?

Third, for those of us who commute, it's not just symbolic work, but invokes the atmosphere of workweek work (not just melacha, which is sometimes much easier than the shabbosdik workaround.) For me, it totally ruins the Shabbos atmosphere every minute I'm in the car, because it just feels like any other day going to my job or running errands.

So even just beyond the fact that it is melacha, there are solid practical reasons to avoid driving on Shabbat.