What would a Hasidic person do if they were in a position where they had to drive (or get in a vehicle) on their Sabbath?

I would imagine that if it was necessary, it would be forgivable. I was actually reading a little about Islam earlier today, and discovered that if a Muslim has to eat pork in order to survive, it’s not considered a sin.

I’ve known a few (one’s a rabbi) who take the strictures of the Sabbath very seriously, but after all is said and done, they understand that the laws were put into place in another time and culture and one’s life shouldn’t be lost because riding in an ambulance technically violates them. It’s more about good sense.

After she’s out of the situation, penitence may be offered in terms of alms, or extra devotion time or anything else that will please God. As long as the violation is not habitual and was done due to an extreme situation, sincere repentance will always find God’s acceptance and mercy.

She wouldn’t drive.

Hasidim take their commandments extremely seriously, and the scenario you offered presents no necessity. It’s not a life-or-death situation, but even if it was, there’s plenty of theological discussion as to whether or not such an event would warrant dishonoring God.

Here’s an informative video about the subject (assuming a life or death situation, but the concept holds true). The punchline is that she must choose the lesser sin. Apparently, some are worse than others.

ever heard of the shabbas goy?
Goy [non-Jew] hired to flip the lights on and off at temple during the Sabbath.

Get a non-Jewish taxi driver.

@anartist – Ah, but the problem there is that you need to arrange things with the non-Jew before Shabbat, so that you don’t actually make the request for their help on the Sabbath. If it were a life or death situation (as in the video that Laureth mentioned), then the Jew can override certain certain prohibitions based on the concept of pikuach nefesh (saving a life, literally, saving a soul).

Hatzalah, a Jewish emergency medical response organization has some interesting info on their site regarding how to deal with situations such as this one: https://www.hatzalahrl.org/guidelines_for_a_shabbos_birth?PHPSESSID=m9t0asmga9n05svkk9o7sfu3m5

As @quarkquarkquark said, Hasidim are ultra-Orthodox, so they take the biblical commandments very seriously.

In the situation described above, she probably would have just waited somewhere (the hospital lobby?) until the Sabbath was over and then call for a taxi or get her husband to pick her up.

On a side note, Judaism teaches that a person must always put his life before keeping commandments, though there are three cases where Jews are expected to give up their lives:

-Murdering another person
-Bowing to an idol
-Committing adultery

(I might be mistaken, but the latter two might only only apply in public)

I wonder if the Hotzoloh Ambulance could have taken her home. I would imagine that ambulance works on 7 days per week.

@jca – Good question!

@answerjill amazing link! The convolutions some people would go through for strict religious observance—“accidentally” knock the phone off the hook and dial with your knuckles—does that make it any less a deliberate act? nevermind making it MORE work.