Israel's cabinet has approved a pilot program called "kosher electricity" that would provide religious Israelis with electricity approved for use during the weekly Sabbath. The program would direct the national power utility to build massive battery banks in and around ultra-Orthodox communities that would store energy created during non-Sabbath hours and dispense it during Shabbat hours, providing a workaround to rabbinical rules against plugging into the national grid from sundown on Fridays to sundown on Saturdays. Critics have condemned the battery farms as a giveaway to the ultra-Orthodox and another perk that will benefit this growing religious minority at the expense of other ratepayers.
Britain's chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, will attend the coronation of King Charles III along with other faith leaders. Mirvis will spend the night at St. James's Palace to avoid breaking the Jewish Sabbath and will walk to Westminster Abbey for the coronation service. After the Christian service, the chief rabbi will join other religious leaders in making a spoken declaration towards the newly crowned monarch. The service will be overwhelmingly Christian, but Charles has a long interest in bridging religious divides and has spoken about acting as "defender of faith" in general.
The Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether the US Postal Service should have done more to accommodate a postal worker's religious practice of observing the Sabbath. The case has the potential to affect countless workplaces and could require many employers to make major changes to accommodate religious workers. The court has been receptive to claims of religious discrimination, meaning that the plaintiff's prospects are good. A ruling in his favor would extend a remarkable run of decisions chipping away at the wall between church and state and expanding the role of religion in public life, sometimes at the expense of other values, like gay rights and access to contraception.
