What went wrong? Another dream turned into a nightmare!

T

hree stars in the sky signify the end of Shabbos. That’s what we all learned as children. Now, I tell a different story.

On a recent Shabbos, my kitchen and I entered a new chapter in our lives together. For many years, Gorilla Tape had supported the cracked shelf of my fridge (victim of a soup pot that was too hot when hastily put down one Thursday night). The plastic cover for the “cheese drawer” is long gone. After various other aches and pains, I finally decided to purchase a new refrigerator.

My kitchen had been state of the art almost two decades ago. Best of all, it featured a Shabbos-observant oven. I still get a slight thrill when I manage to coordinate hitting the “bake” and “broil” buttons simultaneously and I can set the Sabbath mode.

And now, I heard that General Electric company was offering a new and exciting device: a refrigerator that knew when Shabbos was and shut off all the lights and bells and buzzers that might be triggered when the door opened, closed, or didn’t, as the case may be.