At last, after a long journey, the landing module sets down safely on Mars. Within minutes, Gerry and John, the two astronauts on board, take their first steps on the planet. Their mission is very important to the future of mankind – they must check whether there is oxygen on the planet. Gerry says, “OK, John, pass me the box of matches and I’ll try to light one. It will either burn, in which case there’s oxygen, or nothing will happen.”
Gerry takes the box from John, removes a match and is just about to strike it when a Martian suddenly appears in front of him waving his arms frantically. “No, no, don’t do that!” the Martian shouts at Gerry.
Gerry and John are puzzled. Could there be an unknown explosive gas on Mars that their module hadn’t detected? Gerry didn’t think so, so he continues with his plan to strike the match. But now there’s a whole group of Martians around him, all of them looking very serious and waving their arms. “No, no,” they shout, “please don’t do that!”
“What are they afraid of?” John asks Gerry.
“I don’t know,” replies Gerry, “but we’re here for the benefit of mankind and we’ve a job to do.”
So Gerry strikes the match. It instantly flares up, burns slowly down and then goes out. Nothing else happens. So Gerry turns round to the Martian leader and asks, “Why didn’t you want me to strike the match?”
The Martian leader replies, “Because today is shabbes!”
Credit: David Minkoff, A Word In Your Eye