As such things obviously didn't exist at the time the Torah was written, anyone know the origin of this custom???

haven't a clue about the origins but I was under the impression that most Jewish holidays required fasting and abstinence from anything technology related.

I thought they also followed these same rules for the sabbath (every saturday)

Yes, but what would have been considered "technological" in the years BC??? A butter churner?

ok, the holiday that starts at sundown tonight is a day of atonement. Every religion has an atonement holiday. Ours, unlike most other religion, involves fasting for a day. some people simply fast, others take a more orthodox approach and forgo spending money, using technology etc. Personally, I live on the 16th floor of my building and I ain't doing the walking so I fast and that's about it. tv is allowed in my household but no work (I'm very busy this time of year).

Sabbath is also a no electric day for more orthodox followers. Begins Friday at sundown and ends saturday night at sundown.

This year Yom Kippur lands on the sabbath so you get a nice mix of both.

Hi there Gazrok:

Apparently in cases of life and death (in extremis) post Exilic Judaeism allowed some leeway with Holy Days, Fast days and Sabbaths (cf: the story of Iesous and his starving band of disciples gleaning a stubblefield on the Sabbath i.e. takling the remants left on the stalks for the poor), although R. Shammai and R. Hillel had some differing opinions (oh, very well... screaming matches!) on what exactly constituted "in extremis".

Here is what the later Mediaeval Rebbes had to say on this subject (ref: Pashash Ki Sisa, On the Desecration of the Holy to Save a Life):

"The holiness of a Nefesh {soul of a} Yisroel is greater than the holiness of the Sabbath...The lesser (Sabbath) is pushed aside for the sake of the greater (a nefesh Yisroel)."

(cf: the words of R. Yehoshua bar Yosef the Gaililean ( "Iesous")

"And he said to the Pharisim: Were sons of men made for the Sabbath or was the Sabbath made for the sons of men? And they said to him, The sabbath was made for the sons of men. And he said to them, Cannot you see therefore that the sons of men are then made lords over the Sabbath?)

John's Gospel (John 7:23) contains an interesting Logion ref circumcision and healing of a sick body on the Sabbath which Moses apparently allowed, even though it meant the Mo'el using a knife to cut flesh (and therefore constituted "work").

= roughly: "If Moses allowed a man to remove a flap of skin on the Sabbath, how much more would he have allowed the restoring of an entire human body!"

In the Talmud, Ohr HaChaim discusses the problem of breaking a Holy Day Fast etc. in order "to save a life of an Israelite"

“{But} My Sabbaths”: when a person’s life is at stake, do what must be done to save that life, even if it will involve desecrating the Sabbath.

This applies to all days that are called “Sabbath”­all the Sabbaths: including Sabbath, Yom Kippur [the Day of Atonement] and all holidays.

According to the Ohr HaChaim, the "passuk" also contains two explanations as to why the Sabbath is pushed aside in order to save a life.

“[But] My Sabbaths . . . We must sometkimes desecrate a Sabbath in order to (by keeping this person alive) allow for the observance of many, many Sabbaths in the future. "

Thus it is not considered desecration but rather, in such a life-threatening situation, ‘breaking’ the Sabbath would be considered "proper observance"

"In the case of saving a life it’s not a sin but rather a Mitzvah [commandment]. This interpretation of the law, that the Sabbath may be broken in order to save a life, enables us “to know that I am Hashem and I have sanctified you.”

Clear as Mud?