Your Oven Isn't Broken. It's on Sabbath Mode.

When Brenda Glasscock’s top-of-the-line GE oven recently powered down instead of heating up, she worried her newest appliance was torched. "Call GE and say: I broke the oven," the 75-year-old told her husband. Technical support turned into a lesson in digital-age dogma. In her effort to bake brownies, Ms. Glasscock, of Athens, Ga., discovered that she inadvertently turned on "Sabbath Mode," a feature designed to freeze an oven’s settings so observant Jews can abide by religious law restricting electricity on holidays. The Glasscocks tried to skirt that doctrine by flipping the circuit breaker -- a trick Sabbath mode is designed to override. They later turned to the Talmud of appliances, the manual, and pressed bake and broil buttons simultaneously for three seconds to revive the oven.