Haredi parties turn up notch in demands to stop chilul shabbos

This fight over working on the train systems on Shabbos has become a big one. There are a lot of details in this fight, including but not limited to; different places in which work has been done, how long it has been going on for, for how long it has been ignored by the religious parties, why now they are choosing to stop ignoring it and instead turn it into a serious issue, the possible abuse of the terms "pikuach nefesh" to justify getting permits to perform such work on Shabbos, what each side really wants - and this might involve the closing of makolets and supermarkets on Shabbos as the real goal, the political fights between Netanyahu and Yisrael Katz, airports on Shabbos, the fact that stopping this work also includes demands to cut train service on Friday afternoons and Saturday nights to fewer trains, and more.

It has been difficult to follow and make sense of, considering how much is involved in this.

The one point that gets me every time such demands are made by the religious parties, especially now that they are turning it into a serious issue that they won't back down from, is that we still have never seen the religious parties, rabbonim, and askanim agree or offer to delay Lag B'Omer celebrations in Meron, when the calendar schedules them for Saturday nights, despite the massive chilul shabbos it causes.

Another point is that the Haredi parties have so far made it very clear that this is not an issue over which they will leave the coalition, or even threaten to. Why is it pretty much only money issues (for yeshivas and kollels) that are serious enough to leave the coalition over but not idealistic issues like chilul shabbos?

It also makes me wonder if this is going to be, in hindsight, the straw that broke the camels back, and will end up being the cause for the eventual operation of public transportation on Shabbos. We are already seeing some protests against the Haredi demands and Netanyahu's capitulations. Will the opposing momentum grow to great enough proportions that thigns will change? I will note here that Moshe Grylack, the editor of Mishpacha Magazine, wrote in this week's editorial that it is only a matter of time until public transportation will be approved to operate on Shabbos - whether it happens next year or in a few years, it will eventually happen - connect what he sees anyway as momentum to such change with the anger and opposition to the new Haredi demands, and it seems even clearer that it is going to be forced into a major issue sooner rather than later..

------------------------------------------------------

Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel

------------------------------------------------------