Since then, the Haredi parties regularly threaten a crisis when government-sanctioned chilul shabbos is discovered, yet they no longer follow through. They have sat in every government since, except the 2013 government Netanyahu formed with Lapid and no included no haredi parties, yet never again have they done more than threaten a crisis, despite the ever-increasing amount of chilul shabbos taking place at the government's initiative - be it road works, rail works, bridge construction, or whatever.
Now with the Eurovision almost upon us (the weekend of May 16-18), the special committee for Shabbos work permits convened and approved a mass permit for 30,000 workers to work on Shabbos to prepare for the Eurovision.
This committee is made up of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Social Welfare Minister Chaim Katz, and Minister of Religious Affairs Yitzchak Vaknin.
After a 15 minute meeting to discuss the issue, the committee voted in favor of the mass permit, for this and next Shabbos, for 30000 production workers. Netanyahu and Katz voted in favor and Vaknin voted against. Besides for the actual permits, Vaknin is upset at the precedent that was set in giving a mass permit rather than individual permits as needed.
source: Behadrei
I am also pretty sure nobody considers Eurovision production involves pikuach nefesh, the normal barometer for giving such permits.
All this while Shas and UTJ are negotiating entry into the coming government coalition, in which they continue to insist they will stay strong in the fight against government-sanctioned chilul shabbos and demand oversight and to be a part of the approval process. It is particularly sad that the increase in chilul shabbos has all happened on the watch of the Hareidi parties. As I mentioned above, they have always been a part of every government in the past decades, except for in the brief Netanyahu-Lapid government. They seem to give the issue lip service, but never actually deal with it.
I will point out, that I have no expectations of shmiras shabbos from the government, as it is a secular government. The Haredi parties insist they can influence, or force, the government to somewhat guard the sanctity of Shabbos in the public sphere, yet they continue to allow it to happen and to allow it to continuously increase in scope. I would almost rather they stop fighting about it and making it an issue of strife while doing nothing practical about it. And even if just in an individual situation they know they cannot do anything about it, stop making it a public issue and then doing nothing - just let it slide quietly if necessary and when needing to explain to your public explain that this was an instance that was exceptional and they had no influence. Everyone understands that there are some circumstances they just cannot control.
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So much has changed since 1999. Doubt whether these 'chareidim' are on the level of those of 20 years ago. Many of our great religious leaders have passed on and so many of the new religious have changed together with the rest of the world. Their emunah and dvaikus to H' is not the same. We are living in the ugliest of times, spiritually speaking. Yet, there are many who are returning and doing teshuvah. Maybe, it's showing us that the birur that takes place before the coming of Moshiach. The idea that a Eurovision is important and for it to be in Israel is in itself a chilul H'. What do you expect? H' yerachem.
ReplyDeleteI guess they read your blog
ReplyDeletehttps://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/456727
cf. Ramban on Devarim 27:26
ReplyDeleteOne who shirks their obligation to uphold everyone’s Judaism (as much as is possible) is “Arur”
I see a child enveloped in flames. The bystanders are afraid; they do nothing, or else they are only trying to save the building. I see the child. I rush in. Should I first ask my neighbor whether he, too, sees the child? Should I worry whether, in my haste, I am jostling someone, or perhaps hindering the salvage of the building by running in? Perhaps I am causing a draft, fanning the fire?
“‘But,’ you might ask, ‘what if you are too late? What if the building collapses on top of the child in a roaring conflagration before you reach it?’ To this I reply: ‘Were I to be buried under it, I would at least have done my duty.’” (Rav Shamshon Raphael Hirsch, Letter Nineteen, The Nineteen Letters).
cf Magen Avraham 608
ReplyDeleteIf your village owns a lulav and the next village does not, and you have your own private set, it is incumbent on you to send your set to the next town and share instead with the rest of the village.
even though you will miss out on shaking by Hallel
and plausibly miss out on the mitzvah entirely because most villagers are not assumed to understand the concept of "lachem"
A public, collective fulfillment is more important than you as an individual!