Feb 23, 2020

Interesting Psak: Driving on Shabbos to Sehva Brachos

Kikar is reporting about an unusual situation and an unusual psak.

A haredi couple that got married this week was meant to go to Beitar Ilit for the Shabbat Chattan (aka Shabbos sheva brachos). They slept late and woke up in their apartment in Haifa 20 minutes before Shabbos. Obviously there was no way they could get from Haifa to Beitar before Shabbos.

On the other end of this story were the families preparing for Shabbos in Beitar, wondering where the chattan and kalla were. Some thought they were resting in the rooms they were meant to be staying in, but it was soon discovered that they were not there.

When the parents finally reached the young couple by telephone, likely waking them up by the incessant ringing of the phone just 20 minutes before the onset of Shabbos, they all realized the problem.

Further complicating the matter was the poor health of one of the parents involved. If the young couple would not show up for the Shabbos, it would possibly upset the ill parent and put his life at risk.

According to the article, leading poskim were called (who all remain unnamed) and the psak was given that the young couple should call a taxi to take them to Beitar. The driver of the taxi must be a non-Jew and he must also open and close the doors of the car for them. Because of the possibility of pikuach nefesh, they should do this even though it will mean driving on Shabbos.

the chattan was, understandably, hesitant and did not want to do this, despite the psak that he was being told. They got one of the gedolei hador, also unnamed, on the phone to tell the chattan directly that this is what he must do. So they did it.

The article says the young couple arrived at the entrance to Beitar 1 hour after Shabbos began, though that sounds too quick to me, especially considering they only woke up 20 minutes before Shabbos and still had to deal with calling gedolim and getting a psak and convincing the chattan to follow it, and then to drive form Haifa to Beitar. But anyway, hey got there during Shabbos and got out of the taxi. They then walked from the entrance of Beitar to the Shabbat Chattan location in the town, taking about another hour, and went on with the celebrations.

Kikar adds that family members mentioned that they could not recall ever having a Shabbat so happy with a chattan and kalla that were do "moser nefesh" to make everyone happy..

Further, an additional note added is not to apply what was said here to other situations, as similar as they might sound. If you find yourself in such a situation, call your own [unnamed] gadol.






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1 comment:

  1. though that sounds too quick to me

    Sounds too quick? Straight line from Haifa to Beitar is ~120km. By road, it's obviously longer. I find it straight-up impossible that it took ~1 hour to drive that distance, at that time of day, across most of Israel.

    ReplyDelete