Aryeh Ehrlich is reporting that 5 days since the horrific accident in Jerusalem in which an Egged bus ran over and killed a mother and two kids and injured others including a young woman who lost her legs in the accident - and nobody from Egged has yet to be in contact with the families and the injured - not to express remorse, not to see what assistance might be needed, nothing.

The news reported yesterday about a young student, a 15 year old boy, who was on a bus (#947) to Jerusalem. He got off and went to the luggage compartment to get his bags and he had to lean in to get them as they had shifted and moved further in. The driver must not have noticed him and closed the compartment door. The door banged the kid and pushed him into the compartment.

Nowadays nearly everyone has a cellphone, so the kid called the police from the luggage compartment of the bus and told them about his situation with details of the bus and its course. The police dispatched cops from Jerusalem who proceeded to locate the bus and extricate the kid. Thankfully he came out safe and sound.

I remember being concerned about that happening every time I needed to climb in to get bags that had shifted and slid inward deep into the compartment. Thankfully it never happened to me, but there are so many stories of people this did happen to.

Egged, and all the bus companies, need to redesign those luggage compartments. More importantly, they need to put in sensors so the driver can easily detect if someone is still down there and not just rely on the mirrors. If they already have video to the compartment, it needs to be audited and adjusted to give the driver a better, a more complete, view, in addition to sensors that would detect a persons down there and warn the driver.

Egged announced the other day that they are canceling the bus stop on the corner of Yirmiyahu St and Aholiav St in Jerusalem for the 418 and 419 bus routes leaving Jerusalem towards Ramat Bet Shemesh. Local city buses will continue to use that bus stop. This Friday, December 14, it will go into effect (though I do not know if that means Friday will be the last day or if the stop will already not be functioning on Friday - I suspect it is the latter).

This is significant because for these routes this was the only bus stop in the area of the Central Bus Station. Canceling this stop will mean people requiring this bus will have to go much further to find it - if they take a bus or train from another part of the city, they cant just go to the Bus State and walk down to the nearest stop - now they have a long walk or will have to take another bus to a different stop along the line. This is very inconvenient and will be the cause of a lot of anguish and frustration for travelers. This is also a very busy bus stop, so many people will be affected.

By the way, for people not sure what stop this is - it is across form Center 1 in jerusalem, just outside the Beit Yahav building, and across from the Ichud Hatzala building.

No reason was given in the announcement, but after many complaints, Egged has responded saying it is because of issues with road work and traffic flow in the area.

According to Kikar, Bet Shemesh City Councilman Shmulik Greenberg (also formerly responsible for the transportation portfolio - to his credit, even though he is no longer responsible for it) is putting forth efforts to resolve this problem in communication with Egged and the Ministry of Transportation, and Mayor Aliza Bloch is also in touch with the Transportation Ministry and Egged to get this resolved.

A short while ago an Egged bus driver was caught on camera berating a Haredi soldier who was a passenger on the bus. The driver was rude and was cursing the passenger. This soldier serves in the media department under the Galei Tzahal broadcasting station, and was carrying a permit to wear civilian clothes rather than an army uniform, and still travel via public transportation with the benefits of a soldier rather than as a civilian.

The driver though tthe soldier, who appeared as a civilian, had not paid and called him out for it. The soldier showed him his permit to wear civilian clothes and still ride for free. The driver began cursing him, while the soldier pulled out a camera and recorded him.

After the report was initially publicized, Egged said they would investigate and the driver would undergo a disciplinary process.

Today Egged announced that the driver has been fired.
source: Haredim10

Nowadays, with everyone carrying cameras and video cameras and recorders in their pockets, people would be wise to, at least in public, act more like decent human beings and remember that they could be recorded without even knowing it. this guy in particular seems to have been such an idiot that he even knew he was being recorded but acted as he did.

It is also a stark reminder, right before our judgement day, that there is always Someone recording us and ready to play back our deeds, probably at the worst possible time and when we would like it the least...

According to Arutz 7:

Bus drivers providing the public with transportation are allowed to take up to ten standing passengers according to Israeli law, occasionally causing them to pass by and leave passengers waiting at bus stations until a less crowded bus arrives.
But thanks to the request of a hareidi resident of Elad, located east of Petah Tikva, that reality is a thing of the past.
The resident's request on the issue led Elad Deputy Mayor Rabbi Shmuel Grossbard, who holds the municipality portfolio on transportation, to urge the Transportation Ministry to listen to the man's solution to the problem.
Under the framework presented, drivers would be required to pick up all passengers at the stations.
For every trip in which over ten riders were forced to stand, the bus company would have to report to the Transportation Ministry, and if it occurred more than three times in the same hour, the company would immediately be required to add an extra bus on a fixed basis for the hour of high demand.
In a letter sent by the public inquiry department, it was noted "in the coming days a new guideline will launch relating to the limitations on picking up standing passengers."
"The message brought by the guideline is that the criminal sanctions (against drivers) for giving over ten passengers standing-room only rides will be cancelled," it added. "Only the financial traffic ticket will remain unchanged."
The statement continued "additionally around ten inter-city bus lines will be excluded and allowed to give up to ten passengers rides while standing without a fine. Also the ministry will continue to reinforce lines inundated with passengers so that the problem will not be repeated."

I think it is great that they will finally implement a system that will include the bus company having to regularly reevaluate what lines are busy and overcrowded and what lines or times are underutilized, and adjust accordingly, adding buses to times and lines that are overcrowded.

However, I don't get the first part, When Egged packs the people in, such as on lines to/from the Kotel, busy times between Jerusalem and other cities especially on Friday afternoons and Saturday nights, holiday seasons, etc. the haredi community complains about how Egged takes them for granted and just packs them in like cattle cars... and now when Egged implements a rule by which they no longer pack the passengers in but limit how many can ride standing, they demand that Egged be forced to pack them in with no limits.

Which is it? do they want to be packed in or do they want to ride comfortably and respectfully?

After years of fighting and court appeals, the "Tnuat HaYerushalmim" is finally taking the next step and actually placing an ad n buses around Jerusalem that will display the images of women.

The State finally came to an agreement with Egged by which Egged will not be allowed to refuse ads with images of women, but the State will reimburse them for damages when there is vandalism due to those ads.

I am sure they know this fight is far from over.

The first ad is running now and it shows female members of the organization and says "it is nice to meet you". Organizers say that they will continue to protect the city from attempts of censorship of women or excluding women from the public sphere, and it is the women who will advance Jerusalem into a better place.

Meanwhile, extremists have said that they will vandalize such hurtful ads, and it is not right to play with the sensitivities of the Haredi public. In the name of pluralism they do whatever they want while trampling the sensitivities in Jerusalem.

sources: INN and INN

I have not yet heard about any such damage, and I think it would have been reported quickly if it had happened... When I will be in Jerusalem tomorrow, I will keep my eyes out for buses with these advertisements...

It is official. The Ministry of Transportation has announced that it has reversed its earlier decision from a few weeks ago and will allow the arrangement to continue with the first Egged buses after Shabbos to transport passengers from the Kotel without payment. Of course, passengers taking advantage of the "free" ride will have to pay the bus fare the next day.

According to the new decision, as of this Motzei Shabbos, Egged will operate two rounds of "free" buses (bus lines #1 and #3) on every Motzei Shabbos and Motzei Chag... the first "free" buses will begin their route 15 minutes after Shabbos concludes. The second set of "free" buses will begin their routes according to the "Rabbeinu Tam" time for the conclusion of Shabbos.

What made them change their minds?

According to Kikar, Egged insisted on keeping the arrangement in place after it received many complaints about its stoppage. Complaints were received about the stoppage itself, after the arrangement has been in place for so long - since the end of the Six Day War. As well, many complained about the air of suspicion placed on their heads as people who would ride for free and not pay later as obligated to.

So, no need to reconsider that long walk to the Kotel on Shabbos afternoon. You will have a way home.

Despite the previous annoucnement from the Ministry of Transportation, the arrangement of "free" bus rides form the Kotel on Motzei Shabbos (though riders are meant to pay on Sunday) is temporarily continuing. The MoT has given permission for the arrangement to continue for the next couple of weeks - including last night, Motzei Shavuos, and this coming Motzei Shabbos, to give time for further negotiations, though it was also announced that this will only happen on the first 3 buses leaving the Kotel on these nights.

There is actually some conflicting information about this. The Ministry of Transportation has said that they have given egged orders to ignore the previous announcement, and the arrangement will continue. Egged claims to have received no such orders. While the MoT insists it has given egged such orders, Egged continues to say it has not received any such orders. In the meantime it looks like the arrangement will continue temporarily while the issues are worked out.

it looks to me like Egged is really behind this, and not the MoT as previously announced, they just don't want to look like the "bad guy"...

There has been a lot of back and forth on the issue of Egged buses in Jerusalem displaying images of women in the ads. After some destruction to their property, Egged formulated a policy of avoiding advertisements on the sides of the buses with images of women.

After much fighting and legal battling, the situation quieted down with Egged changing their policy to not displaying images of men either. Obviously that was a policy that was doomed to failure.. who is going to spend a lot of money advertising without being allowed to use human images in their ads?

It has been pretty quiet, on that front, for the past two years. The issue, though, is now looking to come back.

Egged has now, reportedly, agreed to display images of women in the advertisements on the sides of buses in Jerusalem and Bet Shemesh - just as they do everywhere else in the country. They came to this agreement due to the lawsuit that has been ongoing. Doing this will negate the lawsuit. As part of the agreement, the State will cover the costs of any damage done due to the advertising.
source: Ynet and Kikar

It's gonna be a hot summer!

Egged made a nice gesture. They often do. All on their own. No obligation, not required by the State or by the details of their contract..

Around holiday time Egged often puts nice messages on their bus displays wishing the public happy Pesach, a good week, a happy Sukkot, etc.

This year they came up with a new one. They were displaying on [some of] their buses the daily count of the Omer.

Very nice. A nice small touch that gives a Jewish atmosphere in the public sphere. It is also a nice reminder for someone who might have forgotten to count, but mostly it is just a nice touch.

After an article appeared on News1 criticizing Egged for the sefirat haomer display, Egged has decided to pull it.

Idan Yosef wrote "Yosef wrote that Egged needed to avoid presenting “irrelevant information” on its digital signs. “Public transportation cannot be allowed to present information that ignores entire populations,” he wrote. “Including a message that says 'Happy Holiday'” is problematic, “but it can be accepted, as long as it appears on Israel Independence Day and is shown on buses in hareidi population centers."
 source: INN

It is a shame that:
a. one stinking article can generate enough noise to make Egged decide to withdraw the program.
b. that some people are so against anything that appears too Jewish in the public sphere.

If a specific community does not want the signs, they can approach egged and have it stopped in their areas. There is no religious coercion involved.

In the meantime, you can write to Egged, if you are so inclined, on their contact page. And, someone started a Facebook page calling on Egged to bring back the Omer count on the buses.

The only question left open, perhaps for rabbinic consideration, is if they decide to restart the Omer display, can they do so with a bracha or only without because they missed a couple of days?

In Globes there is an expose on a discrepancy in the prices of different bus lines around the country. They have discovered that many bus lines that service the Haredi public are operating while collecting lower fares than the fares collected by similar lines that service the general public.

You can read the entire expose on Globes. Basically it presents the facts, comparing lines, and then  asks a lot of questions and presents no answers.

I personally have no problem with the bus lines that service the Haredi community being cheaper - after all, the Haredi community, as a whole, is a much greater consumer of public transportation than most other communities. In general the Haredi community is poorer, meaning fewer people in the Haredi community own cars, and has more children than the general population.

With more people using the public transportation, the community can make demands to have its needs filled, as any community can, in terms of what bus lines they would like to see operating, and Egged can offer those services at cheaper rates in order to attract the larger number of customers. Losing those customers to the competition would be far more damaging to Egged than losing a different bus line that might not be quite as busy.

Egged never says that is the reason, but to me it seems to make sense. People who buy things in bulk usually pay cheaper prices. The Haredi community buys its public transportation in bulk and therefore gets cheaper prices.

By now you have surely heard of what happened yesterday in Bet Shemesh with the Egged bus incident.. I know that most of the postings online in the news media is inaccurate, so I want to clarify what I can.

First, here is the Channel 2 news report on the incident.



More interesting is the article on Mako than the video clip:
Channel 2 news spoke with various parties and interests and here are their responses:

Deputy Mayor of Bet Shemesh Shmuel Greenberg:

There was no "hadarat nashim". the bus driver enflamed the incident. A woman got on the bus and asked another passenger to change places with her so she could sit near someone she knows. The woman agreed, but the driver then turned it into an incident and began to go crazy. He called the police who came and stopped the bus and arrested the man and woman. After the police arrived, haredi residents began to gather to the area and throw stones at the bus. "Maybe it is connected to elections. There is incitement because of the upcoming elections. That is the power of incitement."

Aliza Bloch, candidate for mayor, said:

We can not in any way give in to the extremists. Incidents like this must be dealt with with an iron hand, and we are obligated to uproot such violent behavior and take care that all residents of Bet Shemesh and Israel know that nobody is above the law.

Eli Cohen, candidate for mayor, said:

Again violence and incitement of the extremists against the general population in the city has returned. It is incomprehensible that the residents of Bet Shemesh should be afraid to go around the city freely. We will uproot this phenomenon.

MK Aliza Lavie (Yesh Atid) said:

I call upon the Haredi leadership to make its voice heard, to uproot from within it the rioters and make clear that there is no place for such behavior. If they do not do this, the situation can deteriorate to harming someone. We cannot give in to violence, and we cannot allow extremist groups to set how the public realm appears. I hope the police will punish the rioters to the extent of the law in order to prevent such incidents form happening again in the future.

Rabbi Uri Regev, director of Hiddush, said:

the unending violence on the segregated lines proves that they must be completely abolished and serious criminal sanctions must be placed on those who exclude women. Areas in Bet Shemesh have become centers of violent Haredi gangs and the time has come to begin to impose Israeli law there

MK Rav Dov Lipman (Yesh Atid) said:

Such events of excluding women are an invalid phenomenon that need to disappear from the world. Even in the Torah it was prohibited to degrade women and there is no place for this in Israeli society.

Egged Spokesman Ron Rettner said:

Egged completely condemns any attempt to force seating arrangements on buses, and any attempt to use violence, verbal or physical, against any passengers or the driver. We expect the Bet Shemesh police to locate the small group of rioters and use the full extent of the law against them in a way that will be a deterrent, that will uproot this unacceptable behavior.

Now for what I want to add.

With all those responses, I must say that I wonder where the mayor himself is. I did not hear or see any statement or comment on the incident by him. Is he out of town? Is there a reason he does not want to condemn the violence or condemn Egged or play it down or whatever? Where si the mayor's leadership or his activity to calm the waters?


Regardless of that...

The reports in the news spoke about an incident in which a woman got on the bus #497 - from Bet Shemesh to Bnei Braq, and sat in the front. A woman and a man told her to move to the back of the bus as it is a mehadrin bus. The police got involved, arrested the man and woman, and that led to the bus being stoned and then 2 other buses being attacked with windows smashed.

Last night I heard on Radio Kol Chai, while on my way to shiur (so I did not get to listen to the entire discussion with all the interviews), an interview with the woman involved - the one who was told to move to the back of the bus. She sounded like an olah chadasha, though her Hebrew was very good. I read elsewhere later that she moved to Israel from London and had recently been with her family on shlichut to the Ukraine..

Her name is Rachel Rosenfeld, she is 27 with two children. She is not charedi, but is Dati Leumi (in her words).

She said she got on the bus with her kids and some packages. She sat in the front. She is fairly new to Bet Shemesh and did not know that this is a mehadrin bus. A charedi woman came to her and told her to move to the back. She said no because it is too difficult - her kids, her bags, etc. The woman offered to help her move. A man spoke up as well. The woman agreed to move. At that point, against Egged policy (supposedly Egged policy is the bus driver does not get involved unless it seems like the situation will get violent), the bus driver intervened and started screaming about calling the police, and from there the situation deteriorated and the rioting began.

I don't know if that justifies anything that happened later (actually I know it does not), but it is good to get the story straight.

According to the victim, the initial story was turned into a mountain, when it was just a molehill. There was not a serious attempt at forcing a woman to the back of the bus - it was a polite request to which she had agreed.

We do not know the bus drivers version - maybe he saw them being more aggressive than what she is admitting to, maybe he perceived it differently than she did, or maybe he lost control. I don't know.

And, again, this does not justify rioting, violence, destruction of property, putting people into physical danger (thankfully only one person was hurt with only minor scrapes from the broken windows). The criticism on the violence that happened after the incident still stands.

Egged's decision last year to not use imagery of women, followed by no imagery of men, followed by no imagery of aliens, on bus advertisements in Jerusalem, has never been found to be satisfactory to the government and the courts. Egged is expected to act in Jerusalem the way it acts around the country, and include images of men, women and whatever else in the advertisements on its buses.

To that end, Egged has been negotiating with the government on a solution. It seems like a temporary solution, for a trial period, will be that Egged will run the advertisements as necessary, including with pictures of women, and in case damage is done to the buses, the government will cover the expenses of the damage. This is only for a trial period, and the government insists on it being clear that it holds no responsibility to paying for such damages - all such responsibility would only be Egged's. Despite that they are willing to guarantee on a trial basis coverage of the costs.
(source: Globes)

I would guess the reason is because they expect there will not really be that much damage done, and such a guarantee will get the advertising running and Egged will see they have simply been afraid of their own shadows.

Greater than subsidizing the repairs and covering the damage, the government, via the police, should make an extra effort to catch any vandals and stick them with the bill.

Egged has come under a lot of fire for their recent campaign targeting the Haredi community stating that they must pay for their rides just like they pay for anything else. Egged says, and not for the first time, that the percentage of non-paying riders in the Haredi community is high.

They never said it is for malicious reasons, but the situation of  people getting on in the back of the bus or even in the front with a lot of kids makes them prone to not paying - it's crowded, they are harried with kids and bags or whatever, and they plan to pay shortly after but then forget. The Haredi community was insulted that they were targeted as if they are thieves and pushed back with threats to stop using Egged's services and even police complaints were filed against Egged for slander.

After a lot of pushback, Egged announced yesterday they are canceling the campaign in the Haredi community.

I think that means that Egged is basically agreeing in advance that Haredim do not need to pay for their bus rides.

Egged went on a campaign telling Haredim to pay, and when that was found to be insulting they decided to not insist Haredim pay. Doesn't that sound to you like they are agreeing Haredim don't need to pay? They are waiving their demand that Haredim pay.

From now on I ride Egged for free! I wonder if Superbus will adopt that policy as well...

With it being Thursday, I have decided that it is time to report on an article I saw a few days ago and have been sitting on.

Egged has been very forthcoming to the public, operating a bus line from the Kotel on the honor system. Many people go to the Kotel on Shabbos afternoon and stay there until after Shabbos. With no way home, because they have no money for a taxi or a bus, considering that they went to the Kotel on Shabbos, and no interest in walking home, Egged was petitioned, and acquiesced to allow people to ride the first buses from the Kotel on Motzei Shabbos (bus lines numbers 1, 2 and 3) without paying, and on the honor system they would pay on Sunday or within the next few days for the ride from the Kotel. Anyone with a monthly pass would obviously not have to repay the ride. This has been going on for a few good years.

Egged just announced that they are canceling that arrangement. No more free rides. No more honor system on Egged. Don't rely on the "free" bus from the Kotel immediately after Sahbbos.

How did this happen?

According to the report, a haredi activist and rav asked Egged why they do not give the transfer tickets to passengers on the Motzei Shabbos "free" bus from the Kotel. When you buy a bus ticket, you can use it to transfer, for free, to other bus lines (and supposedly the light rail) within a certain amount of time from the ticket purchase. Yet Egged never supplied those transfer tickets on the free Kotel bus lines. The question was, if people are paying for those tickets, albeit they are paying a day or two later, the tickets should also be transferable to other lines like any other normal bus ticket, and why are they not?

Egged's response was that they do not give the free transfers on those lines at those times because they have discovered that the overwhelming majority of passengers, Haredi passengers in their words, who used those "free" rides on the honor system do not actually come back and repay the ticket price at a later date. And therefore, Egged announced, they are planning on stopping the entire arrangement. They are taking too much of a loss on it.

Admittedly, some portion of the passengers have monthly passes and do not need to repay the ride later, but based on percentages and statistics including the percentages specifically in the Haredi community, a certain portion does not have monthly passes and must come in later to repay the ride. Yet they do not. Egged says only a small amount of individuals actually come in to repay the ride.
(source: Bechadrei)

So, if you go to the Kotel on Shabbos and plan to use the "free" Egged bus line, be aware that it looks like this is not going to exist for much longer...

I don't post the image of every pashkevil put up in Mea She'arim or RBS B by extremists. I don't usually want to give them a voice. I only post the ones that are either so unique or if I have something unique to say about it.

The following pashkevil is very unique. It even made me laugh a bit.

photo credit to INN

As reported on INN, the pashkevil posted in Mea She'arim is protesting that Egged employs female bus drivers.

the pashkevil states that Egged is well known for its mistreatment of the haredim and of everything holy to religion, whether by abominable pictures on huge advertisements or by mass chillul shabbos just to anger God - l'hachiss.
Now, to add a serious sin to their other sins, they have taken the counsel of Bila'am to cause the masses of travelers to sin by replacing male bus drivers with immodest female drivers... they will do everything in their power to ensure that these lewd buses will not enter our holy neighborhood.. we will use all means to push them out of our camp..

this pashkevil made me chuckle...

Egged, and perhaps SHAS, became victims of their own stupidity.

To remind you, Egged decided to not use the images of women in the advertising placards on their buses, to avoid the damage that would inevitably be caused by the extremists. When the courts called Egged for discrimination, they responded with a decision that they would not allow any advertising with any images of any person, either man or woman. Thus, it would no longer be discrimination. More recently, the State opposed this decision in court, but I have yet to see a decision on the matter or a further response from Egged.

SHAS began their advertising campaign for the upcoming elections. They began it with a series of posters saying 1. only a strong SHAS will deal with intermarriage, alongside a picture of Avigdor Lieberman, and 2. only a strong SHAS will help the weak, alongside a picture of Benjamin Netanyahu.

Sure enough, they ran the campaign on the back of Egged buses. Either Egged was sleeping when they allowed it, despite their stated position to not allow advertising with images of men or women, or they thought everyone else would be and they'd be able to get away with it.

Unfortunately for them, the others were not sleeping. As soon as the buses with the signs hit the streets, members of the Yerushalmim group, those leading the fight against hadarat nashim, appealed to the courts demanding the posters immediately be taken down. The advertising company running Egged's advertising immediately ordered the posters be removed. They claimed it was the mistake of a third-party contractor and the posters were supposed to be imageless.
(source: Srugim)

I would note that I predicted this exact scenario back in August...

I have not seen any news on this issue in a while. When Egged made the decision to no longer allow human faces of either gender to be included in advertising placards on the buses, in response to petitions claiming discrimination due to male pictures being allowed and female faces not allowed, it seemed like they had found a solution that worked.

The State is now responding saying they are opposed to Egged's decision. According to Haaretz's report, the State responded to the Supreme Court saying that it is clear Egged's decision was just a way to get around advertising with faces of women. This is a breach in the license agreement between Egged and the State.

The Supreme Court took the response to the petitioners, the Yerushalmim Movement, and asked i they are now satisfied and will pull the petition or if they wish to continue pursuing the matter. The group responded saying that the State has said they dont accept Egged's solution, but now they want to see what the State is actually going to do about it - will the State pull Egged's license or put some sort of sanctions to force Egged to comply? Until Egged agrees to advertise with faces of women, the petition continues.

Egged's spokesperson responded to the news with a patronizing statement, saying that with Israel is busy with a war (note; this happened during the Amud Anan operation in Gaza), and hundreds of Egged drivers have been drafted, I will not deal with this now but will leave our response for the arena of the courts.

I wonder if the State is opposed to Egged's decision for real or just because we are in election season and the political parties want to be able to advertise themselves with the images of their leaders and candidates, be it Likud's Netanyahu, Labor's Yachimovitch, Shas's Rav Ovadiah, The Movement's Livni, Yesh Atid's Lapid, Am Shalem's Amsalem or any of the others...

It's a cynical approach, especially since it is not likely any decision will be made and enforced in time to be used during the current election cycle, but the timing is right.

Egged has had the policy for a long time of letting passengers on to the first bus after Shabbos, from the Kotel, despite not having money to pay.

Egged knows that many people walk to the Kotel on Shabbos, and obviously they are not carrying any money. The only way for them to get home would be to either walk, or via Egged - but they don't have money to pay for the ticket. So, Egged has been good about that and let's people get on the first bus after Shabbos, despite not having money.

It was never considered, by Egged, to be an ideal situation. Egged can't really know if people do or do not eventually pay for those rides, but giving free rides to lots of people is not really included in their business model.

According to Mynet, a number of Shabbos parsha papers have recently been discussing the topic of whether one can carry the new rav kav, the smart card, cards on Shabbos or if they are muktzeh like money.

I don't know why they would be any different than the old-fashioned kartisiyot, the bus tickets that would get punched with holes for rides, but it seems a number of poskim say that one is allowed to carry these rav kavs on Shabbos. Rav Baruch Efrati says it is allowed.

This would give Egged the ability to say that they no longer offer "free" rides, and that people should carry their rav kavs with them if they plan to take the bus home after Shabbos.

Interestingly, on a related topic, there has been a problem, commonly enough with CityPass, the operators of the Jerusalem Light-Rail. Many times the machines to buy tickets are not working at any given station. Either they don't work at all, or they don't give change and demand exact change for payment, and sometimes the credit card reader isnt working. Some people take the risk and get on the train anyway, and plan to pay later for the ride. After all, it is not their fault, but they need to use the public transportation. The article quotes a rav who is against riding the train in such a situation. Rav Erez Malca says that if the cash register in a store was not working, you would not just take your stuff and leave. Therefore, he says, getting on the train in this situation is also stealing. If CityPass would allow it, that would be fine, but City Pass explicitly says that boarding the train is not allowed under these circumstances, and therefore doing so would be theft.

I have not looked into the halacha, and I therefore offer no opinion on whether it should be considered muktzeh or not. I do wish to comment on Egged's expectations from this. According to the article's introduction, this psak is meant to satisfy the haredi community - specifically them, but also all religious people, because it seems they are the bulk of the passengers who use Egged in this fashion after Shabbos.

My comment on this is that Rav Baruch Efrati might be a great man and a great posek, but he is not one followed by the haredi community. I would even be willing to bet that most people in the haredi community have not heard of him. With all due respect to Rav Efrati, if Egged is expecting the haredi community to start carrying their rav kavs on Shabbos, they should have also gone to haredi poskim, and probably even the gedolim (because this is a question of chilul Shabbos), to make such a determination.

After Egged and Cnaan (the advertising/marketing company they work through) found themselves in a pickle, they had to come up with a creative solution. The Supreme Court and the Ministry of Transportation were obligating Egged to post advertisements on buses with images of women. To not do so, as they have refused to do in recent years in Jerusalem and some other cities, has been declared discriminatory against women. They now found themselves with no choice. Claims of bystander violence against their buses would no longer absolve them of their obligation toward gender equality.

Egged has now come up with a creative solution, though members of the Yerushalmim group that were so excited that Jerusalem buses would start bearing images of women are going to be sorely disappointed. Instead of accepting advertisements regardless of the gender in the image, Egged has decided that, for now at least, they will no longer be posting any images in advertisements on the buses. not just that, but from now on the ads will only be the smaller ads on the backs of the buses, and no longer will ads be on the sides. Egged says they did not want to go against the Supreme Court ruling, but they also had to take into account the fact that posting ads with women would bring us back to the days where people would vandalize the buses.

Looks like a win-win decision. The ads will no longer be discriminatory. egged is not violating the law any longer. The Haredim will have nothing to get upset about. The only losers in this case are going to be when Rabbis Ovadia Yosef, Kaduri, Abuchatzeira and politicians can no longer advertise their faces on political ads on the buses.

Being that I believe in equal exploitation, meaning when they say women shouldnt be exploited and used in such imagery on billboards, I say men shouldnt be either - either a picture being publicized is appropriate for both or for neither - I think this solution is reasonable.

I particularly enjoyed the additional statement released by Egged, as you can see at the end of the Haaretz article (which is quoted by all the other news sources), in which they said:

The job of the bus is to transport passengers, and it is NOT to be a platform for upsetting and disturbing advertising. We estimate that at the end of the contract [with the Cnaan advertising agency] we will re-evaluate anew the use of city buses as platforms for advertising.

I find this statement particularly amusing...


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