Shabus! Shabus!

Sounds like the classic protest scream from Bar ilan street in Jerusalem, from Mea Shearim or many other places where chilul shabbos takes place and some people go to protest.

That is actually "Shabbes! Shabbes!". "Shabus" is almost the exact opposite.

The Shabus is a new initiative of some Jerusaleem residents to have a private "bus" on Shabbos. Sha-bus. The Shabbos bus. It would be a series of private vans driving around between the different neighborhoods and entertainment and recreation centers.

Their complaint has been that while places around town are open on Shabbos, people do not have the ability to get to any of them unless they have their own car. There is no public transportation on Shabbos.

Hence the creation of the Shabus.


This really is not much different than people driving their private cars, which is legal even in Jerusalem. Obviously it is against halacha, but the issue for them is the law. The law does not allow for public transportation, which sticks them in a bad place. This is private transportation. There probably isn't anything anybody can do about it to stop it, unless it fails as a business initiative, if there is not enough business to keep them afloat financially.