Judges in Israel regularly work on shabbos in violation of the religious status quo prohibiting state agencies to operate on shabbos and in this case, perhaps equally ironic, the fact that the judges may be violating the state law that defines shabbos as the day of rest, Itamar Levine of News1 reports.
The court system responded to the report acknowledging the accuracy of the facts as they are portrayed, explaining this is the result of the severe system overload, the overwhelming number of cases assigned to judges around the country. The response however explained that at no time are justices instructed or compelled to work, and those who do are doing so out of choice, not the result of a system directive.
The daily HaMevaser explains that many judges routinely use shabbos to ‘catch up’ and rarely are the cases being addressed pikuach nefesh. Levine’s report also questions how a judge who regularly works on shabbos can hear a case brought before the court addressing violations of the law that defines shabbos as the national day of rest.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
5 Responses
Ask about the percentage of Jews (meaning Dati or Hareidi, not just people with traces of Jewish DNA in their genome) who serve as judges, relative to the same percentage of each group in the population. If in New York, a group (say, African Americans) has a similar percentage of the population, relative to the percentage on the bench – what would people say.
akuperma: lets be honest the reason for that is probably because we don’t educate in our community enough to serve as judges so we got ourselves into this hole.
What is disturbing is the use of State resources on Shabbos. If the Justice Ministry was serious the Judges working on Shabbos would be subject to prosecution or other disicplne for unauthorized use of government resources.
So even if no one tells a judge to work on Shabbos the fact a judge could have access to his or her office on Shabbos or Yom Tov implies the Jusitce Ministry is OK with the violations nebach
#2- The incentive for a Hareidi to study the goyim’s law in Israel is similar to that of Blacks to study American law in Mississippi in 1925 – if admitted, you’ll have a limited practice limited to your community, and you better know your place when you are with your betters.
The fact is that most Orthodox Jews are trained in law. It is the only subject most of us ever study. If Israel were a Jewish state, it would be the most legally oriented one in the world.
#2, you know that’s not the case. The Israeli judiciary is self-appointed, and the cabal that controls it is heavily biased in favour of “Enlightenment” values, and therefore against religion.