According to a report appearing in the weekly Mishpacha Magazine, it has learned that a flight from Moscow was scheduled to land in Ben-Gurion International Airport at 00:30 between Friday night and Shabbos morning. Also basing the report on a reliable source, whose name is not released by the magazine, quoting the El Al flight arrivals recording, one flight landed moments before candle lighting, while two others arrived Friday night, after the start of Shabbos.
El Al officials deny the accusations, insisting no flights take off or land on Shabbos. “Since the agreement was signed, about $1 million was spent towards Shmiras Shabbos,” El Al officials insist. Tens of thousands of dollars were spent to accommodate stranded passengers once it became apparent they would not be permitted to fly as Shabbos approached. The airline’s manager added that every Friday he receives a report when all planes have arrived in Israel, before Shabbos, so reports that a plane landed Friday night near midnight are simply inaccurate and untrue.
The Vaad for Shmiras Shabbos seems to side with El Al, stating if such a flight involving chilul Shabbos would have taken place, they would have received at least 20 different reports.
The source for the article questions however if the airline does not fly on Shabbos, how do officials explain the recorded message stating the Moscow flight arrived in Tel Aviv at 00:30?
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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11 Responses
Even if something out of the ordinary happened that did result in a problem, why blast it around the world with such a headline?
Why not? Its veryinteresting. And if we dont they’ll just get away with it every time but maybe you dont mind chillul shabbos
Why would they do that? Why tick everyone off to arbitrarily bring in one flight on Shabbos? Something doesn’t add up.
Personally, I think a better headline would have been “Did EL Al Desecrate the Shabbos?”, as this seems to be a relatively one-time incident, so as not to make it sound as if El Al is (consistently) desecrating Shabbos, Ch”V.
Big Deal
They fly the whole time on shabbos and don’t get caught, look at ben gurion airports website for more information, the whole flare up was a cover-up with some bored Gerrer Chasidim!
They have a flight every shabbos from London at 10:30PM. Quite a few times in the summer the zman is later then this.
#2, stop making assumptions that are meant to cast a negative light on me personally, because you don’t like my opinion on this matter. We don’t know the facts. Nor should we broadcast your chilluls or mine, for that matter.
monseyviznitz the main Beth Din zman in London is 22:30 latest. Kedassia zmanim are usually a few minutes later. Either way, the plane must be taxiiing to the gate on shabbos, and the flight time causes jewish staff and passengers to travel and do melacha.
#6, that is a valid point and a very deep concern.
What’s the big deal? If the plane is flying on Shabbos all they have to dois change the airline name mid-flight and all is well. Wasn’t this the agreement, that ‘ ElAl ‘ won’t fly on shabbos but the fake name given to the airline would?
Sorry for casting a negative light on you personally, but I feel that the only way to stop this alleged chillul shabbos is to broadcast it otherwise they will continue and we will be to blame for not protesting like great Rabbonim protested driving on shabbos in Jerusalem not so long ago at “Kikar Shabbos”.
#9, flatbush27. Thank you for saying that. I can understand and share your concern. For me, reading the article as a mere observer (and I am not poskinning in any way, shape, or form) seemed like a violation of what I learned from the Chofetz Chaim, “It is forbidden to relate that someone has been remiss in matters of Jewish observance.” You make an excellent point. In this case it may be proper, I dont know. Considering the fact how another poster said it would impact on employees and passengers who are shomer Shabbos and were on that plane.
I work for El Al, and I can tell you that the company goes to great lengths to avoid chillul Shabbos. It is improper to spread rumors like this. El Al is the only airline in the world with a company rabbi (who I am personally close with). He stays at the airport until the last plane lands on Friday afternoon before racing home to Bnei Brak to get ready for Shabbos. There is a lot of mesirus nefesh at El Al to make sure Shabbos isn’t violated, including our stations abroad who do whatever it takes to get Thursday/Friday flights out on time.
The explanation for airport recordings that announce El Al flights as landing on Shabbos is simple: these are code share flights! For example, you can have a flight operated by another airline but due to marketing agreements between the airlines, the flight has an El Al flight number in addition to the airline operating the flight. These codeshare flights are not operated by El Al and are under the full responsibility of the Goysih airlines operating them.
In the future, please refrain from spreading rumors about Jews who in fact go to great lengths to keep Shabbos. El Al is particularly special because the management isn’t especially religious (although sometimes the CEO and other senior managers do pop into the Mincha minyan at El Al Headquarters) but they still feel that keeping Shabbos and Kashrus is important since El Al flies the magen david around the world and represents Am Yisrael.
If only all “secular” companies in Israel were as committed to their Jewish roots as El Al is!!