Chareidi members of the press in Israel have complained that during Shabbos, three messages were released to the media by the Defense Ministry, none involving any life-threatening issues.
One of the messages sent to the pagers was close to the end of Shabbos, but no one saw fit to wait a bit longer to release the message after the termination of the holy day.
The point of the story is that Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s staff members were working on Shabbos, addressing matters totally unrelated to life and death issues or national security. The minister himself released one message, also not at all related to security matters.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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One Response
1. What’s the Hiddush? Did someone actually think the Israeli Defense Ministry was frum? Have you ever noticed the percentage of Defense Ministers, or Generals, who wear yarmulkes on a regular basis (compared to the percentage of combat soldiers with yarmulkes).
2. I believe the religious zionists hold that one may violate Shabbos for anything that benefits national defense, even indirectly. In part this reflects a belief that the survival of the Jewish community in Eretz Yisrael is dependent on the Israeli armed forces. I wouldn’t consider one of the religious zionists to be an apikores if he held that way (merely “misguided” and “confused”).