Everyone can have a bad day and in most cases, if a bus driver is rude, passengers will chalk it up to just that, or perhaps the assumption that there is noting that can be done, so ‘why bother’.
This was not the case on the 498 bus from Ofakim to Bnei Brak a number of weeks ago, when passengers realized the driver was passing bus stops and leaving commuters waiting. When they questioned his actions, the insolent driver stated “the bus is full, what do you want” but according to a number of people interviewed, the bus was not full.
Making matters worse is the fact that after a number of passengers decided to speak up, they elicited the ire of the driver, who did not spare the colorful vocabulary to share his disdain for chareidim with his chareidi passengers. These passengers however decided they are not going to take it and they filed a complained with R’ Yitzchak Rodech, Egged’s advisor for the chareidi community. He decided that he would personally follow this case along, and he did just that.
The driver was summoned to an internal disciplinary inquiry by his superiors, which led to a disciplinary hearing and the decision to dismiss him from the company immediately. This was due to Rodech working to gather testimony from enough of the passengers to build a solid case against the accused driver.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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6 Responses
Halevai the same thing would happen to the police who are called in to perform crowd control against the Shabbos protesters. Just look at the front page of this week’s Yated Ne’eman and everyone will know what I am talking about.
C’mon now. Let’s be dan the bus driver l’kaf z’chus. He may have been terribly upset about the demonstrations in Yerusholyim. and he showed his anger in this way.
But wait a minute. Aren’t WE ALSO upset about the terrible chillul Hashem that the demonstrations caused and THE FURTHER DISTANCING OURSELVES FROM THE ‘NOT YET FRUM’?
Businesses whose employees “diss” their customers, tend to lose customers. It doesn’t make any difference is the disrespect is religious or ethnic (as it is in Israel), or racial (as it often is in America). Learning to be polite to people you dislike is a skill that needs to be learned.
certainly i empathize with the riders [&the ones who didnt get on],but one must follow hilchos lashon hora here. esp. where a persons parnassa is involved.
i hope everthing was done al pi halacha
[and if the driver is fun der binei miyutim,
darft men choishesh zein, ehr zol nisht nemen nakama ch”v!!]
eli lev: how about all those who came late to work because of this clown? becides you dont think the rabbi asked a shiela? why arent you dan lekaf zechus?
to # 5
perhaps READ before commenting.
also, #6 makes an excellent halachick [which incl yashrus] point.
ofcourse none of us are paskening here halacha lemaase, but one should be carefull before taking sides and applying it to similar situations!!
achabdeihu ve’achashdeihu !!