The following article appeared in “The Hill” early Shabbos morning:
Senators are grumbling privately about having to work this weekend, but most have an easy road compared to Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.).
Lieberman, an observant Jew, plans to walk nearly five miles from his home and synagogue in Georgetown to make it to the Senate in time for votes on healthcare amendments that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has scheduled for Saturday afternoon.
It will be a long and chilly trek for Lieberman, who estimates the journey from Kesher Israel, the Georgetown Synagogue, will take him about 1 hour and 45 minutes. Weather forecasts predict temperatures in the low forties and a significant chance of sleet and possible snow.
Lieberman, a Democrat-turned-Independent lawmaker, was raised as an Orthodox Jew in Stamford, Connecticut. He eats kosher food and observes the Sabbath, which is Saturday in the Jewish faith.
“The whole idea of the Sabbath is to stop and be grateful for God’s creation,” Lieberman said in an interview.
But he said the healthcare reform debate is too important to miss. He explained that religious law makes an exemption for actions that are for the welfare of the community, and many Democrats – if not Republicans – think healthcare reform will help their communities.
“I have a responsibility to my constituents, really to my conscience, to be here on something as important as healthcare reform,” he said.
Lieberman noted that observant Jews do not normally answer the telephone on the Sabbath. However, doctors who attend his synagogue are permitted to bring their cell phones and respond to calls from patients who need help.
“If a doctor gets a call that a patient needs them, they’re not only permitted but required to go out,” he said.
Rumors circulated Friday that Lieberman might miss the votes because of his religious observance.
Lieberman said he has walked to the Senate about 25 or 30 times over the course of his career when important votes fell on the Sabbath.
He said he has answered his phone on Saturdays during times of national emergency. He is chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
Lieberman, who has had strained relations with Democrats in recent weeks because of his avowed opposition to the government-run health insurance program, asked Reid to schedule votes in the later morning or afternoon so he could attend synagogue.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) asked Reid to delay the opening of the Senate on Sunday so Christian lawmakers could attend church.
Reid has accommodated both requests, with afternoon votes on Saturday and the Sunday session set to begin at noon.
(Source: The Hill)
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26 Responses
Go, Joe!!
this alon is a kidush Hashen.CHAZAK TO YOU
WOW! Speak of dedication. Vechol mi she-oiskim betzorchei tzibur B’EMUNOH!!! Hey Joe, show the world!!!
People should also be aware, that everything he does vis-a-vis Shabbat is in consultation with emminent poskim.
People really need to daven for him. The hate and venom the left is spewing is really scary. Lev melachim beyad Elokim; let’s hope he’s able to be consistent and make a Kiddush shem Shamayim in all aspects of his life.
tzippi and everyone else, one needs only look at the hate and venom spewing against me, stzc, and Mark Levin to know how strong and dangerous is the left here in the United States and their determination to maintain control over the Jews.
I love joe..I do. But why doesn’t he sleep at a place closer to the senate. Its not like its a surprise vote
Cantoresq – I find it hard to believe that “eminent poskim” (would not one “eminent posek” suffice?) gave reshut for an issue not a matter of pekuach nefesh. Would he have to use a mike? Would his words be recorded? Perhaps recorded by a Jew on Senate staff? etc., etc. (Aside from the obvious fact that his opinion is cavalierly ignored by Reid and Company, 99% of the time.)
Brownie points he ain’t exactly getting. V’daber davar & mimtzo cheftzecha come to mind as possible transgressions for going to work on shabbos. And even if he asked a Rabbi I’m not impressed remember rahm emanuel asked an “orthodox” rabbi who told him he can make a phone call on rosh hashana so it all depends who & how orthodox the rabbi is.
Out of techum?????
tina18 then he would have to walk 4 miles to shul, pick ur poison
To all those who feel the need to criticize and analyze his behaviour and his Rabbanim, please note that this is pure Loshon Harah spoken by you.
There is no Techum issue if it is all within the city limits. And the main point is that it is a kiddush Hashem, and it is not our place to debate the minor halachic problems that may or may not be present. All TiDon Es Chaveirach Ad SheOmeid Bimkomo or something like that.
Why are there always negative postings to detract from the good middos of Klal Yisroel?
If you read this article and feel proud to be a Jew, it is a Kiddush Hashem. Or someone not so frum might learn a lesson from it and think – if he can do it, so can I.
But if you just read it to find reasons to critize the subject of the article, then you are reading and then writing Loshon Horah!! You are possibly doing much worse Aveiros than whichever you ascribe to others!!
oh ya bubby…the left is really out to get you
as for joe…he becomes religious only when it looks good in the papers
um.. Holchin letartiyaos ulikarkiyaos lefakeach al iskei rabimbeshaboos is a halacha meforeshes. Although he has blundered in the past, Joe is right on this one. he is permitted to cast his vote in shabbos for the public welfare, or even to just debate vedabair dovor etc. is waived for iskei rabim.
While this may have been mutar, I don’t really see how this constitutes a kiddush hashem. IMHO the kiddush hashem of it would have been greater by missilg the partisan bickering of both sides in favor of kedushas shabbos. The analogy to a doctor is, at best distant. It is very difficult to argue that this is pikuach nefesh unless you go with the death panel argument espoused by the right. Even that would not be a direct result of this bill, only a possible later step. Either way, if that is the pikuach nefesh it can easily be accomplished without any compromises of shabbos by siding with republicans to kill the bill entirely.
#9 and #10, please take down a shulchan aruch and learn hilchos shabbos again. I’m not Lieberman’s biggest fan, but in this case he’s 100% right. There is no need to invoke pikuach nefesh; tzorchei tzibbur is enough.
In this case there is actually no issur in the first place: not vedaber dovor, not amira lenochri, the only problem is that it’s “not shabbesdik”, and if he were to come to the Senate every time it sat on Shabbos it wouldn’t look right. So he doesn’t really need a heter. But if there HAD been issurim involved, then tzorchei tzibbur overrides vedaber dovor, and it also overrides amira lenochri for issurim derabbonon.
Oh, and by the way, #10, the heter Rahm Emmanuel cited for participating in a conference call on yomtov was weak, but he could easily have cited a much stronger heter: tzorchei tzibbur. That would probably be enough to justify having a goy answer the phone and put it on speaker, and then talking. Though if he were really frum he could get one of those grama phones.
#11, within a city there’s no techum. Walking from Georgetown to Capitol Hill is no more a problem than walking from Brighton Beach to Williamsburg.
Although he has certainly made a Kiddush Hashem with his exemplary behavior which includes the election for Vice President, I am not sure that this is our tafkid in this world, to look for this sort of Kiddush Hashem. A Jew who holds public office should have one thing in mind “is it good for the Jews or not”, unfortunately many of our “brethren” have had high American positions (including in this administration) and are not exactly working on our side.
If the “Chofetz Chaim” were alive today, he’d probably Pasken that this is talking about too much good that will eventually lead to lashon hara, so it shouldn’t have been posted here altogether!!
Big kiddush Hashem. The senate rescheduling a vote later in the day so he can go to shul.
You Americans have no idea how lucky you are, living in a country where such a thing is possible!
Yes bacci40, I have read all of the posts about me and the other ones from you and the rest of your fellow thugs from the S.E.I.U. and A.C.O.R.N. I am singled out for attack much more often than lets say Mark Levin, or stzc or artchill. Just your own put down is proof enough.
If anyone has serious issues and feels that they can give Lieberman mussar in a gentle tone that will be listened to, write to him directly. Maybe this forum, that’s so widely read (beyond those in our own daled amos) should project support and unity.
To paraphrase the Chofetz Chaim, if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it.
#18, nobody said anything about pikuach nefesh. And it is a kiddush Hashem whenever someone publicly demonstrates shmiras Shabbos in a way that most people would regard as a great inconvenience, just as public chilul shabbos is by definition a chilul Hashem.
#23 Flatbush Bubby
You really need help if you think anyone here is “out to get you.” This is just a conversation forum, and we are a bunch of individuals who participate without a collective agenda. There’s no one here from the SEIU, or ACORN, or NASA, or the CIA who’s trying to figure out how to destroy Flatbush Bubby and spread our liberalism throughout Brooklyn, and then the world.
I am serious…if you really have such strong paranoid feelings, perhaps you should distance yourself from the computer (and even news) for a while and get a grip on reality.
This is definitely a KIDDUSH HASHEM!
Also, as CHAZAL say, “m’galgelin zechus al yedei zakai,” so, based on that, Senator Lieberman would seem to be doing something right!!
I would however like to correct the explanation purportedly advanced by the Senator as to the concept of Shabbos (“The whole idea of the Sabbath is to stop and be grateful for God’s creation,” Lieberman said in an interview.) The Torah clearly says that the main idea behind this day is to demonstrate that G-d created everything during the first six days of creation and “rested” on the seventh day; He is the ADON OLAM.
Baki, he didn’t go to hear “the partisan bickering”. He went for the vote, which required 60 votes and got only 60, including his. While the Senate usually vote electrically, it also accepts voice votes. He says he will vote against the law if the final version includes the public option, but I’m sure he beleives that won’t happen. And the rest of the bill he thinks is good. (I’m in the middle.)