The heads of chareidi parties in Knesset are expected to meet with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Monday, 25 Menachem Av following another Shabbos of chilul Shabbos in Tel Aviv by Israel Railways. The chareidim called for the meeting with Mr. Netanyahu after Israel Railways officials added salt to the wound by announcing their weekly Shabbos maintenance and upgrades are indeed in the category of ‘pikuach nefesh’ and therefore permitted on Shabbos. This has elicited the ire of Yahadut Hatorah officials and they are flexing their political muscle, signaling a continuation of this policy will lead to a coalition crisis.
While on board, Shas appears to be taking a less threatening approach, demanding a halt to the chilul Shabbos but falling short of bringing the matter to the level of a coalition crisis.
Yahadut Hatorah MK Moshe Gafne has gone as far as to demand the removal of Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz in light of his failure to prevent the weekly chilul Shabbos despite promises to the contrary.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
No way to run a railroad, literally and figuratively. The Chareidi political hacks want Katz fired because of track and signal maintenance and repair work his engineers say cannot be done safely on weekdays while the trains are operating. The Chareidi MKs are demanding that decisions on whether such repairs are really necessary from a safety perspective and constitute pikuach nefesh be referred to some rabbonim for a pask. Sometimes you have to wonder what these guys are smoking. A decision on critical rail safety issues is not a question to delegate to rabbonim.
Dear Gadol hadorah
aka..the Chief Reform Rabbi.(Hadorah, so probably a girl)
The Torah party is going on the advice of the Gedoleim.
You are not a gadol.
With all the hand waving and gevalts about chilul Shabbos etc. over the past few days, I’ve yet to see a single Rav with knowledge of the issue come forward and take exception to the technical safety concerns raised by the railroad management. In most U.S. cities, serious maintenance work on rail systems requires that tracks remain out of service for some time and trains either “single track” or they shut the line entirely and run bus shuttles between the effected stations. The current debate in EY seems to be more of a political broigas among coalition partners in a bad marriage than a legitimate debate over matters of halacha. If