The battle surrounding the Bnei Brak Shabbos generator is escalating following a court order to remove the generator from the area known as Givat HaBanim back in September 2013.
Following another petition to the court, a ruling was announced by the Tel Aviv District Court as recently as last week, to remove the generator immediately. The court also decided to levy a 4,000 NIS fine for each day the generator remains in place in violation of the ruling.
Kikar Shabbos quotes angered neighborhood residents, who feel Bnei Brak City Hall has chosen to ignore the court and permit the generator to remain in place while they continue suffering from the noise and air pollution.
Kikar adds that on Sunday night the eve of 10 Adar I 5774 City Hall officials took off their gloves and now accuse the petitioners of blatantly acting against the will of gedolei yisrael shlita, particularly HaGaon HaRav Chaim Kanievsky Shlita by the fact they took the matter to the Tel Aviv court. They explain R’ Kanievsky supports the generator in line with a ruling of the Chazon Ish ZT”L to provide kosher electricity on Shabbos and Yomtov, thereby avoiding the use of electric produced by Israel Electric.
Officials are quoted adding this arrangement has been in place in Bnei Brak for many years and now, suddenly, some of the residents of HaLochamim Street have decided it disturbs them. There is no indication that anyone plans to remove the generator in the near future.
Kikar quotes Rav Chaim saying the people who took the case to the court “Are chilonim in chareidi garb”.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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7 Responses
as long as the courts are cracking down on unnecessary noise, maybe they could also shut down the muezzins from blasting noise 5 times a day, which btw we hear clearly from my house that is at least 1 mile away thru an open field.
Their religious status is quite irrelevant to the case, if they are being harmed by said generator then they are well within their rights to demand it’s removal.
Whether or not the generator was there for years or not may be relevant from a civil law point of view, from a halachik point of view it is not, it is the type of complaint that someone living in the surroundings of a source of pollution (be it odor, sound) is entitled to always change their opinion of (at least according to shiur we had on the subject that was the RamBa”m ztz”ls’ opinion).
As far as ‘kosher’ electricity goes, these days we have so many people with medical conditions living at home depending on electricity (the storm really showed that very well) that that alone is a huge source for a ‘heter/hechsher’, when the electricity in a neighborhood goes these days there is a real chance people will die if it doesn’t return within a not so long period or they aren’t evacuated to a hospital.
@Keeper of the Keys
You obviously know more than the gedolei yisroel shlita and I’m sure everyone will follow your ignorant and weakly footed psak.
HELLO!!!!!!! If Moran Hagaon Harav Chaim Kanievsky or any other gadol yisroel says no then that’s it! End of story. Klal Yisroel doesn’t follow the psak of “mechalilei shabbos v’torah” if the gadol hador says otherwise.
there are 2 separate issues. one is that certain gedolim assur the electricity from the grid because of jews who are working for the electric company on shabbos. the other issue is the noise being generated by these generators. it is not either or. it might be neither nor. if the people of bnei brak do not wish to use the electric grid on shabbos that is certainly within their right, but no one says that they have the right to use a generator as it is disturbing to others.
there are a few f them in ramat beit shemesh-
they burn smelly diesel gas..
diesel is a known carcinogen….
@3 (150):
Do tell what in the world it matters to the case at hand whether or not they are “Chilonim in Charedi garb” or not?
If they have a valid complaint they have a right to be heard and their being religious or not does not change that.
If you want to live according to the psak of the Chazon Ish z”l, by all means do so, but you can’t cause other people to have suffering for your mitzva observance.
Surely an alternative location/accommodation can be found that does not interfere with other peoples’ living conditions, or only with those of the people who anyhow use the generator and therefor are willing to put up with its’ various forms of pollution.
In my last paragraph I merely brought up that conditions since the Chazon Ish have changed a lot and these days electricity isn’t just critical in hospitals any more, after the last storm there were several in-depth shutim/shiurim on the subject of electricity and whether one could use/enjoy it since a part was fixed on שבת.
The fact that any particular Rav does or does not support taking electricity from the IEA grid on Shabbos is interesting but totally irrelevant to the issue addressed by the court. If the Chareidi tzibur don’t want to use power from the grid on Shabbos, they can either sit in the dark or install their own generator which conforms to all the applicable noise, pollution and land use standards, Their obsession about “kosher electricity” doen’t entitle them to disturb their neighbors as the court has repeatedly found they are doing.