The coalition negotiations ahead of the next government continued in earnest, despite the expected delay in real progress with Yahadut Hatorah (YH), following the massive Chilul Shabbos surrounding the Eurovision Song Contest.
It has been reported that PM Netanyahu issued 30,000 work permits for Chilul Shabbos to accommodate Eurovision, as reported by YWN-Israel.
Kobi Nachshoni reported Monday that the chareidi parties are demanding that Prime Minister Netanyahu, in the framework of the coalition negotiations, reestablish a committee of rabbonim and professionals to discuss and decide on applications for permits to work on Shabbos. The committee will, of course, decide and grant a permit to work on Shabbos only in cases of pikuach nefesh, as permitted by the law.
According to the report, the committee will be composed of experts to implement halacha in modern life and its status – as demanded by the parties – will be regulated by the law as an advisory to the Minister of Labor & Social Affairs.
The YH faction hopes that the responsibility for the Ministry of Labor & Social Affairs will be entrusted to a deputy minister from the party.
According to Nachshoni, YH leads the demand for the establishment of the advisory committee, Shas joined it, as well as the heads of the United Right-Wing dati leumi party, which announced that they support the demand.
According to Yediot Achronot, Yaakov Litzman has met with rabbonim and experts in recent days in order to enlist them into the process and perhaps recruit them as members of the committee.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
One Response
I see a child enveloped in flames. The bystanders are afraid; they do nothing, or else they are only trying to save the building. I see the child. I rush in. Should I first ask my neighbor whether he, too, sees the child? Should I worry whether, in my haste, I am jostling someone, or perhaps hindering the salvage of the building by running in? Perhaps I am causing a draft, fanning the fire?
“‘But,’ you might ask, ‘what if you are too late? What if the building collapses on top of the child in a roaring conflagration before you reach it?’ To this I reply: ‘Were I to be buried under it, I would at least have done my duty.’” (Rav Shamshon Raphael Hirsch, Letter Nineteen, The Nineteen Letters).