HaGaon HaRav Dov Landau spoke at a gathering of poskim at his home on Wednesday and warned of the risks of Chillul Shabbos by traveling on the short Fridays during the winter.
The Rosh Yeshivah spoke about the importance of kedushas Shabbos, especially during the current difficult situation in Eretz Yisrael, and told a personal story.
“Once when I needed to travel to Zichron Yaakov for Shabbos the driver arrived a little late. I told him that he can go home because I’m staying home for Shabbos. He followed me from room to room saying that it will be fine, but for me, the decision was simple. It was in the winter and he came late. I told him: ‘I don’t know what could happen on the way, I’m staying home.”
The Rosh Yeshivah said with great pain: “There are those who travel on erev Shabbos and say: ‘It will be okay, it will be okay.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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2 Responses
Someone remind the El Al dispatchers and pilots and the ehrliche yidden who confidently check in for the late flights to EY on Thursday nights
Gadolhadora – El Al’s policy is not to fly on Shabbos – even if it means landing somewhere along the way if things get close. Since the takeover by the current (Frum) owners, this has been the case except in cases of Pikuach Nefesh – when a Rav was consulted and agreed. As such, if you’re willing to take the chance that you may get stuck in either Ben Gurion or in some random place, it is possible – though obviously not optimal – to take such a flight.
I did so once many years ago, in a year when Rosh Hashanah was on Sunday night, and my choice was either a late Thursday flight that was scheduled to land an hour before candle lighting, or a Motza’ei Shabbos flight that was scheduled to land a little more before Rosh Hashanah. I decided to take the Thursday flight and risk being stuck in the airport over Shabbos, since then at least I knew I’d be home for Rosh Hashanah. I took a few challah rolls and a small grape juice bottle (still allowed then) with me in case I got stuck, and arranged for a non-Jewish driver to be waiting for me so that I wouldn’t have an issue with a Jew driving back on my account after Shabbos began. I also had no checked luggage, and had a biometric card that allowed me to get through passport control with just about no wait.
We ended up landing about 10 minutes late. It took me no more than ten minutes to get from the plane to the street (I was younger and in better shape then, I guess), and the driver was there – my main thought was that if we got to within the Techum before Shkia, I could get out and walk, and he could drive ahead to drop my things off and let my family knows I was on my way. As it happened, traffic was light and he was a fast driver (he drove the local ambulance on Shabbos – that’s how I got in touch with him), so we pulled up in front of my building after candle lighting but 15 minutes before Shkia. I even had time for a fast shower…
So – it worked for me that time when there was a specific reason I couldn’t take an earlier flight, but I 100% agree that it’s far from a Lechatchila. I had one other time where I landed close enough to Shabbos to arrange for a non-Jewish driver, but that was on a flight from Europe where the original Thursday night flight was cancelled and they moved me onto a connecting flight on Friday. That one wasn’t as bad – we landed almost two hours before candle lighting, and I’d also made arrangements to stay in the European city where I was if my rebooked flight was delayed.
Don’t play games with Shabbos – it’s just not worth it.
an Israeli Yid