The gedolim, or at least some of them, have issued a warning not to fly El Al. El Al landed a plane on shabbos this past week due to a scheduling problem as a result of the strike in Israel. The gedolim have said that El Al flying on shabbos is a public desecration and therefore the public, specifically the haredi public, should prefer other airlines and not fly El Al. Some gedolim have even spoken about flying on El Al becoming a safek of pikuah nefesh – meaning because they fly on shabbos, Hashem will likely strike them down (with a bolt of lightning perhaps), and you do not want to be on El Al when that happens…
Is this another one of those issurim created for ulterior motives?
Some issurim (such as the issur on sheitels and cellphones for example) are strongly suspected to have been psuhed in order for someone to profit off it (an askan wwho knew someone with a beeper business, or a soecific contact in a cellphone company willing to accomodate, or an askan who wanted new business in certifying wigs, for example) – is this one of those? I doubt it. Who would profit from this? The haredi public is not that large. Many fly, but how many of them will actually stop flying El Al because of this? Probably many, or at least some. But enough to make a dent? I doubt it.
So, if not profit, then what? Is it an issur created for political and/or commercial muscle flexing? More likely.
What are the alternatives to fly? Israir? They desecrate shabbos all the time, I am told. They regularly have flights on shabbos, while El AL did it just this once, probably as a mistake. Continental, or another non-jewish owned airline? Maybe but they fly on shabbos too and while it is not a problem for them to fly on shabbos because they are owned by non-Jews, their is peripheral chillul shabbos taking place. The grounds crew (in Israel), airport staff, luggage handlers, etc.. all that chillul shabbos happens regularly because of the other airlines, so switching to them gains nothing as far as shabbos is concerned.
So with no other airline on the horizon as an alternative that does not smack of hypocricy, it seems the issur on El Al can’t be serious. It has to be some sort of muscle flexing.
Now the question is what are they trying to gain from this?
I suspect that soon they will enter negotiations with El Al to resolve this crisis. They will scream and threaten to take away all the haredi business. El Al as usual will panic and be very forthcoming in order to retain the haredi chunk of the flying pie. The haredi askanim will insist on new standards in the airline, such as no movies, or a sectioned off area for davening or a section of separate seating, or something else of the like. El Al will say yes in order to appear as apologetic and responsive to the haredi community.
The winner will be the haredi askanim who will have flexed muscle and achieved more “mehadrin” airtime.
That is my analysis of the crisis.
My question therefore is, how is this different than all the other services that operate on shabbos in Israel?
Why is El Al different than the electric company? The electric company works on shabbos, yet there is no haredi ban on them. True, in many haredi enclaves it has become popular to insist on having a generator on shabbos, butthat only stops you from using the electricity on shabbos. According to a ban equal to that imposed on El Al, one would not be allowed to use the electricity during the week, just llike one should not fly El Al during the week. Yet we see no such ban.
Egged and Dan bus lines should be banned. They operate on shabbos in many non-religious cities, Haifa being the most famous example. Do we ban them during the weke because of their chillul shabbos? Not that I know of.
Bezeq, the phone company. nada.
Various tourist attractions. There have been some attempts to put in place a drive to push people to support attractions that respect the sanctity of shabbos and not go to places that are mechalel shabbos. These attempts have largely failed. And there has been no straight out decree or issur declared.
Taxis commonly work on shabbos. I have not heard about any ban on taxis.
These are just some examples of services in Israel that are regularly mechalel shabbos yet retain the customership of the haredi public with no outcry.
What is the difference?
I would suggest the difference is, again, muscle flexing. None of these other services have ever kowtowed to the haredi public and tried to appease them with compromises. Some of them possibly because there was no need to as they are monopolies, but nonetheless they did not.
El Al has often, at the slightest hint of a threat of haredi displeasure, given in to haredi demands. They have made flights with no movies, or with sections that have no movies. They have made special flights or sections witin flights for only men. Etc. The haredi askanim know that they can threaten El Al and come out with something in their pocket. The others they cannot threaten because they will come out with nothing.
So they threaten El Al. The question is what do they want?
I suspect that in about 10 days to 2 weeks we will find out. We will hear about an agreement between El Al and the haredi rabbonim saying the haredim now support El Al again because El Al has shown the specific incident was a mistake and will not happen again and they intend to prove their sensitivity to the haredi public. Shortly after that we will hear about a new program El Al will put in place for haredim.
Just my guess.
Muscle flexing at its best. Or Worst.
“Some issurim (such as the issur on sheitels and cellphones for example) are strongly suspected to have been psuhed in order for someone to profit off it (an askan wwho knew someone with a beeper business, or a soecific contact in a cellphone company willing to accomodate, or an askan who wanted new business in certifying wigs, for example)”
Suspected by whom?
suspected by many people in the general public who find such issurim ridiculous. We might be called cynics, but we find it curious why immediately after the sheitel crisis, one sheitel hechsher was in the market for the first year immediately after the crisis. After that they finally published a list saying about 99% of the sheitels had been ok.
The cellphones – only one cell provider (in Israel) was approved until about a year later to supply kosher phones, despite the attempts by other companies.
A rav gave a speech one night about non-kosher cellphones in bnei brak and immediately the next day they had a provider with kosher beepers with special deals for bachurim.. hmmm
these are just some examples that I can think of off the top of my head…
Maybe it is all kosher v’yosher, but they fail to inspire confidence in many people…
I don’t have a problem with cynicism but when it devolves to conspiracy theory it’s unsettling. Any idea of the ownership of that cell phone company? Wouldn’t that be easy enough to figure out before throwing out an accusation?
it is not a conspiracy theory, just cynicism as to the true reasons for creating these issurim..
If I remember correctly the first cellphone company on the scene was Cellcom. They had these kosher phones ready right away and any attempts by the other companies to get into the kosher market were rejected until almost a year later….
Cellcom is owned mostly by IDB Holdings which is a publicly held, multi-national conglomerate. I guess there goes the theory, huh?
not exactly. the miraculous aspect of it was that right after the “issur” was created, cellcom already had a solution. and they were given “exclusivity” (informally) for about a year until another company was approved…
The guy making the profit did not have to be cellcom. maybe an askan middleman who worked out the deal. Maybe nobody at all. But it was suspicious..
Did you check the grassy knoll for a second investor?
Again, i do not know if there was a deal and if someone profited or not. It was suspicious and in light of the lack of credibility due to all the other similar decrees, it is suspicious and I remain cynical.
Do you read areivim? do you read behadrei hadarim in hydepark? do you know what people suspect? many suspect much worse than what I am cynical about…
I hear the rumors. I read the comments. I see the signs they put up. There are a lot of things that make people suspicious that ulterior motives are at work in these decrees, and that causes people to reject them out of hand…
Think for yourself, don’t let areivim or others do your thinking for you. Be a cynic, but be a thinking cynic.
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