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Photo: Yoav Dudkevitch
Haredi protest. The battle has already been decided
Photo: Yoav Dudkevitch
Photo: Shiri Hadar
Yehuda Nuriel
Photo: Shiri Hadar

The status quo is dead

Op-ed: The Orthodox minority should have joined the majority and reality in reshaping the coexistence, instead of sticking to lost battles from the previous millennium.

For decades, millions of Israelis have been rotting in their homes every Shabbat. These are mainly the weaker people—periphery residents, Mizrahim—who are consistently screwed by all Israeli governments and are desperately watching their "brothers," people of means, go out and relax on their only free day. They would also like to do so, but they can't.

 

 

They can't visit their parents, take their child to a soccer game or just go to the beach for a breath of fresh air. They have no way to get there. Don't say take a taxi—because there is no money. Don't say hitchhike—you go and stand in the sun for hours like beggars ready to take a risk. And don't say another day—because there is no other day. Tomorrow is another hard working day, until the weekend, and then it's back to rotting at home. No visits to mother and father. Yes, that's Shabbat and that's the price they pay.

 

The absurdity of a modern state without public transportation on the days of leisure--Shabbat and Jewish holidays--is breathing its last (Photo: Lior Paz)
The absurdity of a modern state without public transportation on the days of leisure--Shabbat and Jewish holidays--is breathing its last (Photo: Lior Paz)

 

This insult to millions—and to Shabbat—will end very soon. A year, two years, maybe five, because it's a battle that has already been decided. No one can stop time, no one can stop the wheels of progress which are flying forward in the year 2016.

 

The State of Israel tells itself many lies. One of them is "the status quo"—or in other words, preserving the situation from before the war. Well, the status quo is dead. It died thousands of years ago, when we stopped stoning Shabbat desecraters to death. Just like we stopped observing the genocide mitzvah in the biblical laws of Ir Nidachat, and plenty of other esoteric commandments that Judaism has gotten rid of, and rightfully so.

 

The absurdity of a modern state without public transportation on the days of leisure—Shabbat and Jewish holidays—is breathing its last. Just like the absurdity of limiting the way people choose to spend their weekend. One can wrinkle one's nose, but on Shabbat the Israeli family wants to watch a bad Hollywood movie, grab a greasy hamburger and buy an ugly doll on the way. The religion of consumption and capitalism are crushing ancient ideologies. Whoever wants to restrict them can go right ahead. It's sort of like the Torah banning the use of Internet.

 

These are also the dying breaths of the status quo which forbids, for example, certain people from living together and having children with whomever they love, and allows the unrealistic existence of a discriminating court in which only men and only the Orthodox judge the entire public, and the foolish pettiness over what people put on their plates. The question of whether giraffe meat is kosher is as relevant to our lives as biblical singing. Kosher! Just go find a giraffe in the shtetl.

 

The Orthodox minority should have joined the majority and reality in reshaping the coexistence, instead of sticking to lost battles from the previous millennium. Like the exilic Haredi ethos of a "cruse of pure oil," which means not only segregating ourselves from "heretics" but also erasing women and separating Ashkenazim and Mizrahim—this status quo is dead.

 

And alongside the ultra-Orthodox, Religious Zionism is silently closing ranks. It has gone through a sad reduction: It is completely focused on a hysterical battle to hold onto every inch of land, practically a sole principle of faith. Education Minister Naftali Bennett confessed in the past that he removes his skullcap when he does business abroad. It's a shame he can't find the time to discuss secular issues with his brothers at home too.  

 

So these people are insisting on preserving a world that no longer exists, while those people are bursting with anger, also aimed at the "Judaism" that has been distorted against its will. And very soon, all this will sound real funny, certainly to your children. Until then, millions will continue to rot every Shabbat.

 


פרסום ראשון: 09.08.16, 20:31
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