We are very dependent on the clock. This is one of the things I learned last Independence Day. On our second day at the hotel in the north with the kids, I suddenly realized that these fixed time slots of my life had disappeared. It is organized in our heads like a school timetable, with slots that divide your day and seem to let you know in advance what the schedule is.
Every person and every family has times like these: at eight in the morning, for example, everyone is at the door, heading out for a round of transportation and drop-offs. And that means that at five to eight the last searches begin for a rubber band for their ponytail and for a missing nature notebook, and at a minute past eight they are already in a real hurry so as not to be late. And at a quarter to three, for example, as usual, lunch ends and all the little ones return home.
Everyone's day is basically divided into a lot of cubes like this.
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If you manage to synchronize the parents' vacation from work and the children's vacation from school - the first benefit is, first of all, the cancellation of this schedule for a few days, and this is already the beginning of a departure from slavery to freedom. You can go to bed late (I don't know what's more fun, not having to tell them a thousand times, "Go to bed already" or seeing their surprised faces when you say, "No, honey, go to sleep whenever you want"). You can let them sleep as much as they want in the morning, without rushing yourself and without rushing yourself. You can look at the day, at all 24 hours of it, in a completely different way and discover that it can be divided in many ways.
Only one slot remained fixed on the schedule during our stay at Kiner. With all due respect to freedom, family unity, and the breaking of boundaries, we all remembered that every day at ten in the morning the young man who prepares omelets with yellow cheese, onions, mushrooms, and parsley for the long line of guests in the dining room – stops working.
During our vacation in the north, an editor from the program "Central Headquarters" on Channel 10 called me and asked me to come on the holiday evening to talk about "the issues of the day," as she defined it.
“You know, a panel on current affairs, with some journalists.” I agreed.
By the seventh of Passover, we were already back home, in Jerusalem, and I promised to be at the studios in Givatayim around 10. I didn't really notice that it was actually the end of Shabbat, which, as you know, was right next to the holiday, meaning that the current affairs panelist would show up for the broadcast after three days without consuming any current affairs. Oops.
So, it's true, the main headline is really the miracle of the parting of the Red Sea on the seventh day of Passover, but I don't think the presenter, Nadav Perry, invited me to talk about it.
When I got in the car and turned on the radio – I calmed down. Nothing happened. The news was still talking about the coalition negotiations and the public transportation controversy on Shabbat, and also about the sensational and overwhelming news that had just arrived at the editorial desk: the Mimouna.
I arrived at the studio at a time when long lines were already forming outside the bakeries.
Personally, I actually had to refuse the first steaming pitas I saw on Passover night. Khamis Abulafia, a member of the famous Jaffa aristocratic family from the Abulafia bakery, came to the studio to be interviewed in his second hat, as a journalist.
Of course, he brought with him the best chametz from his bakery at this festive time. “He even closes on Passover. It’s new, fresh, from the evening,” one of the staff members at the studio told me, and I explained that he would appreciate it, but chametz also has to be kosher.
Khamis sat down with the pile of pitas, as did I and the other participants, and the broadcast began.
“Public transportation on Shabbat – yes or no?” Perry asked and I said, of course, “no.”.
Why not?
I tried to explain something like this: “Listen, a weekly day of rest is a basic social issue. Why do bus drivers have to work on Shabbat? And in general, the question is not what our Shabbat, the religious ones, will look like. Thank God, my Shabbat will be the same Shabbat, with prayer and meals and sleep and peace, even if there is public transportation on Shabbat.
""The real question is what the Sabbath will look like for someone who doesn't keep it completely. Will there still be a Sabbath atmosphere, will this day be special in some way?".
Perry told of a petition that is gaining momentum online – thousands have already signed a call for ministers to refrain from using their ministry vehicles on Shabbat. The logic of the initiators is this: if we don’t have buses – we are not willing to pay for your trips in government vehicles.
But wait, behind every petition that ”gains momentum online” there is a media outlet that tells how much this petition is gaining momentum online. Every day, a thousand caring and/or bored people open countless petitions. For some reason, the media put a spotlight on this petition, and only then did they start counting the number of signatories. How surprising.
If I start a petition for lighting Shabbat candles, I'm sure I'll get more signatures if they suddenly follow this project live. Just report it and the petition for Shabbat candles will also "gain momentum online.".
But I already said all this to myself in my head and not on the air, because the item ended much earlier.
On the way back, I heard a former religious Knesset member on the radio. I don't feel like writing his name. He was interviewed on the exact same topic, and started talking about the status quo, the Gavison-Maden agreement, and various compromise proposals.
“We, the religious,” he explained, “will have to say in a clear voice: commerce – no, leisure – yes.” I listened to him as he continued to elaborate: “Cinemas and museums will be open, because they deal with culture and leisure, but shopping malls and pizza parlors and all kinds of stores will be closed.”.
How lucky that Channel 10 didn't ask me about this. I'm not the spokesman for the Holy One, blessed be He. He didn't appoint me to say in his name whether he allows such deals to be made around the gift he gave us, the Sabbath. To cut it into halves and quarters and decide what is and what is not.
This reminded me of a story I heard recently about the Chofetz Chaim.
Once a large meeting was convened against the desecration of the Sabbath. The Chofetz Chaim spoke there with excitement and managed to convince the shop owners to close their businesses on the Sabbath, but they asked him for permission, since they had accumulated a lot of merchandise, to start doing so only for two or three more Sabbaths.
The Chofetz Chaim replied: “My sons, if it were my Sabbath – I would willingly give in to you, but what can I do when it is the Sabbath of the Blessed One? How can I compromise on something that is not mine?”
So what actually bothered me so much about that interview? That that religious politician sounded like a sociologist. Like someone from the UN who just needs to mediate between the two sides.
More than he spoke passionately about “keeping the Sabbath day holy,” he argued in favor of “maintaining public order.” As if we had given up on the chance to increase Sabbath observance and convince everyone of its private and public necessity. As if we were only a minority of Sabbath-keepers left (and the reality is completely the opposite!). As if we now need to understand that there is nothing to be done, the business is lost, so we shouldn’t insist but should give in here and there, in small ways, let’s say only cafes but no garages.
I recently had the opportunity to study part of Tractate Shabbat. Actually, I only studied one topic, about going from one place to another. Endless complicated discussions about the smallest action on this great and holy day that comes once a week. All it takes is taking a bunch of keys, for example, and leaving the house with them on the street.
When is it allowed? When is it forbidden? When is it considered casual and can one be lenient in Carmel? I was reminded of this when I heard how easy it is to suddenly open a movie theater (can anyone count how many drones will be operating there?)
I know, even today, unfortunately, there are open movie theaters. And overall, they want to formulate a comprehensive arrangement here, and perhaps that's logical and correct, but from what starting point are they starting this arrangement? Because for some reason I don't hear anyone on the other side, the secular side, agreeing to close a single movie theater with the same eagerness that some religious people agree to open a movie theater.
And the next morning, I suddenly saw a press release from Mickey Zohar on the same subject. What, you don't know who Mickey Zohar is and why is he suddenly issuing a press release? I didn't know either. Very nice.
Zohar is number 22 in the Likud. A new Knesset member, from the party's surprising third ten, the one that entered the Knesset thanks to all those who emerged from the holes at the last minute.
Zohar the Likudnik does not wear a kippah, and this is what he wrote: “When talking about public transportation on Shabbat, I think that in a Jewish state there is an extremely important value in preserving our basic values as Jews. The fourth commandment says: ‘Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.’ For me, the conclusion is simple: we received the Land of Israel from God, we received the Torah from God, and therefore the minimum we can do is preserve our tradition as a state of the Jewish people.” End quote.
These are such simple things, and so not simple. I wouldn’t have dared to say them in the Channel 10 studio last night. I don’t think many religious or ultra-Orthodox MKs would have issued such a statement to the press.
It would be better for us to escape to the social aspect, and talk only about the poor bus drivers and the tired fireworks sellers. Why suddenly mention the Holy One, blessed be He, who gave us the Torah? Who speaks like that today? We want to be understood.
Mickey Zohar, and sorry for the deja vu, is not confused and does not apologize. I read this short text, which is actually the first statement from this unpolished MK to the press, several times, because it seems to me that we need to pause for a minute and think about why such a text would not come out of our mouths so naturally.
And this is just another small insight into my freedom of thought, on the eve of this Freedom Day.
• The column is published in the newspaper 'Bisheva''
