Protests for the sake of Protesting

I’m very happy that in spite of the Chilul HaShem in last week’s protests against Intel, the Intel management has agreed to find a compromise to the issue of Shabbat by reducing the Shabbat staff to a bear minimum and only employing non-Jews on Shabbat.

I’m not an expert on the laws of “Goy Shel Shabbat” and I don’t know the details of how the arrangement has been set up, but according to the Jerusalem Post, the agreement meets the approval of Rav Elyashiv, arguably the biggest posek in the Ashkenaz world today.

Apparently this agreement was already being worked out a week ago before the last Shabbat’s demonstration (although had not yet been put into practice) which shows that the demonstration was not only a massive Chilul HaShem but also unnecessary, it may have even been counter-productive. I can see that other companies may have responded to a demonstration like we saw last week by calling off any previous arrangements and Davka opening on Shabbat to prove that they wont be intimidated by thugs in black hats.

Fortunately Intel management acted very “grown up” and is moving ahead with the arrangement approved by Rav Elyashiv. So everyone’s happy – right? Wrong!

According to the same Jerusalem Post article, the Av Beit Din of the Eida Haredit Rabbi Tuvia Weiss does not approve of the deal and is calling for a demonstration anyway.

I am surprised that Rabbi Weiss regards himself as a bigger Posek than Rav Elyashiv, I guess he doesn’t believe in the concept of ‘Daas Torah”, or at least only accepts “Daas Torah” when it means causing trouble.

The article also didn’t say if Dayan Weiss had an alternative solution that would allow Intel to stay in business. Remember Intel is one of Israel’s biggest exporters and maintaining a plant in Jerusalem is a huge boost for the Nation’s capital. But these simple economics don’t seem to be of interest to Rabbi Weiss.

I sincerely hope that the Haredi community turns to rabbi Weiss and says “Enough is Enough” surely they would rather spend Shabbat at home with their families, than publicly go out to desecrate both Shabbat and Hashem’s name.

Lets hope that this week the capital really has a Shabbat Shalom.