Hagaon R’ A”L Shteineman Instructs To Stay Firm: ‘Supermarket Law’ Should Include Tel-Aviv

As was first reported in “Bechadrei Chareidim”, yesterday during a meeting with leaders of coalition parties, Chareidi representatives requested from PM Benyamin Netanyahu to aid them in passing a law that would forbid supermarkets to remain open on Shabbos, including in Tel-Aviv; which has recently passed a legislation allowing its residents to keep supermarkets open on Shabbos.

The request comes in light of the recent announcement by the Tel Aviv municipality to allow supermarkets in the city to remain open on Shabbos. The decision was challenged by many opponents and was taken to the high court of justice, who ruled in favor of the municipality and declared that the municipality possessed the power for such a decision. The decision is a flagrant violation of Halacha and the long time accepted status-quote of not permitting stores to remain open on Shabbos.

Fearing that other municipalities may learn from the rogue Tel-Aviv example and follow suit, religious law makers scrambled to write- and hope to eventually pass, a law that will forbid municipalities from permitting its supermarkets to remain open on Shabbos.

This morning the ‘Yated Ne’eman’, UTJ’s official paper announced that the Charedi position of insisting on passing a law which will apply retroactively and include Tel Aviv in the supermarket ban, is the direct psak of Hagaon R’ A”L Shteineman Shlit”a.
If the law is indeed passed, it will bypass the ruling of the high court and forbid supermarkets in Tel-Aviv to remain open Shabbos.

“Per the psak of Hagaon R’ A”L Shteineman Shlit’’a, during the meeting yesterday with the PM, the demand was raised to return the status-quote in Tel Aviv to before the ruling of the high court, and not to settle on the law taking effect just for the future”, writes the ‘Yated Ne’eman this morning.

“In light of this, the Chareidi representatives demanded of the prime minster to immediately settle this unprecedented severe breach of granting official permission for stores to remain open on Shabbos. (A decision) which can have dangerous consequences for all the municipalities in Israel”.

Dropping a hint that this breach may dissolve the current coalition, Chairman of the finance committee, Moshe Gafne said during the meeting that “such a coalition partnership cannot exist if there exists a helpful hand to chilul Shabbos”.

He described how in the past two years his party voted on laws which they weren’t so thrilled about, but did so to honor their commitment to the coalition agreement. This in turn also obliges other members of the coalition to support this proposed law. “In the coalition agreement, there appears a clear agreement that if the status-quote is harmed, it has to be corrected. Therefore, this obliges them to vote with us on something that is so important to us” said Gafne.

“We are not talking about something technical that has to be verified, rathe on something critical”, Continued Gafne, “Shabbos for the Jewish Nation is the central topic. There is no merit for the Jewish state to exist if there won’t be Shabbos in it- Chas veshalom”

Translated by Eli B.

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!