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Don't listen to fundamentalists!!!!

Reader comment on item: El Al, "Goy" Airline?
in response to reader comment: why it would be wrong for El Al to fly on shabbes

Submitted by Issac (United States), Dec 30, 2006 at 20:09

Hey Yakkov, first of all, where do you see a segol or a chirik in the Hebrew word ShaBBAT, the last i checked there is a kamatz under the bet, not a segol or a chirik, so your transliteration and pronunciation of the Hebrew word is incorrect.

Secondly, if one wants to argue from a religious perspective, it can be argued that having a functioning airliner operating is as important to the Israeli state as any public services be it privately dispensed or publicly dispensed, such as electricity, hot water, police, fire dept, and military and hence would not fall under a sabbatical prohibition. Just don't fly on Shabbat if you don't want to.

As I understand it, El Al has done its best to respect the wishes of its observant clients, but one would hope that the observant people who travel on El Al would understand that it does not look right for religious people to strong-arm others to practice as they do, and that El Al has to worry about its $$$ to live in the same sense that a person has to look worry about surviving in the real world. With that, and as El Al's executives are executives for a living so, as one would hope, they know what they're doing better than a rabbi would know what they're doing, it would be foolish for El Al to share or relinquish any amount of control of the company to the demands of unqualified rabbis that on top of being unqualified, do not have the companies # 1 goal in mind which is profiting.

Further, Yaakov, it is most unfortunate religious people generally see being Jewish as a religious inheritance and not as a genetic inheritance. That is why you feel that it would look hypocritical if El Al flew on shabbat while marketing itself as a Jewish airline. To my understanding, El Al has never claimed to be a RELIGIOUS airline, but it certainly caters to them probably more than a completely gentile airline ever would.

Although being Jewish is a complex identity of being both a member of a people and a religion, its not simply like being French or being Italian, the idea that being Jewish has nothing to do with a genetic inheritance of being born to a Jewish mother and is only determined by how much you practice the religion is not factual if you look at history, and also unnecessarily divisive amongst the Jewish people.

If El Al were to claim to be a religious airline and then fly on the shabbat, then you would have grounds to call it hypocritical, however there is a such thing as being Jewish in the nationalistic sense but not in the religious sense.

Further, it would help everyone for observant people to understand that El Al planes are secure primarily because of well trained air marshals being on every plane, not saying that perhaps there was some divine grace to it also.

Submitting....

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Reader comments (29) on this item

Title Commenter Date Thread
1Parasitic behaviour [34 words]Susya Bar DrorJul 15, 2011 05:24187417
Suggestion for El Al [42 words]Omar KajFeb 12, 2007 12:5176914
What is in islam which produces fanatics? [146 words]kalyanFeb 2, 2007 04:5975572
This is supposed to be 2007, not 1007, not 7, not 7 BC, etc. [588 words]IssacJan 16, 2007 22:5573221
Surrender [142 words]Ynna (tchkah)Jan 5, 2007 14:3071750
More Irritation [157 words]FriedmanJan 1, 2007 11:3071318
Unnecessary language [35 words]Yaakov WatkinsJan 1, 2007 19:5271318
El Al GOY [2 words]steven LDec 26, 2006 12:2870611
...Professor [117 words]C FletcherDec 26, 2006 01:4970553
To C Fletcher [26 words]Ynna (Tchkah)Dec 28, 2006 22:4070553
why it would be wrong for El Al to fly on shabbes [112 words]Yaakov WatkinsDec 25, 2006 20:2670531
Don't listen to fundamentalists!!!! [498 words]IssacDec 30, 2006 20:0970531
Religious perspective [218 words]Yaakov WatkinsDec 30, 2006 21:3570531
How one practices the religion ... is a personal choice. [675 words]IssacDec 31, 2006 19:0170531
Religious perspective [526 words]Yaakov WatkinsJan 1, 2007 18:1070531
Practicing the Religion [391 words]IssacJan 2, 2007 15:0570531
Please clarify. [416 words]Yaakov WatkinsJan 2, 2007 16:4270531
Wrong for El Al [32 words]Charles R.L. PowerJan 4, 2007 16:0870531
I have an intellectual perogative because I have an intellect. [312 words]IssacJan 4, 2007 19:1170531
By the way [42 words]IssacJan 5, 2007 11:5970531
You've missed a couple of points [150 words]Yaakov WatkinsJan 6, 2007 23:4470531
One more point [135 words]Yaakov WatkinsJan 7, 2007 00:4170531
Do you want to know what is christianesque? [311 words]IssacJan 9, 2007 20:4070531
Whew. [326 words]Yaakov WatkinsJan 10, 2007 19:0670531
God may have a special covenant with the Jewish people but .... [281 words]IssacJan 11, 2007 20:2670531
One more try. [206 words]Yaakov WatkinsJan 13, 2007 22:3070531
El Al [15 words]Yaakov WatkinsDec 25, 2006 20:1870530
Shabbos Goy [25 words]Melvin LavinDec 25, 2006 19:3070527
Non Sense [383 words]Ynna (Tchkah)Dec 19, 2006 21:4870049

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