Bein Hazemanim Begins
By the time you read these words, the painful day of Tisha B’Av will be behind us. I will never forget the year when I spent Tisha B’Av at the bedside of one of the gedolei Yisroel, who was in the hospital. I brought a stack of newspapers with me, and since the rov had the room to himself, I lay down on the vacant bed. The heat was sweltering that day, and the fans merely blew hot air around the room. At some point, I grumbled, “This is very boring. How will we get through this day?”
The rov replied, “Boring? We need to focus on the churban. It is prohibited to divert our attention from it.”
On that note, the Hidabroot publication, which is intended mainly for baalei teshuvah and members of the Masorti community, contained a pertinent question in this week’s halacha corner, a feature written by Rav Avrohom Yosef (son of Rav Ovadiah Yosef). The questioner asked if it is permitted to pick up a baby on Tisha B’Av for the purpose of playing with him. Rav Avrohom responded firmly, “The Shulchan Aruch states that it is prohibited to divert one’s attention from mourning over the churban. Therefore, we are required to act with solemnity on this day.”
Well, now it is bein hazemanim, and everyone here is searching for things to do during bein hazemanim. For those who can afford it, this usually means traveling out of Eretz Yisroel for a vacation. The vast majority of us, however, will be staying home. Who has extra money to spend on a vacation? Some people are in the habit of swapping apartments: A family from Givat Shaul in Yerushalayim will switch places with a family from Kiryat Sanz in Netanya. The family from Yerushalayim will enjoy having a beach within walking distance, while the family from Netanya will be pleased with the ten-minute drive to the Old City of Yerushalayim. Best of all, the change of scenery is free for both vacationing families!
One of the great roshei yeshivos (some say that it was Rav Chaim Sarna) once commented that a stay in a dacha (vacation cottage) is very similar to Tisha B’Av. He was staying at a vacation home managed by the Vaad Hayeshivos in the neighborhood of Beit Hakerem in Yerushalayim, and he remarked, “What do people do in a dacha? They walk around in slippers and wait for a meal. That’s the same thing that we do on Tisha B’Av!”
This week, I read some fascinating accounts of how gedolei Yisroel spent bein hazemanim. For one thing, Rav Chaim Shmulevitz made only one change in his daily routine during bein hazemanim: He wore slippers instead of shoes. Everything else about his daily schedule was exactly the same as during the zeman! And Rav Yitzchok Hutner used to say, “Why does everyone go away for a vacation? Because they want to have a change of scenery and to see new faces. Well, I stay at home, and since the new faces come here, I can be on vacation without leaving my home!”
The Stories That Won’t Be Written
Every week, I debate which topics to include in my weekly column and ultimately find myself forced by space constraints to forgo writing about a number of subjects that I am sure would interest you. Here is a rundown of the stories that will not be addressed in this week’s column.
First, several IDF soldiers are facing criminal charges for allegedly abusing imprisoned terrorists. The terrorists are being held in the Sde Teiman detention facility, a special incarceration center for the terrorists who participated in the terrible massacre. The Supreme Court has ordered the government to ensure that the terrorists are held under humane conditions, and the State Prosecution interviewed a number of released terrorists about the treatment they received in the Israeli prison. If you feel that it is insane that the government is actively looking to prosecute soldiers for mistreating terrorists who set out to maim and kill innocent Israelis, then I have to say that I agree with you.
I am also not going to write about the reprehensible decision of the mayor of Tel Aviv to ban outdoor davening in the public domain. This issue sparked a major controversy last year, until the massacre on Simchas Torah cause it to be forgotten while the entire country cried out for unity and brotherhood. Sadly, Mayor Ron Huldai of Tel Aviv is returning to his old ways and seeking to stamp out any trace of religious activity.
The issue of the yeshiva draft is deserving of attention. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara simply isn’t giving up. She recently wrote a letter to the government and the Ministry of Defense ordering them to send draft orders to all 60,000 yeshiva bochurim and kollel yungeleit who are eligible for the draft; the 3,000 draft orders issued thus far are not enough for her. Meanwhile, out of the 3,000 young men who received draft orders, only 48 actually showed up. The attorney general is also continuing to lock horns with the government on other issues, and her audacity reached a new height this week, as she provoked conflicts with both Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs and Communications Minister Shlomo Karchi. Baharav-Miara sent sharply worded letters to both men, who responded in kind. Perhaps I will find the time to write about this in greater detail in the coming weeks.
Another major issue is the fact that tens of thousands of Israelis are stranded all over the world after numerous airlines canceled their flights to Israel. My son, for instance, was supposed to fly back to Israel with Delta on Thursday, but his flight was canceled. Taking advantage of some influential connections, he managed to finagle a ticket on an El Al flight on Sunday, so that he could return home in time for Tisha B’Av.
Finally, there was a near-tragedy on the Tunnels Road leading to Beitar Illit this week, when a terrorist was eliminated, b’chasdei Shomayim, just before he carried out his nefarious intentions.
These are only a few of the many stories that deserve attention but will not be treated in full in this week’s column. Let us move on to some other topics instead.
The Last Missing Oct. 7 Victim Is Identified
Simchas Torah of the year 5784 was a day of terrible tragedy and Divine concealment. Two weeks ago, on the 22nd of Tammuz, we marked the passage of ten months since the tragedy. On the secular calendar, we reached the ten-month mark last Thursday. This sad milestone gave rise to terrible anguish in Israel. Some of the released hostages were interviewed in the media, and the stories they told were horrific. The people of Israel struggled to contain their mounting fears for the well-being of the hostages who have remained in the hands of Hamas, and the pain and anguish seemed to pierce the heavens.
Meanwhile, it was reported last week that the last remaining person who has been listed as missing since October 7 was finally identified. It was unclear throughout this time whether Bilha Yinon had been taken captive by the terrorists or murdered. This week, the authorities determined that she was killed on October 7. After a long and agonizing halachic discussion at the home of Rav Yitzchok Yosef (who no longer occupies the office of chief rabbi of Israel), the state informed the family that they should sit shivah. In truth, Mrs. Yinon’s children had been certain all along that both of their parents had been murdered. The entire house had been destroyed, and it did not appear possible for anyone to have emerged alive from the inferno. Nevertheless, there was always a lingering suspicion or hope that their mother might have survived and been taken into captivity. Last week’s tragic findings confirmed that she was dead.
This week, Bilha Yinon’s daughter recalled the events of that dreadful day. “At 8:30 in the morning, I realized what was happening,” she said. “My father wrote to us that they had taken shelter in the safe room and that there were many sirens and gunshots echoing around them. They did not understand what was happening. My brother Maoz spoke to them at 7:45. I saw the pictures of Hamas terrorists riding around on jeeps, and I had a sense of foreboding; I believed that my parents could not have survived. We realized that the moshav had been infiltrated, and the facts slowly began to come together. We called a neighbor, who managed to look through her window and told us that our parents’ house had been burned. She cried and tried to find someone who could speak to us, but the signs were not good.”
Painful Memories of the Disengagement
We cannot write about Gaza and Tisha B’Av without remembering another year when Gaza was on everyone’s minds on Tisha B’Av, almost twenty years ago. As Ariel Sharon’s plan for the Disengagement continued advancing, a plan that many saw as a road to destruction, thousands of people came together in the summer of 2004 to form a human chain to protest his intentions. The chain stretched across a distance of 90 kilometers, from Gush Katif all the way to Yerushalayim, as 200,000 people stood shoulder to shoulder. But this protest did not prevent the government from making its foolhardy move. The actual disengagement took place in the summer of 2005, so we are now moving into the twentieth year since the destruction of those Jewish communities. The residents were evicted on Tisha B’Av, and the annual day of mourning has therefore come to be an occasion to commemorate the Disengagement and the burning of shuls in Gush Katif. Today, with war looming, air raid sirens sounding, and the entire country cringing in anticipation of what is to come, while the massacre in the Gaza envelope on Simchas Torah continues to haunt us, the Disengagement serves as a reminder of how foolish it is to trust “leaders,” whether they are in the military, the defense establishment, or civilian authorities. The army and the Ministry of Defense promised us at the time that leaving Gush Katif would usher in a new era, in which the slimmer Gaza envelope would no longer suffer from rocket fire from Gaza. The civilian leaders, headed by Ariel Sharon and Shaul Mofaz, boasted in the government that they were about to change history, that a new day was dawning and the Middle East would be transformed. Later events would prove that they were tragically mistaken.
The Disengagement, which was trumpeted by then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as the key to peace, took place on Tisha B’Av of the year 5765/2005. It was an unexpected decision for the hawkish Sharon, the right-wing politician whose stubborn insistence on visiting Har Habayis had sparked the intifada of those times. Sharon thus became the darling of the Arabs, even though the tone of his speeches made him seem more like an implacable enemy to them. After a fierce conflict fought among the citizens of Israel, including in the media and in city squares, the decision was made: All entrances to Gush Katif were closed to civilians on Tisha B’Av, and eviction notices were distributed by IDF soldiers and police officers. The scenes that ensued were horrific. Children were pulled from their mothers’ arms and shuls were forcibly emptied. The cries and tears seemed as if they would shatter the heavens. The song “Tefillah L’ani Ki Yaatof” echoed again and again in the area. The altercations between soldiers and civilians left the public emotionally scarred and uncertain whether they should welcome the Disengagement as a potential step toward peace. The rockets that have rained down on the south since that time have removed all doubt.
I will never forget the petitions to the Supreme Court against the demolition of the shuls. The battle was led by a group of rabbonim headed by Rav Simcha Hakohein Kook, and the Supreme Court ultimately gave a recommendation to the government to refrain from demolishing the shuls in the hope that they would remain intact and would receive international protection. But everyone knows what happened next: The Palestinian rabble pounced on the shuls and jubilantly looted, vandalized, burned, and ultimately demolished them. The images of those flames consuming the shuls of Gush Katif have remained etched into our hearts. But even before that occurred, many tears were shed as niftarim were exhumed from their graves in the area and brought to Yerushalayim to be reinterred.
The State Promised to Rebuild the Shuls
The Disengagement became a reality when Netzarim, the final Jewish community in Gush Katif, was evacuated. Dan Chalutz and Moshe Karadi praised the Israeli settlers and the rabbonim of the Yesha (Yehuda, Shomron, and Gaza) communities for working to lower passions and to prevent violence in the evacuation of the settlements in the northern Shomron. But these were empty praises; the right-wing community had actually fought with all its might to prevent the evictions, albeit to no avail. The state (meaning the government, the army, and the police) fought back with tenacity and brute force. Sharon claimed that the Disengagement would be enforced “with determination and sensitivity.” The determination, at least, was present in spades. Sharon was also certain, and promised the country, that the Disengagement would lead to a peace agreement. “One thing is clear,” he proclaimed. “There will be peace in this region. The threat of rocket fire and Kassams will be removed from the communities in the south; they will no longer need to run to bomb shelters.” By now, we have seen just how unrealistic his promises turned out to be.
The Knesset protocols do not lie. The transcripts of the Knesset sessions are there, in black and white, and speak for themselves. On Tuesday, the 11th of Cheshvan 5765/2005, the amended Disengagement plan was approved in the Knesset by a vote of 67 to 45, with seven abstentions. The Likud party was split in its vote, while most of the left voted in favor of the plan and most of the Arab legislators abstained. UTJ and Shas opposed the move.
The Disengagement plan was disingenuous in many ways; the destruction of the shuls of Gush Katif was just one example. In a resolution passed on August 18, 2005, the government pledged to build new shuls to replace those that were destroyed. The government also promised to preserve everything that had been taken from the shuls of Gush Katif and to integrate the items into the newly built shuls. The text of the resolution reads, “The Ministry of Defense will prepare a professional opinion as soon as possible regarding the possibility of dismantling the shuls in the area to be evacuated in such a way that they can be reconstructed elsewhere. In any event, to any degree possible, symbolic parts of the shul buildings will be removed. These items will be stored together with the contents of the shuls, and there will be an assessment of the possibility of integrating them into the shuls that will serve the residents in their new locations.”
Nineteen years later, I cannot be sure whether I should laugh or cry while reading this. One thing is certain: Sharon’s government deceived the State of Israel. Nothing positive came of the Disengagement, and the government failed to live up to its commitments. And do we have any reason to believe that the army and the state can be trusted any more today?
There Will Not Be Tourists in Tzefas and Meron
This may be the period of bein hazemanim, but it will be like no other. In an ordinary year, tens of thousands of yeshiva bochurim, yungeleit, and families of bnei Torah visit Teveria, Tzefas, and Meron. This year, however, I am not certain that things will be the same. There is fear in the air. We all sense that an attack from Iran, Hezbollah, and possibly Hamas is in the offing. It is somewhat encouraging to hear the reports from Washington that they have managed to prevent an attack on Israel. We can only hope that these claims are true. Furthermore, the newly elected president of Iran reportedly asked the leadership of the country’s terror organization to refrain from attacking Israel; he fears that an Israeli reprisal will devastate Iran. The Yemenites are also somewhat worried about the Israeli reaction to any hostilities from their direction, and they are also dealing with lethal weather conditions that have already claimed hundreds of victims. That means, of course, that Israel is benefiting from Heavenly assistance.
The hillula of the Arizal is marked every year on the 5th of Av, which was last Friday. Every year, masses of visitors converge on the ancient cemetery where the Arizal is buried in Tzefas in honor of the occasion. This year, however, the Home Front Command, which is a division of the IDF, announced that the hillula was canceled. This was only to be expected, since many missiles have been fired in recent times at the cities of the north, including the area of Meron and Tzefas, and the Home Front Command instructed the northern residents to remain near fortified areas. Since the cemetery in Tzefas does not have a fortified area to protect visitors from missiles, it was inevitable that they would demand that the hillula be called off. The IDF spokesman announced that “in accordance with the IDF’s assessment of the situation and in coordination with the relevant bodies,” the annual hillula of the Arizal was to be canceled this year, and visitors were forbidden to enter the cemetery from August 8 through August 10, “in accordance with the authorities established in the Civil Defense Law.”
In general, the instructions of the Home Front Command are very confusing. They have separate instructions for residents of the Gaza envelope (i.e., the cities in the south), residents of the north, and the rest of the country. And it is somewhat disconcerting when an officer from the Home Front Command stands before the nation in his starched uniform, with medals on his shoulders, and urges everyone not to worry, reassuring them that everything is in order, but then asks everyone to check their bomb shelters or safe rooms and to make sure that there are no obstacles or hazards on the way from their homes to the shelters. If the Home Front Command is trying to reassure the citizens of Israel that they are safe, then I am not quite certain that they chose the right way to do it.
The Uproar Over Yair Netanyahu’s Passport
As I told you last week, Prime Minister Netanyahu had to respond during a cabinet session to the accusations that he is not interested in bringing the hostages home, or at least wants some of them to remain in captivity. To be honest, his political foes have reached an appalling nadir. How could anyone possibly accuse the prime minister of harboring such a sentiment? Is there no limit to their vicious slander? If anything, one should say that all the people who are protesting raucously for an immediate hostage deal are the ones who do not care about the hostages, since virtually everyone agrees today that the demonstrations in the streets and the violent protests are playing into Hamas’s hands. The terrorists see that Netanyahu is coming under mounting pressure, and they are taking advantage of that situation in every way they can.
The relentless defamation of the prime minister has reached the point that it should be investigated by the authorities. Netanyahu’s critics seem to have no sense of limits. Last Wednesday, police investigators raided the Foreign Ministry and confiscated large quantities of materials, including computer cores. The impetus for the raid seems fairly trivial: The media had reported that Yair Netanyahu, the prime minister’s son, had received a diplomatic passport without being entitled to it. This issue is currently occupying the attention of a number of investigators in an elite unit of the police force. To put the matter in perspective, there are 11,097 citizens of Israel who hold diplomatic passports today. The documents are issued to hundreds of diplomats, as well as to members of the Knesset, government ministers, judges, and dayanim, but it seems that some other well-connected people have managed to procure the passports as well.
What is the benefit of a diplomatic passport? Well, for one thing, the holder of such a passport feels like an important person. But beyond that, it also makes it easier to enter a foreign country. As American citizens, you might not be familiar with the pressure and tension felt by an Israeli traveler who arrives at Kennedy or Newark and begins to worry about whether the officer behind the desk will grant him entry to the country. A diplomatic passport relieves a good deal of that tension. I presume that a police officer elsewhere in the world who stops an Israeli visitor in the street and finds that he has a diplomatic passport will also be much more lenient and will refrain from ticketing him for minor infractions. In other words, it is a fairly enjoyable privilege. In fact, I personally had a diplomatic passport at one point. But our story centers on the fact that someone discovered that Yair Netanyahu, who spends most of his time in Miami, received a diplomatic passport from the Israeli government. And this triggered an investigation.
Yair tends to come under fire because he is very militant on social media. When Bibi Netanyahu returned from America, someone reported that Yair had quietly joined him on his flight back to Israel. The media reported that the younger Netanyahu did not appear publicly with his parents; he sat furtively in a corner of the plane, “like a thief in the night.” This wording was chosen to depict his presence on the flight as a negative, shameful act. The Prime Minister’s Office confirmed that Yair had been present on the plane and added that he paid for his flight. But once again, Netanyahu’s detractors have proven themselves to be petty and malicious. Even if Yair hadn’t paid for a ticket, what would have been wrong with his taking the flight? If Netanyahu was flying back to Israel in any event and there was room for another passenger, was there any reason for him not to bring his son along? This is what the Gemara describes as “zeh neheneh v’zeh lo chaseir—this one benefits and this one does not lose”—and those who oppose providing such benefits to others are tainted by the immorality of Sedom!
I would also like to make a small observation about Wing of Tzion, the prime ministerial plane that ferried Netanyahu and his entourage to the United States. Economic reporters have “explained” to the public that this flight cost the country a large sum of money. This is a reversal of their earlier position; when there was no official plane for the prime minister, they decried that fact as well. In any event, the Prime Minister’s Office responded by revealing that the entire cost of the trip was $529,000, including the cost of Netanyahu’s excursion to Florida to meet with Donald Trump. El Al, on the other hand, gave a price quote of $980,000 for the same trip, which means that the use of Wing of Tzion saved the country about half the sum that it would have spent to pay Israel’s national airline, and that the criticism of Netanyahu for using his plane is completely unfounded. But we already knew that Netanyahu’s critics will stop at nothing to tarnish his name.
The Obsessive Focus on “Chareidi Money” Continues
Sometimes, a religious person in Israel may feel as if he is not an ordinary citizen. Last week, one of the more mean-spirited newspapers carried a report about so-called “money grabs” in the Knesset Finance Committee. The writer complained that 2.7 billion shekels had been handed out to coalition partners during the committee’s last four meetings in the summer session. The highest sum was described as an allocation of one billion shekels for the national security minister, although I am certain that the money was given to him to use for the citizens of Israel, not for his personal use. The reporter continued grumbling that 205 million shekels were allocated for the Minister of the Galil and the Negev, 750 million shekels were given to the Minister of Settlement, 72 million shekels were given to “Minister of Yerushalayim Amichai Eliyahu” (a clear error that leaves an open question as to whether they were actually referring to Meir Porush and the Ministry of Yerushalayim Affairs or Amichai Eliyahu, the Minister of Heritage) and 60 million shekels were allocated for the Minister of Religious Services. The newspaper’s tone makes it sound as if religious services are provided only to chareidim. This biased, malicious skewing of reality is highly offensive.
Of course, the writer went on to complain about the funds allocated to “chareidim,” pointing to the allocations of 29 million shekels for the hillula of Rabi Shimon bar Yochai in Meron, 17 million shekels for summer camp programs, 10 million shekels for security for Jewish communities in Yerushalayim, and 58 million shekels for the chareidi schools classified as “recognized but unofficial.” But one must wonder why these allocations are any different from any other use of government funding. Is a person who wears a yarmulka not entitled to be protected by the state from Arab rioters in the Old City of Yerushalayim? Is a child who wears a yarmulka any less entitled to attend a summer camp? Is there any reason that families in Bnei Brak do not deserve cultural activities? And do the people who visit Meron on Lag Ba’omer deserve to face hazardous conditions that are potentially deadly? If these citizens truly have equal rights, then why criticize the government for funding the services that they deserve? The criticism leveled at funding for chareidim stems from a simple yet appalling viewpoint: The rest of the country views chareidim as second-class citizens, who are not as deserving as the remainder of the Israeli populace.
The article went on to attack some adjustments made in the public transportation schedule as well: “The Ministry of Transportation has once again instructed the bus companies to increase their service between chareidi communities during the period of bein hazemanim, when bnei yeshivos go out on summer vacation… The added service for the chareidi community causes a reduction in bus service on the lines serving the general populace.” The Ministry of Transportation responded that the bus service was increased due to the higher demand, which is an economically sensible decision. What, then, makes this a newsworthy story? It certainly seems like a simple function of the principle of supply and demand: If a given bus line is in higher demand, there will be increased service, and if it is in lower demand, it will be decreased. What could be wrong with that?
But the hypocrisy goes much further than that. The Transportation Ministry’s response reveals that service on the bus lines used by the secular public is likewise adjusted based on demand, which is only logical. Bus service to Eilat and Teveria, for instance, is increased during the months of July and August. Buses are also added to the night routes in major cities, and the bus lines to the beaches are also increased during these months. And when one bus route sees an increase in service, the additional buses are taken from other lines that are in lower demand and are less profitable. But does anyone complain about the chilonim receiving increased bus service? Does anyone criticize the bus companies for adding buses to the Eilat route at the expense, say, of chareidi passengers? Of course not! But why, then, is criticism leveled at them for providing for their chareidi customers? There is an unmistakable double standard at play.
Minister Mulls Hiring Private Spies
The uproar over the following story, which has an American angle, might be no more than a tempest in a teapot, but it has evoked an outpouring of anger nonetheless.
Amichai Chikli holds the position of Minister of Diaspora Affairs in the Israeli government. Chikli is a very nice person, but he does not have much experience in government. Rumor has it that he was given his ministerial post as a gift in return for his assistance in bringing down the previous government. In any event, Chikli recently made a move that earned him the ire of large swathes of the public.
The Israeli media recently reported that Chikli had met with the CEO of Black Cube, a private intelligence company, to discuss the possibility of an espionage operation targeting a student group in America that is at the forefront of the wave of anti-Israel campus protests. Chikli stressed that the project should be kept under wraps, to create the impression that Israel was not involved.
Chikli was interested in spying on Students for Justice in Palestine, which has spearheaded numerous anti-Semitic protests on college campuses in the United States, especially since the beginning of the war. SJP is active on dozens of campuses in America, Canada, and New Zealand. Of course, the report about Chikli’s initiative evoked outrage in Israel. Some critics warned that if it became known that Israel had used a private intelligence company against an organization whose center of activity is in America and whose activists are mainly American citizens, it could be viewed as an assault on American sovereignty that would infuriate the US government and might harm relations between Israel and the United States.
Chikli didn’t deny the allegations, but he presented a very different picture of the meeting. “The intelligence company approached us on their own volition, and we rejected their offer,” he claimed. Others insist that it was Black Cube that was hesitant to take on the mission, but Chikli’s ministry is sticking to its story. “Since the beginning of the war, this ministry has held meetings with dozens of organizations seeking to assist the efforts of the State of Israel in various areas,” the ministry announced in a public statement. “In response to a request we received from the company, a meeting was held with the professional division of the ministry alone. At the end of the meeting, the decision was made that we would not work together.”
The Absent Opposition
The Knesset has now begun its recess. The members of the Knesset will now be on vacation until after the coming Simchas Torah, with the exception of a handful of meetings to wrap up some loose ends. The government typically breathes a sigh of relief when the Knesset goes on its recess, since the opposition does not have an opportunity to harass the coalition when the Knesset is not in session. But in the 25th Knesset, the opposition has been so weak that it has barely been seen or heard even when the Knesset was in session. If you examine the records of the Knesset’s activities, you will see that the opposition has not accomplished anything—unless you consider it an accomplishment to scream, rant, and rave.
At this moment, the Knesset is mainly in neutral mode, so to speak. In the 25th Knesset, 4,892 new bills were placed on the Knesset table. Some of the bills are bizarre, some are actually quite reasonable, and most are copies of bills submitted in previous terms of the Knesset. The vast majority of the bills will not even be brought to a vote. One of the bills that seems to have come from a deluded mind is a proposal for legal measures to protect old trees. One has to wonder what the author of this bill was thinking. Israel is at war, soldiers are being killed, citizens are crying out for help, and all that concerns them is the welfare of ancient trees! Another bill came from Ahmed Tibi, who wants to pass a law requiring an Arab representative to be included on the Knesset Ethics Committee. This sounds like a reasonable request, but it might lead to a deluge of further demands. Someone will insist on an Ethiopian, and then they will ask for a leftist… Tatiana Mazarsky of Yesh Atid also authored a bill that would limit the validity of the instructions received from a terminal patient on the verge of death. This, too, seems like a case of warped priorities. Before accommodating the patients who wish to die, shouldn’t they be looking out for those who want to live?
Then there is a bill that I actually found laudable: a beard exemption for soldiers. This bill was signed by 13 members of the Knesset, spanning most of the coalition parties, and was originally authored by Yariv Levin and submitted during the 24th Knesset. What is unique about this bill is that it permits soldiers in the IDF to grow beards without having to prove the degree of their religiosity. But while I applaud the initiative, I am also almost certain that the bill will never actually be brought to a vote.
You may have noticed that the Knesset’s recess is very long. This has been a bone of contention for a long time, or at least an excuse for the government’s critics to denounce the Knesset. During the previous recess, Lapid and his party fiercely condemned the Knesset for taking a break, pompously proclaiming that they would be working despite the recess—that is, on Pesach. Their claims were checked out subsequently, and it was revealed that they had done nothing. In fact, Lapid set a record for his lack of attendance in the Knesset.
But despite Lapid’s failure to garner popularity with this move, there are some bored individuals who are trying to capitalize on the Knesset’s current recess to seek public relations points as well. MK Benny Gantz and his party recently submitted a new bill calling for the Knesset recess to be suspended in light of the Iron Swords war. The law would require the Knesset to remain in session except during the designated vacation days for all employees (after Tisha B’Av, when the building is locked) and on the Yom Tov of Sukkos. No one seems to be concerned about the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah… In any event, they are not fooling anyone. The members of the National Unity Party are not considered particularly diligent legislators, and the law is nothing but a sham, since a bill can be brought to a vote only after 45 days have passed since it was first submitted. And since the bill was submitted on the second day of Tammuz, the Knesset will not be permitted to vote on it until the middle of Av, but by that time, the summer recess will have begun.
