Why? Between the two sets of the Ten Commandments in the Bible, there is a marked difference.
In the first version (Exodus, 20) the reason is divine: "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth...and rested the seventh day."
But in the second version (Deuteronomy 5) the reason is purely social: "that thy slave ... may rest as well as thou. And remember that thou wast a slave in the land of Egypt." (the Hebrew original says "slave," the translation says "manservant.")
Most of us atheists like the Shabbat, too -- the country is quiet, most of us can rest and/or amuse ourselves. But there's the rub, as Hamlet, no Jew, would have put it. How does a poor person, who has no private car, reach the Mediterranean seashore, or go to the Sea of Galilee in the north, the Dead Sea in the east or the Red Sea in the far south?
He can't. He remains at home and curses the rabbis.
The rabbis are in the government coalition. The Right has not enough votes without them. Nor has the Left. So they have to pay them off. Ergo, no public transportation.
The deal is based on something called the Status Quo, not in Biblical Hebrew but in Latin. It means "the state which," short for "the state which existed before (the war)." In our case, the situation which is supposed to have existed before the foundation of Israel.
The law says that no labor will be done by Jews on Shabbat, but allows the Minister of Labor to exempt certain jobs if that is absolutely necessary for the running of a modern society -- water, electricity and such. The orthodox parties agree to that, for a reasonable price (money for their schools, in which nothing but holy texts are taught).
This status quo is quite fluid. Does it include repair of rails? Depends. Depends on the mood of the rabbis. And on the money that changes hands.
Suddenly attention was drawn to the fact that all the time the state railway authority has been conducting essential repairs on Shabbat. The rabbis threatened to bring the Government down. So Netanyahu surrendered on Friday, last week, 10 minutes before the Shabbat started, and ordered all railway work to be stopped at once.
That wrought havoc. Traffic was stopped on Sunday, too, so as to allow for the necessary repairs on a working day. Utter chaos.
It must be remarked that the railways do not play a major role in Israel. Public transport mainly uses buses. The first railway was built by the Turks to facilitate the Hajj to Mecca. The British added some, especially during World War II, to transport their troops to Egypt.
The line from Haifa to Damascus was a butt of many jokes. A lady called the conductor: "There is a cow following us!" to which the man calmly replied: "Don't worry. It will not overtake us!"
Now we have a new transportation minister, full of ambition, who wants to modernize the railway service. He also hints that eventually he wants to succeed Netanyahu. Netanyahu does not like people who want to succeed him -- not now, not in the distant future, not ever. So he took this opportunity to sabotage the minister.
The crisis reached the Supreme Court, who decided that the Prime Minister has no jurisdiction to close the railway down. Only the Minister of Labor has the right to issue Shabbat work permits or cancel them. So Netanyahu could take a deep breath -- it's not his responsibility anymore. Let the ministers of transportation and labor quarrel among themselves. The more the merrier.
During this week everyone followed the drama -- will the railway repairs resume on Shabbat or not? Will the poor soldiers, who are allowed to stay at home on Shabbat, be able to use the railways in order to get back to their bases on Sunday?
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