One time there was a fatal accident on Shabbos, and Maran the
Brisker Rov zt"l remarked that Shabbos was collecting
its debt. His talmidim asked: Aren't there traffic
accidents all week? To which the Rov replied: There are many
causes for traffic accidents. But when one happens on
Shabbos, there is no need to search for the cause of that
accident, for its cause is clear and evident to all.
We do not learn from this incident that everyone should or
even that anyone not on the madreigoh of the Rov can
draw a direct connection between aveirohs and their
punishments, but we do think that this and similar insights
of Chazal do allow us to draw attention to coincident
circumstances that provide food for thought.
The fall of Labor leader Binyamin Ben-Eliezer including his
ignominious defeat to become the first leader of Labor not to
serve as prime minister came hard on the heels of the
unnecessary mass chilul Shabbos he oversaw in
dismantling the illegal settlement at the Gilad Farm. The
entire operation was widely seen as motivated by a political
desire to garner support from the leftist elements of the
Labor party, and it was carried out with shomer
Shabbos soldiers who were falsely told that the Army
Rabbinate had approved the chilul Shabbos involved.
Soon afterwards, Ben-Eliezer left the government and his high
post as Defense Minister, followed closely by his defeat in
the Labor primary election.
We do not mean to assert a direct connection, because we do
not claim to know how Hashem micromanages the world. However
this is far from the first time that mass chilul
Shabbos has been negatively associated with a change of
power in Israeli politics, and whoever wants to use these
events to get chizuk should do so.
These sort of observations are in any case not directed to
Ben-Eliezer and his colleagues; they are directed to
ourselves and our colleagues.
The posuk says in Mishlei (27:22): "If you
pound a fool with a mortar together with grain in a pestle,
his foolishness will not go away from him." Maran HaRav Shach
zt"l used to say that even if there is only one grain
in the pestle, and the fool is pounded from head to toe, he
will think that really they want to smash the grain and not
him. And even if there are no grains at all, the fool may
well think nowadays that the blows are not directed at him.
Even as he suffers he does not believe that they are trying
to send him a message.
We, who know what Shabbos is and what the ways of
Hashgochoh are, have to learn the lessons of the
pounding that others suffer.
*
Similarly, we must protest the new level of chilul
Shabbos (and destruction of the so-called status
quo) involved in the opening last week of the shopping
mall in the heart of Kfar Saba with the sanction of the
municipal authorities.
Those alienated souls think that this is the proper response
to the bomb that murdered two shoppers, Hy"d, in that
mall just a few weeks ago. They think that opening the mall
on Shabbos will somehow restore the parnossoh that was
seriously harmed by the fear that grew in the wake of the
bomb.
The public chilul Shabbos in the center of a city has
the potential to cause Rachmono litzlan a serious
deterioration in public shemiras Shabbos. Most of the
commercial enterprises that operate on Shabbos so far have
been in the periphery. The center has held, so far, as the
many religious and traditional store owners have resisted
giving up their Shabbos rest.
Shabbos is our flag. We must protect and cherish it. If we
protect it, then it will protect us.
