A large group of Shabbos-observant businessmen joined
recently to set up Shabbat Menuchah, an organization slated
to operate among retail outlets, business owners and food
markets to encourage shops to close on Shabbos by providing
consumers an incentive to purchase products only at
businesses that shut their doors on Shabbos.
The new organization was started at the initiative of Rav
Rafael Halperin, director of Optica Halperin, along with
several other businessmen in various fields. Numerous
businessmen took part in the organization's founding meeting
at the Sheraton City Tower Hotel, including leading figures
in the Israeli business world such as the heads of Erroca,
Fox, Tempo and Kfar Hasha'ashu'im.
The founding of the organization follows a case in which the
fashion chain Erroca was disqualified from participating in a
tender to open a pair of duty- free sunglasses stores at the
new terminal slated to open at Ben Gurion International
Airport, solely because the owners, the Wolfe brothers of
Bayit Vegan, refused to operate the stores on Shabbos. The
affair joins a long list of large shopping malls and outlet
centers that open their doors on Shabbos in blatant violation
of the law, which prohibits them from operating or employing
Jewish workers on Shabbos.
According to a presentation on the issue of Shabbos in the
State of Israel since its founding, screened at the first
meeting, the majority of Shabbos laws drafted in the state's
early years have been preserved. During the 1980s and 90s
businessmen began to breach the walls of Shabbos by opening
shopping malls seven days a week in Herzliya, Hasharon, Haifa
Bay suburbs and elsewhere.
The film also covered the problem of non-kosher food stores
and the total failure to enforce the law prohibiting the sale
of pork.
According to the presentation, the advent of large shopping
malls opened on kibbutz lands, and that operate on Shabbos,
led business owners and sales outlets to first claim they
were the victims of discrimination since these malls pay less
in local taxes. In the near future, some participants
predicted, business owners in cities will also seek to open
their businesses on Shabbos, leading to widespread Shabbos
breaches across the country.
In response to these developments, Shabbat Menuchah will
focus on promoting the closure of retail businesses on
Shabbos and the enforcement of the Work and Rest Hours Law.
Among the ideas raised was to set up a giant shopping club
that would issue discount cards for products purchased at
stores closed on Shabbos. This would encourage business
owners to refrain from opening on Shabbos while encouraging
shoppers to make purchases during the week. Since a majority
of the population in the State of Israel keeps Shabbos or at
least respects it, said conference participants, the club may
be able to draw enough members to cause a financial impact on
businesses open on Shabbos.
The founders of Shabbat Menuchah are trying to send a uniform
message to consumers and business owners that keeping Shabbos
will generate both spiritual and financial earnings for
buyers and sellers alike.
"We received the Torah thousands of years ago," said Rav
Halperin. "Our forefathers were martyred because they did not
want to abandon their religion, and we remained Jews for all
time. Jews can be killed, but the Jewish people cannot be
destroyed.
"We have not met here to do battle, but to uproot the desire
for the Golden Calf. People in the State of Israel work for
the love of money, without values, without doing the minimum
to keep at least one day of rest every week. Through a large
shoppers' club of Shabbat observers in the country we will
have a positive impact on [maintaining] the importance of
Shabbat observance."
Rav Halperin also announced that he intends to invest $2-3
million in the project.
