Monday, March 17, 2008

Where Pesky offers an opinion

There have been a couple of this which have been setting folks a'talkin' and like any person (especially a female, Jewish, mother formerly from NY), I've got my opinions about the buzz.

The first item is that whole top Haredi Rabbi banning Arab labor thing.

While I think it's a good thing, I also think it's about damn time. And it's a terrible insult to all the families of victims of previous terrorist attacks especially when the murderer(s) turns out to be a current or former employee of his victims.

But wait, there's more.

With all due respect to Rabbi Kanievsky, he further loses points because of this: Rabbi Kanievsky went even further, saying that Jews should refrain from employing any non-Jews, not just Muslim Arabs, and instead grant livelihood to Jews, unless there exists a huge disparity between the labor costs.

For those not familiar with how things usually work here in Israel, Arab labor is ALWAYS cheaper than Jewish labor, sometimes significantly so.

And finally, I see it didn't prompt him (or anyone else) to say that buying produce that is Heter Mechirah, rather than BaDa'atz (which comes from Arab farms - often in Gaza) should now be enforced.

The second tidbit that's got some folks waggin' their tongues is the fact that an Israeli court handed off a case to the "Sanhedrin".

Is it me, or does no one else see the potential for a lot of problems?

Yes, I realize that by passing off judgment to this "Sanhedrin", the Israeli government can then save a huge amount of face by saying that they gave the girl a chance at a fair hearing and that they are only following the judgment passed.

The thing is, they're giving authenticity to something that is not recognized by much of the Orthodox world. Every year, they're the group that tries to bring a Korban Pesach on the Temple Mount and every year they've been turned away. Wonder what will happen next month when they try again....

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