Jerusalem – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday tasked the Head of the National Economic Council, Professor Eugene Kandel, with examining the possibility of making Sunday an additional day of rest instead of a regular work day.
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According to the proposal, Saturday and Sunday will be official days of rest while Friday will become a half day work-wise
Meanwhile, Shas Chairman and Interior Minister Eli Yishai said Sunday that his party was against the move, by orders of it spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.
According to Yishai, the move’s disadvantages outweigh its advantages.
Shas sources said the despite the party’s position on the matter, should the prime minister’s committee’s recommendations support such a move, the matter would be brought before Rabbi Yosef once more.
The nation’s economy cannot afford another paid holiday each week. They should simply make all day Friday a paid holiday like the weekend and continue with Sunday as a regular work day. As the Israeli economy becomes more integrated with the surrounding Arab and Palestinian economies, it makes more sense to coordinate their days off too since much of the labor in EY is from these countries.
Why would the government care what the rabbonim think since this matter doesn’t affect the observance of shabbos. They are proposing to add an additional unpaid workday to help the economy. It will not result in great chillul shabbos and might actually lessen chillul shabbos since Israelis will now have a real “day of rest” to do all the stuff most now are forced to do on Saturday. These are commercial decisions and should be decided by those who understand the commercial needs of the country.
Easy for the folks in Shas to oppose this… most of their constituency doesn’t work any of the other days, either.
i actually know a israel (non frum )who said she would love to start keeping shabbos but one thing thats keeping her back is that she needs a day just to rest and chill (shop etc.) and if sun is a day at rest and chill then it would be easier to keep shabbos.
I vote YES, Sunday will be a day for learning Torah and Shiurim, people who work all week can now 1 day off
#2 ,
An additional UNPAID workday to ‘help’ the economy??
You are assuming – and we all know what happens when one assumes – people’s salary will be cut by 1/6 if they get another day off per week. If you really think that will happen, you must be on something illegal.
I don’t see how this “helps” the economy at all. This is like saying that Sunday Blue Laws in the USA (such as in Bergen County, NJ) ‘help’ their economy when the truth is, it doesn’t.
I feel that it is important to have a Sunday in Israel for the following reasons:
As stated before, having a Sunday would help Shmiras Shabbos in Israel tremendously. Many people (especially traditional Sephardim) would keep Shabbos is they had a Sunday to go to a ball game, have a bar-be-que, visit family and go shopping. Friday does not do this. Erev Shabbos is a tense day for most of us when we are all busy preparing for Shabbos. It is not a day for travelling, going to a ball game or general shopping. Also I as a mother would not want my little children home all Friday while I am busy preparing for Shabbos. Frum people would also benefit from a Sunday. If Jerusalemites visit family in Haifa for Shabbos, they would not have to rush back home on Motzei Shabbos. They would also have a more leisurely day to do shopping etc.
Also people would know that we have a 4 1/2 day workweek and shops, banks and post offices would not close Tuesday afternoons etc.
I work in a Shomer Shabbos office in New York. We work 4 1/2 days and are quite productive. This could happen in Israel as well.
The question at hand is whether Israel wishes to retain an identify of a Jewish country. Shabbat is Shabbat, the 7th day, not the first. Stick to the path…. Sunday is not the day of rest.
Its weird to hear this from rav ovadia,because I know a story about a man who asked the rav sheli’ta if he should make an aliya to EY from the states and rav ovadia told him to stay here because he doesn’t have to work on sundays and can learn torah instead but if he would come to israel he would have to work! That contradicts the above statement. But I’m sure he has a reason for his decision.
why should they make such a drastic move, from seven days of rest to only two? how would israelies get used to this?
they first need to work 1 day per week, then 2 and so forth