By Rabbi Dow Marmur
JERUSALEM–Haredim are putting my liberalism to the test – and I’m not doing well. Of late I’ve been watching a young ultra-Orthodox man coming out of one of the wings of our building; he seems to live there. I’m getting into a panic: if he brings his friends and relatives to make sure that they always have a minyan, we’ll find it difficult to stay.
A neighbor on the other side of the building has applied to extend his apartment. Though, as far as I know, he himself isn’t haredi, he may want to sell the enlarged apartment to a haredi family. If there’re two ultra-Orthodox apartments in the building, I fear that the other 40 will soon go the same way, for that’s the pattern, I’m told.
My fears aren’t about the noise and the commotion but that a different mix of owners may decide, for example, to lock up the underground parking garage over Shabbat to make it impossible to get in and out. Also, some haredim don’t believe in Shabbat elevators. That would mean that we’d have to walk up the stairs to our apartments, irrespective of our physical condition.
I’m a bit embarrassed to air my fears in this way because I like to be liberal and pluralistic, but they do reflect a grim reality in this and other cities. Thus I read in my paper today that haredim are building and/or taking over neighborhoods in cities in the North. Tiberias is said to be the latest to follow Safed,Upper Nazareth and others.
The reason for the need to expand is, of course, the size of the haredi family. The areas in Jerusalem where they used to live and where I take visitors to show what it was like in an old Polish shtetl have become insufficient for the residents. Their children and grandchildren have moved elsewhere, a bit like the Chinese in Toronto. The downtown area is still there, but more for tourists than for locals who now mostly live elsewhere.
I’m not sure that I’d want to write about all that had not Israel started summer time this morning – several weeks later than elsewhere. It’ll finish much sooner than in all other countries. The delay costs Israel billions of shekels in extra energy. If it had more daylight during this season, its residents would have less need to use energy for lighting and heating/air conditioning. And energy is expensive, especially as you have to import every kilowatt of it.
The reason for Israel’s shorter summer-time season is because the haredim say that otherwise they won’t be able to say their morning prayers at the time that they understand Jewish law bids them to do. Whereas in the rest of the world the timing for the change of clock is for reasons of ecology, in Israel, it’s for theology.
No, the majority of Israelis aren’t haredi but because of the way people get elected to the Knesset, minorities have come to rule the country. The fact that, for example, the majority of Israelis would like to have the normal period of summer time as in most other countries, the ultra-Orthodox minority has its own agenda and the rest must live by it, otherwise the government will fall.
The above reflections on Israeli summer time are inspired by a column in Friday’s Ha’aretz by Nehemiah Stressler, the paper’s economics editor. It’s his words that reminded me of my fear about our building that I’ve hitherto tried to suppress.
My reasoning is that if they can do it to the whole country, they undoubtedly can do it to an apartment block in Jerusalem.
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Rabbi Marmur is spiritual leader emeritus of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto. Now dividing is time between Canada and Israel, he may be contacted at dow.marmur@sdjewishworld.com