Hospital Construction Stopped – Israel's Chief Rabbinate Caves In To Haredi Pressure Again

Details:

We reported just over a week ago that, after months of cowering to haredi pressure, Israel's Chief Rabbinate agreed to allow Byzantine-era bones to be moved and reinterred to facilitate construction of underground, hardened operating rooms and children's wards for Ashkelon's Barzilai Hospital.

The bones are thought to be of crusader origin. The hospital is in Hamas rocket range.

In fact, the Chief Rabbinate called the move a "no brainer," even though it had spent months refusing to allow the construction while it studied the issue. (In reality, the Rabbinate's inaction was due to haredi pressure.)

Now, less than two weeks after giving the go ahead, the Rabbinate has backed down and blocked construction again.

The Jerusalem Post reports:

Under haredi pressure, Chief Rabbinate delays Barzilai bone move
By MATTHEW WAGNER 

Under pressure from a group of prominent haredi rabbis, the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and the chief rabbis asked the Prime Minister's Office this week to postpone the disinterment of Byzantine-era bones at Ashkelon's Barzilai Medical Center.

Movement of the bones is needed for the building of an underground operation room to protect doctors, nurses and patients from Grad rockets fired at Ashkelon by Hamas terrorists in Gaza.

The Chief Rabbinate had already okayed the movement of the bones over a week ago. However, after intervention by a group of highly respected haredi rabbis - Nissim Karelitz and Shmuel Halevi Vozner of Bnei Brak and Yosef Shalom Elyashiv of Jerusalem - the Chief Rabbinate agreed to search for an alternative solution.

"If we can find a solution that is acceptable to all sides why shouldn't we?" a spokesman for Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger said on Thursday.

In a meeting on Tuesday evening with Prime Minister's Office director Ra'anan Dinor and Chief Rabbinate director-general Oded Weiner it was agreed that unearthing the bones would be delayed for two weeks to enable the Chief Rabbinate to investigate other options.

Just last week a majority of the Chief Rabbinate's Council ruled, in accordance with Metzger's halachic decision, that saving Jewish lives took precedence over protecting the sanctity of the dead.

In Metzger's 30-page decision, he argued that since there was doubt whether or not the remains were of Jewish origin, and since moving the bones was for the sake of saving Jewish lives, it was permissible.

But what was a halachic no-brainer for Metzger and a cadre of rabbis was seen as a deviation from Jewish tradition and "the uprooting of the Torah" for other rabbis.

"Since the benefit for saving lives will be realized only after a long period of time [construction of the underground operation room will take about two years]... justifying the act [of disinterring bones] is a distortion that leads to the uprooting of the Torah," Karelitz and Vozner wrote in a halachic opinion printed in the haredi daily Yated Ne'eman on Wednesday.

"According to the investigations and data presented to me, there is no room to permit the evacuation of the dead from the hospital in Ashkelon," Elyashiv wrote.

A group of haredi extremists called Atra Kadisha (holy place in Aramaic) was the driving force behind the publication of the halachic opinion in Yated Ne'eman, according to a source in the Chief Rabbinate.

"The men associated with Atra Kadisha are the most extreme zealots of the haredi community in Mea She'arim," a source in the rabbinate said.

"They can single-handedly stop the digging in Ashkelon by gathering together about 200 people and blocking the work with their bodies."

Atra Kadisha's main claim was that disinterring the bones would set a precedent in other instances where there was no real need, the source said.

Waiting for another site survey and more architectural drawings will delay construction by months, if not longer. Every day Ashkelon is without hardened operating rooms and patient wards is another day Ashekelon residents and Israeli soldiers are placed in unnecessary danger.

The idea that pekuakh nefesh (saving of life) is only in halakhic (Jewish legal) play when that life is saved immediately is, I believe, both misguided and dangerous.

If you could save a life next week by breaking Shabbat this week, should you refuse to break Shabbat?

If next week is next year, should the Sabbath be broken?

Rabbis Elyashiv, Karelitz and Wozner seem to view pekuakh nefesh narrowly. Someone's life will be saved next week? Do not break Shabbat now to save him later.

I think this is foolish.

But we aren't even dealing with violating Shabbat, which is a major sin unless it is done to save life. We're talking about reinterring bones, which is permitted for many different reasons and is, in any case, not a major sin.

But, you say, we don't know for sure these hardened rooms will save lives. Ashkelon may never again be attacked with missiles. And, even if it is, who is to say a rocket will hit the hospital or even hurt anyone if it does?

However, we have a halakhic principle: sofek d'orita l'humra, when a doubt concerning observance of a Biblical commandment exists, we rule strictly.

Pekuakh nefesh is a Biblical commandment. It also takes precedence of all other commandments, except three: forbidden sexual relationships, idol worship, and murder.

This means that, when a doubt exists, we act stringently. We do otherwise forbidden actions in order to possibly save life.

In other words, we do not need to know with any type of certainty that our action will save life. We just need to have the potential for life to be saved.

In order to rule stringently about 700 year old bones, Rabbis Elyashiv, Karelitz and Wozner need to get around pekuakh nefesh. They do this by ruling that if the life tto be saved is not there in front of you, or if the actual lifesaving saving will not take place in a very brief window of time, then the laws of pekuakh nefesh do not apply.

The problem is, the laws of pekuakh nefesh do apply.

A city rushing to complete a defensive wall before enemy troops arrive to lay siege to the city violates Shabbat to get the wall built on time, even if enemy troops are expected next year, not next week. If it might be possible to build the wall without breaking Shabbat, unless it was very certain the wall could be built in time without breaking Shabbat, Shabbat must be violated.

So we see time when it comes to pekuakh nefesh, time is situational.

In our case, we may not have the two years construction would take if it went ahead as currently planned, let alone the three years it will take if Rabbi Elyashiv and Company get their way.

And, if a new plan for construction is forced on Ashkelon, and then later more bones are found at the new construction site, construction could be delayed again. This means construction could easily take 4 or more years.

Haredim are quick to claim the blessings of their rabbis save lives and cause miracles to happen.

Let me suggest that the rest of us should insist that the flip side to that claim is true:

Every Israeli who is injured or who dies because Ashkelon does not have hardened hospital facilities –and if those injuries or deaths occur during a time that, without haredi pressure, there would been hardened facilities – should be considered to have been injured or killed by Rabbis Elyashiv, Karelitz and Woozner.

Previous Posts: 1, 2.

[Hat Tip: Ben Max.]

Comments

[itchiemayer]

This is a matter of common sense. While I am not a supporter of Rabbi Metzger in that I don't believe he is fit to be Chief Rabbi, his original ruling was correct. Didn't Rebbeim collect money on shabbos to try to get Jews out of Europe during WWII?
Doubtful that they would be saving Jews during the immediate week to follow, which would be the only allowance made by Rabbis Karelitz, Wosner, and Elyashiv.

[jewishwhistleblower]

Phil Jacobs of the Baltimore Jewish Times writes:

ttp://blogs.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/philjacobs/more_silence_from_ner_israel/

Excerpts:

More Silence From Ner Israel
Ner Israel President Sheftel Neuberger left a voice mail to our managing editor Alan Feiler telling him that he would not talk to the Jewish Times anymore since we wrote articles about the dead child molester Rabbi Ephraim Shapiro.
...
Alan Feiler was calling Neuberger to learn if the yeshiva had done any internal counseling with its student population over the apparent suicide of one of its own students.
...
So don’t comment Sheftel Neuberger. Your silence says it all.

[jewishwhistleblower]

Phil Jacobs of the Baltimore Jewish Times writes:

http://blogs.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/philjacobs/maybe_can_learn_something_here/

Excerpts:

Maybe Can Learn Something Here
On Monday morning, a Ner Israel Rabbinical College student died, according to police reports, after he jumped into the Susquehanna River from the Millard E. Tydings Memorial Bridge on Interstate 95 near Port Deposit in Harford County.
...
What was as daunting as his death were the initial reports on a small handful of Jewish blogs or websites. The incident was originally reported by these outlets as an auto accident of some sort.
Some of the comments on the blogs criticized those blogs for getting the story straight when they based their information on details provided by the authorities.
...
What concerned me the most was the initial public comment that this couldn’t possibly have been a suicide, that it was an accident.
What concerns me is this propensity to cover up.
Because what this does is it discourages others who could be suffering from chronic depression from seeking help. No, not the help that their rav can give them, but the help that a licensed clinical social worker, psychologist or psychiatrist could help them with. Or stated differently, the best help the rav could give a troubled soul is a referral to a trained professional.
...
But then there is the possibility of our old friend arrogance holding power over accountability. If this was, indeed, a suicide, I fear that it was arrogance taking a troubled soul away from us. It’s the same cover, the same hurt that keeps some of us from asking for help we desperately need for ourselves or our loved ones who have been sexually molested, verbally or physically assaulted.
Our rabbis can offer up Rashi or Rambam. But we some need are therapy and yes even medications. That’s not a weakness, that’s a strength that makes sense. If your loved one suffered from any sort of physical ailment, you would in a heartbeat take them to the doctor, have a prescription filled and nurse them back to health. My goodness, you’d take your car into the shop to get a strange noise fixed before you’d admit to a mental illness.
...

[jewishwhistleblower]

http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/news/jt/local_news/what_judaism_says_about_suicide/10138
...
Baltimore Jewish Times
Cover Story
January 23, 2009
How To Confront Suicide
Shedding light on the phenomenon of suicide
Rochelle Eisenberg
Alan H. Feiler
Staff Reporter
Managing Editor

Excerpts:
...
Early one Monday morning last month, Z, a mild-mannered Ner Israel Rabbinical College student, reportedly told his pregnant wife that he was going out, to daven at prayer services at a local shul.
...
the 24-year-old Z — who was in his first year in Ner Israel’s kollel, or post-graduate program — drove approximately 50 minutes to the Millard E. Tydings Memorial Bridge on Interstate 95, near Port Deposit in northeastern Maryland, and jumped into the Susquehanna River.
...
According to police and media reports, a Maryland state trooper was driving by and saw Z jump off the bridge. A short time later, Harford County firefighters and marine units of the state police and the Department of Natural Resources recovered the body. Z was taken to the Tydings Marina in Havre de Grace and pronounced dead there.

Understandably, Baltimore’s tight-knit Orthodox community was stunned, horrified and puzzled by Z’s apparent suicide. But soon after, in the wake of his death, several Orthodox communal Web sites reported that Z died in a vehicular accident on the bridge, an apparent falsehood that was promoted throughout the community by those close to his family.

Furthermore, several members of the community believe that Z’s funeral was relocated from Ner Israel’s Pikesville campus to Sol Levinson & Bros. funeral home once the true nature of his death became public knowledge.

(Ner Israel’s president Rabbi Sheftel Neuberger refused to discuss the Z case with the BALTIMORE JEWISH TIMES.)

“They don’t want people to know the truth,” complained one of Z’s out-of-town relatives who called the JEWISH TIMES. “They just don’t want people to know the facts. So nobody really knows what happened. It’s all covered up, and that’s wrong.”
...

[jewishwhistleblower]

Wrong link was posted above. Here is the link:

http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/news/jt/cover_story/how_to_confront_suicide/10135

[Hometown Postville]

Unfortunately, (or fortunately, however you look at it)in that area, no matter where they choose to dig, they will probably encounter ancient artifacts. What if for example, that is the spot where some revered long-lost religious icon is buried? Who wants to be responsible for manning the bulldozer that could possibly desecrate and destroy the potential archeological find of the century? This could be a long and controversial issue- not totally unexpected. The need for Plan B should have been anticipated and implemented immediately for the sake of the doctors and nurses laying their lives on the line to help others. Get your heads out of the sand and use your engineer's ingenuity to move on!

[Shmarya]

Unfortunately, (or fortunately, however you look at it)in that area, no matter where they choose to dig, they will probably encounter ancient artifacts. What if for example, that is the spot where some revered long-lost religious icon is buried? Who wants to be responsible for manning the bulldozer that could possibly desecrate and destroy the potential archeological find of the century?

Israel doesn't work that way.

Every construction site is surveyed by the Antiquities Authority. Archeologists are there before and even during excavation.

If an ancient site is discovered, construction stops and, usually, archeological excavation begins.

The issue here is moving what might be Jewish graves.

This is a religious issue, not an archeological one.

[jump the shark]

an am ha'aretz is not someone who doesn't know, but someone who doesn't know and thinks that he does. Shmarya can't be faulted for not knowing that the talmud speaks about this and the ramban and ba'al hamaor argue, b/c chabad was never that into learning. so he calls it wrong and foolish all the while not realizing that he's exposing his own ignorance...

[Shmarya]

Look, the issue is quite simple. Can an action taken now that saves a life a month from now be considered pekuakh nefesh or not?

If you say that it cannot, and therefore Shabbat cannot be broken to do that action, you are also responsible have another way to save that life.

Because, if you do not, you are not much different from a murderer.

That there are and were rabbis who value the larger issue of "protecting" Shabbat more than they value lives lost is not surprising.

That it is not surprising does not make it any less wrong.

[Shmarya Rosenberg]

Put another way, I don't care about rabbis' opinions that say the action is prohibited – I care about saving lives.

As long as this is not a situation where all poskim hold the action is forbidden, what we have is sofek, doubt.

And that means that, because pekuakh nefesh is a biblical commandment, we have to be strict.

And that means we have to try to save the lives.

So the bones must be immediately moved and reinterred, and construction must begin.

[Archie Bunker]

SHmarya is quick as usual to jump the gun to smear one of his favorite targets, Rabbi ELyashev, without considering other possibilities.

There are hardened facilities all over Israel that can be quickly converted into temporary operating rooms.

There are also ways of speeding up construction on alternate sites.

[Archie Bunker]

"As long as this is not a situation where all poskim hold the action is forbidden"

That wouldn't stop Shmarya either. He would then grunt that ALL rabbis are nuts, not just most of them.

Failed Messiah
"Deeming" that rabbis can "never" be correct since 2004

[Yochanan Lavie]

Ashkelon was a Crusader stronghold, so many of the graves one might encounter might be Christian. That's not to say Christian remains should be treated disrespectfully. But the halacha wouldn't apply. Unfortunately, I don't think the Atra consults with people who could identify such things (but I could be wrong).

[Archie Bunker]

Much of Israel has layer upon layer from different eras. I wonder what else might be there.

I can't say it's impossible for Rav Wosner to have been manipulated with false information but I have not known him to ever issue a political psak.

[Fred E.]

I thank God that the holy relics of these heroic Crusaders (whose mission to free Jeruselem from the wicked Muslims and Jews was a tremendous victory for God) will be properly reinterred by the concern of these heroic hareidi rabbis. I hope that the Eastern Orthodox Church and Roman Catholic Church will setup a shrine to the memory of these holy warriors for Christ.

[Hometown Postville]

Shmarya: Thank you for clarifying construction protocol in Israel. I learn something new every day! I hope an expedient solution can be found.

[A. Nuran]

Tell you what. If the Haredi are opposed to the hospital they don't have to go there. They can go to hospitals which are up to their requirements.

[Z]

All this just shows what unbelievable idiots religious fanatics are. Haredim=Xian fundies=Taliban. All peas out of the same sick pod.