B"H

(From the "Salant Foundation")

Recently, El Al Airlines flew on Shabbos and served food that was not under Rabbinical supervision. The circumstance that led to this event was a local airport workers' strike that caused a delay of many flights. In order to rectify the many delays, the airline decided to fly on Shabbos.

The Rabbinical leaders in Israel strongly protested El Al's violation of Shabbos and Kashrus. El Al has a standing agreement to be Shabbos and Kosher observant. A great percentage of El Al passengers are observant and choose to fly with El Al because the airline complies with Torah Law.

Although, no Rabbinical authority has ruled that it is forbidden to fly El Al, they all have strongly condemned El Al's deliberate violation of Shabbos. The Rabbis have recommended that passengers should not fly with El Al, and have suggested that El Al's violation of Shabbos might cause the airline to lose their Divine protection, as per the dictum, "The person who keeps Shabbos, will be protected by the merit of observing Shabbos."

One of the questions surrounding this issue concerns someone who previously purchased a ticket on an El Al flight. Should he forfeit his ticket and purchase one on an alternative airline? In other words, would he be expected to absorb the cost of his El Al ticket and buy a new one?

What is your opinion of this issue? What is the proper response to El Al's violation of Shabbos? Should the observant passengers boycott El Al and arrange to fly with another Israeli airline which will commit itself to observe Shabbos? Is there an alternative solution to the problem?

On a personal level, what message do we learn from this incident? How does this incident affect the morale and spirituality of the People of Israel?

quote:

Originally posted by David Ben-Abraham:
One of the questions surrounding this issue concerns someone who previously purchased a ticket on an El Al flight. Should he forfeit his ticket and purchase one on an alternative airline? In other words, would he be expected to absorb the cost of his El Al ticket and buy a new one?

I read that R' Aaron Leib Steinman Shlita was quoted as saying that for a Chillul HaShem such as this there is no exception for Hefsed Merubeh [great loss]. Many people have voluntarily lost hundreds of Dollars over this issue.

Perhaps since in the airline industry an air carrier's ticket is considered like money useful to purchase a comparable trip on another carrier's plane, that perhaps another carrier would step in and agree to honor El Al tickets on their own -- and presumably have a way to charge it back to El Al.

Also if a Frum airline were to be opened, perhaps it might have a feature to charter a plane for attending a wedding when the couple come from different cities and a significant portion of the attendees will be travelling from one particular city.

If a man from New York is marrying a woman from Chicago, regardless of which city is closer to where the wedding will be held, there is likely going to be a sizable contingent of people inconvenienced by travel, and a single charter for such a simcha would help bring relief. And I suspect a frum airline would be particularly sympathetic.

Yisroel,

But the ticket became assur b'dieved. When it was purchased it was mutar. Should the unsuspecting Jew be punished for the shortcomings of the airline?

Even if all that has been said is correct, for how long will El El be assur? How can EL AL make tshuva? After all it is now serving kosher food and not flying on Shabbat. Is there a statute of limitations on Chilul HaShem? One of the ways of expressing remorse is giving tzedaka. Could EL AL achieve this by giving back the ticket holders a refund?

quote:

How can EL AL make tshuva?

What is your basis for assuming that a publicly held corporation can do teshuva?

Surely we know that all Jews have an opportunity for teshuva, except perhaps for those aveiros for which the only atonement is death.

And we know that the Nachash had no opportunity for teshuva (he wasn't even asked what happened or why it happened!).

Even a Jewish-owned corporation, how do we know that it has a right of teshuva?

Does the French railway recently in the news, or Swiss banks, or the ancient Egyptian goernment have an automatic right to teshuva?

Rob,
I guess we are both asking the same question. Can El Al make things right? And how can it be achieved? After all EL AL is "our" airline. We (Clal Yisrael) can't allow it to be sold off to the Arabs or to the Americans....can we?

Would it be acceptable to R' Aaron Leib Steinman Shlita for El Al to go bankrupt and have some oil and shipping tycoon from Bahrain buy the controlling stake to save the airline?

Any updates on the situation?

This is what I received from a E-mail from Yeshivaworld.com


"At this time a letter was faxed to the Gedolei E?Y for their approval of the agreement between the Chaireidi Olam and El Al Airlines. It seems that El Al has agreed to the demands of the Gedolim not to fly on Shabbos. As soon as this agreement is signed it will be posted on Yeshivaworld."

So far , nothing more had been posted.

This from Dei'ah veDibur at http://chareidi.shemayisrael.com/VYG67aelal.htm

NEWS
Vaadas HaRabbonim Continues Negotiations With El-Al

By Betzalel Kahn

Vaadas HaRabbonim Lema'an Kedushas HaShabbos is continuing its efforts to persuade El-Al executives to accept the demands issued by gedolei Yisroel shlita in order to prevent incidents of chilul Shabbos in the future.

On Monday Atty. R' Yaakov Weinroth, who represents Vaadas HaRabbonim in negotiations with the company, visited the home of Maran HaRav Eliashiv shlita to receive clear directives.

Meanwhile more rabbonim have signed the notice being prepared in the event El-Al refuses to comply with the demands of gedolei Yisroel. On Monday the notice was signed by HaRav Shmuel Halevi Wosner, HaRav Nissim Karelitz, HaRav Gershon Edelstein, HaRav Shimon Ba'adani, the Admor of Naral, the Admor of Sadigora, the Admor of Seret-Vizhnitz and the Admor of Lelov.

Perhaps the boycott is now over?

The full text of the article is not clear to me whether anything has changed within El Al or whether any agreement has actually been reached.

But I'll leave this following title and openning as it was published from JPost

at this link

Haredi leaders end 'boycott' of El Al

Haredi leaders have come to an agreement with El Al that would end a month-old unofficial boycott of the Israeli airline over a flight that took off from Miami on the sabbath.

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