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| Re: PHOTOS & REPORT: Jerusalem Light Rail Opening Day (Part 3) (1096894) | |||
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Re: PHOTOS & REPORT: Jerusalem Light Rail Opening Day (Part 3) |
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Posted by WMATAGMOAGH on Tue Aug 23 17:37:29 2011, in response to Re: PHOTOS & REPORT: Jerusalem Light Rail Opening Day (Part 3), posted by CentrolinerDD on Tue Aug 23 02:45:16 2011. I hope you find this among the earthquake posts.Thanks for the kind words about the photos and report. I'll do my best for the next few months, I haven't committed myself to years in Jerusalem (yet, we'll see if I ever do). An explanation of how different sects of Judaism interpret Shabbat restrictions would be far too complex to post here. One of the major issues is that Jews can't do work for the benefit of other Jews on Shabbat, so unless they were to somehow ensure that only Arabs worked on the trains on that day, there would be issues. And even if that is done, it still isn't permissible for a host of other reasons. One must also realize that what they know about Jewish life in America often doesn't apply to life in Israel. Most Israelis do something to commemorate Shabbat, they might have a family dinner before the teenagers go out clubbing in Tel Aviv if they don't keep Shabbat strictly, as an example. However, by law, all stores and restaurants are supposed to be closed on Shabbat. In Jerusalem, this is followed nearly universally. I rarely spend Shabbat outside of Jerusalem so I can't speak for places such as Tel Aviv, Haifa, or Eilat. On the occasions that I am out of Jerusalem for Shabbat I am usually on retreats with people who do keep Shabbat in isolated guest houses. Under Israeli law, public transit doesn't operate during Shabbat and Jewish holidays (Arab bus lines operate as usual however). There are some exceptions to this, some lines start late in the afternoon on Saturdays in Tel Aviv. Some routes in Haifa operate all day long once or twice an hour. A few long distance buses from the south (i.e. Beer Sheva, Eilat) begin their trips to places such as Jerusalem and Tel Aviv before Shabbat ends but arrive at their destinations after Shabbat is over. Even the secular Jerusalemites are more religious than their secular counterparts in the rest of the country from what I can tell, the demand here for transit services (or stores open) on Shabbat is limited to non-existent. Whether that is a good thing or not is another matter, but there isn't exactly high demand for existing transit services on Friday afternoons as it is here. During the summer when the buses run might still be finishing their last runs as late as 5 PM on a Friday, the shops have all shut by 3. Things are a bit different in the winter when Shabbat starts as early as 4 PM, service doesn't get to be so infrequent before it just stops altogether. In short, Jerusalem city buses stop running about 2 hours before Shabbat and holidays, and resume about an hour after they end. The light rail will be on a similar schedule. Service ends a bit earlier on the eve of Yom Kippur and takes a bit longer to start up afterwards. Schedules are similar throughout the country, even the areas that have Saturday daytime service don't have Friday night service from what I understand. Intercity buses usually have the last trip scheduled to arrive at the destination just before Shabbat at the absolute latest, so the last bus from say, Jerusalem to Haifa, might be at 2 PM even if Shabbat doesn't start until 6 or 7. Hope this helps, feel free to ask any other questions if you have them. |
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