B"H
The Haredim (Ultra - Orthodox) are in the middle of negotiations with Israel's airline ELAL. After demanding "kosher" busses from the state - owned bus company EGGED, the Haredim are now asking for kosher planes.
At least for the past two years, Jerusalem's Haredim as well as others from the nearby haredi towns of Beitar, Kiryat Sefer and partially Ramat Beit Shemesh, have been asking EGGED to provide kosher busses with separate seating for men and women.
EGGED can not afford changing all its busses into something kosher but doesn't want to loose customers. Neither from the haredi nor from the national religious or secular population. The number 402 bus from Jerusalem to Bnei Brak has a strict Mechitzah (separation) but on other busses like the one to Beitar (185 to Jerusalem) or Ramat Beit Shemesh (417 to Jerusalem), the customers themselves seem to care less about the strict modesty rules. As EGGED isn't too helpful in this matter, the Haredim found another solution. They organized a private bus company called "SUPERBUS" and there, men and women are seated separately.
Now there is a demand for kosher flights on kosher planes, and ELAL seems to be more flexible than EGGED. After all those haredi boycotts on the airline (mostly organized by Chassidut Gur because ELAL partially works on Shabbat), the airline may be fed up arguing and agreed to the haredi demand. Thus, the first kosher planes are already supposed to fly on Pessach.
Besides the separate modest seating, on those kosher planes, men will be served by males and women by males and females. Moreover, NO movies will be shown during the flight !
Where is all the modesty supposed to end ?
Did our forefather have separate seats from Sarah, Rivka (Rebecca), Rachel and Leah ? And what about our souls (Neshamot) once they go up to the upper worlds ? Is G - d standing there and taking all those modesty rules into consideration ?
Female souls to the right and male souls to the left !
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
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B"H
ReplyDelete* Egged doesn't go to Kiryat Sefer (Modi'in Illit) nor to Beitar Illit. Kiryat Sefer is served by Superbus, and Beitar Illit by the Illit company.
* Superbus isn't a chareidi company. It is a secular company that also runs almost all - secular - public transportation around Shoham, Ramle and Lod. Since the 4th of January, Superbus is also handling all lines in the Prozdor (between Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh), except for the 417 and 418 to Ramat Beit Shemesh.
* The 417 is *not* separated at all. The 418 *is* separated, but has very few passengers (mainly the Gerrer chassidim from Beit Shemesh). The hardcore chareidim use the Movilei HaVradim company, which runs buses without numbers (but approved by the Ministry of Transportation) from Meah Shearim (from Rechov Shomer Emunim) to Ramat Beit Shemesh. They stop at several places, usually not at officially signed bus stops. For example, at the city exit, they stop at the 'abandoned' bus stop between the gas stations and the entrance to Givat Shaul, instead of at the bus stop ('trempiada') directly after the junction. The Edah people use these buses so that they don't need to use Egged at all. In these buses, men enter and leave through the front door only, and women through the rear door only. There are two people inside: the driver and someone who comes to all passengers so they can pay. This 'conductor' gets on and off at the last stop inside the city.
* In the 402, men sit in front and women in the back, but there is no physical separation or so. Also, married couples can sit together in the middle. (I usually sit right behind the rear door, with my wife.) Same thing in all Egged mehadrin lines, ie, all of the lines from Har Chotzvim except 417. These include the 450 and 451 to Ashdod, 426 to Petach Tikvah, 407 to Netanya, 999 to Kiryat Atta (near Haifa), 554 (to the northern Negev), and a few more. The 982 is point of discussion quite often: some chareidim always want the women in the back, while others say it is not mehadrin, etc, I have witnessed discussions a few times. It seems to depend on pure luck whether or not it becomes a mehadrin bus.
Inside Jerusalem, these are the mehadrin lines: 3, 10, 40, 49A. In some others, it is (like in the 982) often a matter of circumstance, depending on pure luck: sometimes it just happens that the front is all full of men and the back all full of women, and sometimes it is mixed. This happens on the 2 especially. On most of the 'chareidi non-mehadrin' lines in the city, the rule is just that men and women don't sit next to each other. This is on for example the 11, 15, 16, 39A, 35 and often the 2.