Shas Rabbis Condemn Communications Bill Over Sabbath Concerns

Leaked recordings aired Sunday on N12 show senior Shas rabbis fiercely opposing Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi’s bill to weaken the media, mainly over fears it will increase Sabbath desecration through a free app. The fight could affect the bill’s majority in the Knesset, even though the committee continued a marathon of debates on Sunday in an effort to pass it before the parliament is dissolved.

Rabbi Reuven Elbaz, a member of Shas’s Council of Sages and usually seen as moderate, delivered especially harsh remarks about Karhi. He said that opening an app so people can watch films and sports on Shabbat was “an absolute and complete prohibition,” calling Karhi “an empty nobody” and warning he feared Karhi “will not be held accountable” for it. Elbaz also said that if a person opens such a door, “there is no Shabbat and nothing,” and told Karhi, “It does not matter to me whether he wears a kippah or a sack.”

Rabbi Shlomo Mahfud also strongly rejected the plan, saying, “Heaven forbid, heaven forbid. Anything like this, there is no Sabbath desecration like it. There is here a desecration of the Sabbath.” A Sabbath activist who spoke with two senior rabbis said parents were worried their children would end up watching content on phones after synagogue if the app became available on Shabbat.

Despite the religious leadership’s clear opposition, Shas’s political leadership is leaning toward supporting the bill. The party already backed a Knesset vote to split the legislation in order to speed it up. Meanwhile, United Torah Judaism chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf demanded that the government app not operate on Shabbat or Jewish holidays, and called for an explicit legal ban on obscene, missionary, and violent content.