Honors for EL AL

It is not the purpose of this posting to delve too deeply into the entire history of EL AL Airlines. EL AL began as Israel's national airline in 1948, and at the time of its establishment, David Ben Gurion, Israel's first Prime Minister, made what purportedly was an ironclad promise that EL AL would serve kosher meals on its flights, and not operate flights on the Sabbath.

There have been a number of incidents over the years of departures from that ideal, especially following EL AL's privatization, a process that occurred between 2003 and 2005.

The latest major spat occurred in December 2006, when, following a short strike at Lod Airport (I do not care to glorify Ben Gurion by attaching his name to Israel's national airport at Lod, near Tel Aviv), EL AL played catch-up by operating a flight on Shabbat.

I am a Sabbath observer. But I understand that:

(A) Not every Jew is; and

(B) As a practical matter, EL AL cannot totally completely cease all activities on Shabbat (guarding its aircraft, for instance).


It is my stance that even though EL AL is privatized, EL AL is what it is today on account of its background. The name and trademark of EL AL stands for the Jewish people, and therefore, it should serve kosher meals in flight, and should not operate flights that require passengers to fly, or go to or from the airport, on Shabbat.


In December 2006, Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz, the Editor of Yated Ne'eman, wrote an editorial for Yated which was carried on The Yeshiva World website (Yated does not -- yet -- have an Internet presence, what with all of the opposition to the Internet amongst its constituency) in support of the boycott announced by several rabbis in America and in Israel.

Now, on page 125 of the 11 December 2009 edition of Yated Ne'eman, there is a photo with a caption beginning: "EL AL was honored at the Belzer dinner with an award for outstanding devotion and dedication …" And so, in just 3 short years, EL AL has been rehabilitated from pariah to sterling, and is no longer (for now) shitlisted by the rabbis.


I am most uncomfortable in placing labels on my fellow Jews. But there are some insular groups of Jews who label themselves as "Charedi." The word means that they tremble in fear of G-d (except, for a few of them who have besmirched the others, when they are committing financial fraud and tax evasion). I have some relatives and friends who would be labeled as Charedi, but who, like most Charedi Jews, embody honesty, strong character, and class. In any event, the same Charedi Jews who run rampant in the aisles and knock into other passengers on EL AL flights when they assemble to pray (in light of safety concerns, one is permitted to pray from one's seat in an airline situation. The pilot, some of my pilot friends have informed me, can feel the weight shift when 10+ men all get together in the tail to daven.) all seem to behave themselves quite well on the transatlantic flights of other airlines. And, as I have seen, they exhibit greater courtesy to the flight attendants of other airlines than they do towards the EL AL stewardesses.

I take these rabbinical boycotts with more than a few grains of salt. By issuing various proclamations, the rabbis can periodically squeeze concessions out of EL AL that cannot be exacted from other airlines. If the rabbis ever are successful in shutting down EL AL, then they would have absolutely no power over any other airline.

The Belzer Chassidim have now declared that EL AL is kosher … at least until the next rabbinical boycott.

Earth Hour on My Own Time

It is now Earth Hour 2009, and we have just turned on the lights in our house. Most of the lights in our house HAVE, in fact, been shut off for the past 25 hours on account of our religious Sabbath. No dishwashers have been running, nor the washing machine nor the dryer. But with the conclusion of Shabbat, I recited Havdalah and we are now back to the regular days of the week. I have just turned on several lights in the house, and have switched on my computer, and am now composing this posting.

Understand that I was environmentally concerned long before many of the environitwits who are now pushing Earth Hour. Our family was one of the first to get on with the recycling of paper, glass and metal (and indeed, long before the familiar curbside recycling, my grandfather was a scrap metal dealer, that class of people who were the original metal recyclers).

I was composting the vegetable wastes from my kitchen long before many of the environitwits were even born. Where I live, there is an ordinance that prohibits the storage of waste on one's property. A number of years ago, one of my neighbors, Frau Himmler, reported me for having the compost pile, and I received a citation under that code provision (I don't know what she was complaining about; every year she has her landscapers literally spread bovine feces all over her lawn). I moved the compost pile to another corner of my yard and haven't heard anything further.

And, significantly, our household electricity usage is below the neighborhood average.

But amongst the environitwits who are aboard the Earth Hour bandwagon are some hard core enviroterrorists.

A few queries regarding the EarthHourlings:

* How much energy was expended in publicizing and promoting Earth Hour? How many of them jetted around the nation or the world in the promotional activity?

* How many of them recycle their cans, bottles and papers?

* How many of them require supercool air conditioning in the summer?

* In short, how many of them who are talking the talk are walking the walk?


Yes, we do need to cut down our national energy usage. But having someone who has no idea of my household energy needs dictate to me what I must do with my household energy usage is a far, far scarier notion than dependency on foreign energy resources. Because ours is not a welfare recipient household, the family budget seems to be the best determinant of our energy usage.

Burnout

I'm all burnt out, after a busy week. In no particular order:

My Final Exams are finished -- sort of. There are still 4 students who need to take their Final Exams, what with conflicts and medical issues and the like. I'm not much on making the special arrangements, but these four all had legitimate situations.

Actually, the exams were originally scheduled for first thing this coming Monday morning, but none of the students were too keen on the idea, and I was even less keen on the idea (and I had a conflict, to boot). So I was able to get a room (ironically, the same room in which the class had normally convened during the semester) in the late afternoon to the evening, so I held two exam sessions, and covered all but 4 students. That's not bad. And, what with the snowstorm(s), I guess that the students and their instructor really lucked out.

But now, I need to grade the Exams. That's my project this coming week -- along with grading the Term Papers.


2. Our fatso friend, referred to as "He" in prior postings here and here and here, was our houseguest this Shabbat. He initially had set out to go to the city to visit his son and daughter-in-law, but the snow was coming down and he saw the aftermath of a collision, so he called our rabbi, with whom he also has an open invitation. The rabbi's daughter had 3 friends staying over, and one of the rebbitzin's friends was also there, so the rabbi called me to ask us to put He up for Shabbat. It was no problem, especially because our son was still away at school (his last final exam is this coming Tuesday).

The best thing is that He didn't have a chance to stop at the bakery for his usual fattening cakes and pies, so my wife wasn't tempted to eat those things (believe me, she ate enough as it was, especially for Shabbat lunch, when the Ivy League lawyer mentioned here also joined us, thus replicating the same situation -- and results -- as the Shabbat on Sukkot when I was the only nonfatso at the lunch table. But we all had a good time, as usual.

3. A law review article of mine, written and published a couple of years ago, came to the attention of a lawyer with whom I am acquainted. Turns out that it is relevant to a case he has. The upshot is that I got paid to do an hour's research regarding related issues in his case. If he plays his cards correctly, his client stands to gain a nice piece of change from some of his former business associates.

4. Tonight is the first night of Chanukah. It was just me and my wife, being that our son is still away at school. But that's not so bad either!

Happy Chanukah (to all those who celebrate it)!