…Chief Justice Miriam Naor, whose last name means “enlightened,” ruled that the municipality of Tel-Aviv has the right to violate that quintessential Jewish contribution to world culture, the Sabbath. According to YNET’s story, “Traditionally, on their last day justices choose to read a verdict issued on a significant appeal that reflects their judicial worldview.”

How fitting then, how exquisitely appropriate, that on her last day as chief judge in the enlightened State of Israel, she would for her swan song, the capstone of her legal career, issue her blessing of an insult to and violation of a behavior uniquely Jewish. It is the first commandment demanding action. The fourth. The Holy Sabbath.

If you recall, a couple of years ago Tel-Aviv ruled that small groceries in Tel-Aviv could be open for business on the Sabbath because as one complaint by denizens alleged, they like to stop off for a bottle of water as they walk to the beach often in their bathing suits, as naked as Caribbean cannibals. They in effect objected to the inconvenience of having to buy said bottle of water the day before. Horrors. What an infringement on their freedom in this allegedly democratic country, meaning a society not dictated to by religious people.

And her opinion, which was basically a recitation of the folk wisdom “live and let live,” Tel-Avivans have the right to ignore the quintessential hallmark of the Jewish people. “Every individual should be allowed to mold their own Shabbat according to their personal beliefs.”

This makes no sense. Shabbat is not a concept defined and molded by the individual. To think that is to reject the Jewish view that the very idea of the Sabbath came from HaShem, from G-d, not from every individual as he or she sees fit…