…So G-d bless the Haredim for blowing their tops at Minister Katz, less for the actual work done on Shabbat than his turning it into a chance for a press conference and doing public relations for himself, thereby exhibiting a dullard’s ignorance of the importance of the Shabbat to the existence of the Jewish people.

And it is likely that their fury was heightened by that other initiative calling for licensed commerce in Tel-Aviv on Shabbat.

While I am not Haredi, I don’t reject army service or share their rejection of studying math and science, they serve a great purpose in their unrelenting insistence on preserving the Sabbath which is the spiritual counterpart to the material necessity of preserving the people with an army and military establishment, especially in light of the military threat to this country by the 550 million Muslims surrounding us on three sides of our tiny by comparison country. Jewish life without the Sabbath is like Israel without an army, subject to destruction…