Monday, December 04, 2006

El-Al

According to Yehiva World, the Gedolim don't want you to fly El-Al. In fact, one godol, R' Chaim Kanievsky, says it’s “Pikuach Nefashos [life-endangering] to fly with El Al." The reason: Last Shabbos, El-Al allowed a flight to land in Tel Aviv.

Lucky for the Gedolim, not two days after these events, an El-Al plane had an in flight incident (this morning!) and was forced to return to the airport. Yeshiva World reports:
This morning an El Al flight to NYC -which had quite a few Rabbonim, Roshei Yeshivos and Askonim on board - made an emergency landing in Tel Aviv 45 minutes after take off. Many frantic people began calling R’ Chaim to find out what they should do. They were told to “get off the plane”!! They tried to explain to R’ Chaim that they must get back to NYC today, so he advised them to call R’ AL Shteinman who said “since you are Shliuchei Mitzvah - you can fly, but MUST take care of your Shlichus as soon as you land in NYC!)
First question: What were all those machers doing on the plane in the first place, if they think "flying on shabbos one time" = "fiery crash" + "hundreds of dead innocents?"

Second question: How'd that conversation go? Can you imagine it? Talk about Awkward: "Umm, R' Shteinman? Yeh, it's me. Yossi. Anyway, you know how you said no one should fly El-Al? Well, funny story, but I'm on an El-Al plane right now, and there's been some engine trouble, and, well, you know how you cured Bubbi Sarah's cancer? I'm sort of hoping you can do the same type of thing and take the whammy off El-Al --at least until I get to NY. Let the next bunch of travellers suffer, ok?"

Third Question: How much schar did R' Shteinman get for not screaming "TOLD YOU SO!" at the top of his lungs? The temptation to gloat had to have been pretty high.

Fourth Question: If El-Al makes it through the next several weeks without having a crash, do we say (a) the Gedolim were wrong? or (b) the Gedolim were right but El Al did teshuva?

Fifth Question: If El-Al has a crash, and hundreds are killed do we say (a) God changed his mind about not punishing the innocent with the guilty; or (b) Everyone's guilty of something.

Sixth Question: Will I go to hell if I write on my blog that it was terribly irresponsible for the Gedolim to suggest that El-Al planes are unsafe, and all of their passangers are (until further notice) in danger, just because some tinok shenishba company executive permitted a plane to land on shabbos?

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