Religion Magazine

Interesting Psak: Light Rail in Tel Aviv

By Gldmeier @gldmeier
The light rail train in Tel Aviv is set to open on Friday. In advance of the rail line opening, some people asked Rav Amram Fried, a rav and posek in Bnei Braq, if it is allowed to travel via the light rail lines. The question exists because chilul shabbos was involved in the construction of the light rail so possibly traveling via the light rail would constitute benefiting from chilul shabbos. Even if non-Jews were used for the construction and digging, the Shulchan Aruch says that in Israel that would still not be allowed due to "maris ayin".
According to Kikar and Behadrei, Rav Fried paskened that traveling via the light rail is allowed, and one does not even need to wait any specific amount of time after Shabbos (ie bkdei sheyaasu), but the light rail should not be used immediately as a form of protest over the chilul shabbos.
While Kikar has more details with a variety of reasons why the rabbi allows it, Behadrei just brings briefly the main reason being that people cannot cause a prohibition on something that is not theirs, and because the workers do not own it or the public lands they worked on, they cannot cause it to be prohibited. Additionally, most of the work was done by non-Jews and did the work for a salary...
Regarding how much time to wait, Rav Fried quoted from Rav Sternbuch that people should wait a year before using it (I think Rav Sternbuch said this regarding the Jerusalem light rail when it opened), but in this case the opening was already delayed a year as it waited for the permits and approvals, so there is no need to wait any longer, but there should be some form of protest against the chilul shabbos, so it shouldnt be used immediately.

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