Report: Ivanka Trump gets pass to travel on Shabbat for inauguration parties
Ivanka Trump and husband Jared Kushner celebrate Hanukka with their three children.
Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner have received
rabbinic permission to travel by car on Friday evening following the
inauguration of her father, Donald Trump, as the next president of the
United States, according to a Kol Barama radio interview with Mark Zell,
the chair of the Republican party in Israel.
Traditionally, traveling in a car on Friday evening or Saturday is a violation of the Jewish Sabbath. Jared Kushner is Jewish, and Ivanka converted to Judaism. In a November Jerusalem Post piece, Shira Schmid noted that Ivanka "took on observance of Shabbat, holidays and kashrut, and adopted the Hebrew name Yael."
"We observe the Sabbath. From Friday to Saturday we don’t do anything but hang out with one another. We don’t make phone calls," Ivanka told Vogue in March 2015.
Ivanka praised the way that Shabbat provides a "blueprint for family connectivity," in that it protects time for her to spend with her family, including her eldest child, Arabella. “It’s an amazing thing when you’re so connected, to really sign off," said Ivanka. "And for Arabella to know that she has me, undivided, one day a week? We don’t do anything except play with each other, hang out with one another, go on walks together. Pure family!”
Traditionally, traveling in a car on Friday evening or Saturday is a violation of the Jewish Sabbath. Jared Kushner is Jewish, and Ivanka converted to Judaism. In a November Jerusalem Post piece, Shira Schmid noted that Ivanka "took on observance of Shabbat, holidays and kashrut, and adopted the Hebrew name Yael."
"We observe the Sabbath. From Friday to Saturday we don’t do anything but hang out with one another. We don’t make phone calls," Ivanka told Vogue in March 2015.
Ivanka praised the way that Shabbat provides a "blueprint for family connectivity," in that it protects time for her to spend with her family, including her eldest child, Arabella. “It’s an amazing thing when you’re so connected, to really sign off," said Ivanka. "And for Arabella to know that she has me, undivided, one day a week? We don’t do anything except play with each other, hang out with one another, go on walks together. Pure family!”
PATHETIC!
http://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Report-Ivanka-Trump-gets-pass-to-travel-on-Shabbat-for-inauguration-478905
Well if I can't go to the local hockey semi-final this Saturday, which is not in walking distance, OMG! I'll just die! So since it's pikuach nefesh can I also get a heter?
ReplyDeleteOr should I do what a regular observant Jews does and shrug my shoulders because... Shabbos!
and whom is the one who granted this special heter?
ReplyDeleteAccording to photo (featuring her clothing), Ivanka took her five year old daughter to church (the prayer service) on Shabbat morning.....
ReplyDeleteThe Tendler Trinity of Human Garbage should perhaps be expanded into a Quartet.
ReplyDeleteMordechai Tendler's son in law Elchanan Shoff claims there is a "clear heter" from R' Shlomo Zalman Auerbach ztl that Kushner is allowed to put himself lechatchila into a matzav where he must be driven on Shabbos.
http://www.onlysimchas.com/news/46371/ivanka-trump-and-jared-kushner-get-rabbinic-heter-to-ride-in-car-on-inauguration-shabbos
Alan E Silver
This is such nonesense.....and issur. She should not put hewrself into a pikuach nefesh situation in the first place. Attending the inauguration is also not piukuach nefesh....That Rav needs to learn his Halachos again or money has bought him.
Jan 19, 2017 10:27am
Rabbi Elchanan Shoff
You are totally wrong. It's not assur to put themselves in that situation. R shlomo Zalman makes this clear. Plus driving is dioraysa but riding is not. This is a major distinction. Riding in the car in a situation like this is not beyond receiving a heter. Best to really know the sugya before besmirching like this.
Jan 19, 2017 1:19pm
What a farce! The "heter" for riding in a limo has now been expanded to taking photographs which some poskim hold is even assur d'Orasyah on Chol Hamoed!
ReplyDeleteWas Haskell the Rascal Lookstein there to Say Cheese?
http://nypost.com/2017/01/21/trump-assures-cia-officials-i-am-so-behind-you/
The president’s family joined him at the White House for his first weekend in office. His daughter Ivanka and her husband, senior White House adviser Jared Kushner, were seen snapping photos Saturday on the Truman balcony with a young girl who appeared to be their daughter.
Shoff has been accused of operating for years the pro-Tendler blog that was badmouthing Rav Blau from YU after Tendler was kicked out of there.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/sites/default/files/public/halakhah/teshuvot/20012004/45.pdf
ReplyDeleteEven the Conservative movement rules that photography, even al yedei goy, is prohibited on Shabbos.
there is legitimate, longstanding halachic precedent (based on SA Yoreh Deah 178:2) allowing a jew to violate halacha to facilitate/maintain close relations with the authorities (thereby ensuring that such relationships are in place when jewish lives may be at stake). as i understand it, this is the basis for many UK chief rabbis attendeding various services in westminster abbey over the years.
ReplyDeletethere is a lengthy correspondence by (now disgraced) rabbi michael broyde on this topic (defending rabbi lookstein's participation in obama's prayer service in 2009): http://www.hakirah.org/Vol%208%20Broyde.pdf
whatever your opinion of trump, kushner, ivanka, etc., there is little doubt that kushner's role as a close adviser to the president could have a direct impact on life/death issues for jews. on that basis, he would certainly qualify for the referenced 'heter'
A reader, please! The rabbonim of England did not get along with Lord Dokter Rabbiner Jakobovits. They would ignore him even when in the same room at official functions. The current Chief Rabbi of the British Empire says things that are apikorsis.
ReplyDeleteAs far as Broyde, his disgrace speaks for itself. And Lookstein is an idiot. He has a rationale for everything including his dislike of keeping his kipa on at the opera. And it's not because of the shita that it should be removed when sinning because the loser holds there is no problem with live kol isha.
Gedolim have poskened we may not enter the Vatican even if they somehow agree to give back all the klei haMikdash & that is the only way to retrieve them.
Come now, admit it...the worst thing of it all was ............... the MIXED DANCING! Oy!
ReplyDeletePerhaps all the uber chachamim would do well to consider all angles before dispensing their "sage" wisdom: http://montrealjewishnews.com/?p=6668
ReplyDeleteit's one thing to have a heter of korov l'malchut in a time of need for a torah jew who is needed by the king or the country in a time of war or other such emergency situation or even stam just an important decision has to be made by the prez and he needs kushner's input on the issue at the last minute and his advice couldn't have been taken before shabat began or wait until after shabat ended nor could it work over the phone thru a third party gentile relaying the opinion and/or advice of the advisor to the malchut who then could use this information to reach an informed decision... if it really has to be in person and takes several hours of careful consultation to get it right or to come to the precise policy or statecraft conclusion then yes this heter in the shulchan aruch is legitimate and real and applies...
ReplyDeletebut to get this heter in order to attend an inaugural ball is just ludicrous and simply a farce... a misapplication of this halacha...
nevertheless i agreed that they should not have walked there because even with bodyguards in tow they would be exposed to harm as the two of them would be obvious targets for attack as vip members of the presidential party...
my suggestion at the time... after the fact unfortunately when i originally learned about this shaila in halacha... was that they should have made up with her father the prez which gala was the most important one to him for them to put in appearance at and then they should have gone there before shabat and taken a room assuming that this site was located at a hotel... there they could have first spent time honoring shabat... candles... davening... kiddush and seuda... divrei torah and zemirot... etc bentching... all the while the prez would have been elsewhere but when he got downstairs to that particular ball where they were staying then they would have been able to join him and participate in that one celebration... all her make up would have been done before shabat began and all she would have had to do to get ready after dinner would have been to change into her gown...
of course that's entirely another story to begin with and a whole other kettle of fish opening up a completely different can of worms which needed to have been addressed at that time as well... LONG BEFORE the inaugural... as i have felt the whole way thru... her untzniut attire over the course of the entire four yrs was way over the top and so undeniably inappropriate most of the time... and i'm not speaking about pants or pantsuit outfits which i would have conceded to her for the duration of her affiliation with her father's administration and in her public appearances on his behalf... but the other stuff she wore was way way too revealing for an observant jewish woman to ever consider proper to wear... it wasn't even ballpark close...
think of the kiddush Hashem they both could have represented for torah observant communities all over the world had they really taken their commitments to torah true judaism seriously... instead it was all a fraudulent sham and a mere lip service paying facade of supposed judaism that they were sort of portraying all along... rather than setting an example and becoming true role models for torah jews in the public arena it turned into a total travesty and for the most part an utter chillul Hashem... so sad... truth.out...