The National Religious Party agreed to enter a coalition with the left-wing anti-religious Shinui party with hopes of initiating a religious-secular dialogue - but it is disappointed with the results so far. So said Deputy Religious Affairs Minister Rabbi Yitzchak Levy of the NRP, in an interview with Arutz-7 this morning.
Arutz-7's Uzi Baruch asked Rabbi Levy about this morning's news that the Interior Ministry had not sent inspectors to enforce the no-chametz laws. (Israeli law forbids the public sale of bread and other leaven during the seven-day Pesach holiday, in respect for the Jewish-legal ban on owning or eating bread on Passover.) Rabbi Levy said that he is not aware that inspectors had not been dispatched: "As far as we know, the government ministers were told that Interior Minister Avraham Poraz (Shinui) had changed his mind about not sending the inspectors, after the Attorney-General informed him that he may not decide on his own which to laws to enforce or not enforce."
"The problem here is not the inspectors," Rabbi Levy continued. "Inspectors cannot succeed in preventing the sale of all chametz. The real issue here is [Shinui's] intention to try to shake off the laws that have anything to do with Judaism... I have to say that we [in the NRP] do not feel that we are receiving the cooperation from Shinui that we had hoped for. We entered into this government in order to create a dialogue with Shinui, [but] so far it does not look good. I hope that it will improve; I hope that Shinui will understand that they cannot do things unilaterally. If they think, for instance, that the chametz law is not practical, then they should come and talk with us. We hoped that we could form a dialogue between religious and secular."
Rabbi Levy said that so far, Shinui had come out the loser in its attempts to make unilateral changes - "regarding the Shabbat inspectors, and regarding its attempts to force a quick dismantling of the religious councils, and now with the chametz law - which of course we still have to check... But the main point is that Shinui must realize that it cannot continue to make provocations within the government. We now have another issue facing us, and that is Shinui's attempt to renew civil marriages in consulates; the job ahead of us is very difficult, and we don't seem to have too many partners..."
Arutz-7's Uzi Baruch asked Rabbi Levy about this morning's news that the Interior Ministry had not sent inspectors to enforce the no-chametz laws. (Israeli law forbids the public sale of bread and other leaven during the seven-day Pesach holiday, in respect for the Jewish-legal ban on owning or eating bread on Passover.) Rabbi Levy said that he is not aware that inspectors had not been dispatched: "As far as we know, the government ministers were told that Interior Minister Avraham Poraz (Shinui) had changed his mind about not sending the inspectors, after the Attorney-General informed him that he may not decide on his own which to laws to enforce or not enforce."
"The problem here is not the inspectors," Rabbi Levy continued. "Inspectors cannot succeed in preventing the sale of all chametz. The real issue here is [Shinui's] intention to try to shake off the laws that have anything to do with Judaism... I have to say that we [in the NRP] do not feel that we are receiving the cooperation from Shinui that we had hoped for. We entered into this government in order to create a dialogue with Shinui, [but] so far it does not look good. I hope that it will improve; I hope that Shinui will understand that they cannot do things unilaterally. If they think, for instance, that the chametz law is not practical, then they should come and talk with us. We hoped that we could form a dialogue between religious and secular."
Rabbi Levy said that so far, Shinui had come out the loser in its attempts to make unilateral changes - "regarding the Shabbat inspectors, and regarding its attempts to force a quick dismantling of the religious councils, and now with the chametz law - which of course we still have to check... But the main point is that Shinui must realize that it cannot continue to make provocations within the government. We now have another issue facing us, and that is Shinui's attempt to renew civil marriages in consulates; the job ahead of us is very difficult, and we don't seem to have too many partners..."