Are they transgressing Lifnei Iver?

This has been brought up before, but I noticed it on Dov Ber’s blog. Have the Rabonim investigated this issue? Are they comfortable simply because there are those who go to Meron L’Kavod the Rashbi (the date of Lag B’aomer is also questionable as his Yom Hillula but we won’t go there).

The holidays invented by Zionist Rabbis (Yom Hazicharon and Yom Haatzmaut) were postponed this year because everyone understands that a national Yom Hazicharon ceremony can’t be produced on Saturday night without causing some Sabbath desecration.

In other news, the holiday invented by Hasidic Rabbis (Lag B’omer) falls on Sunday this year, and the national bonfire celebrations on Saturday night in Meron will also be impossible to prepare without causing some Sabbath desecration. At the very least, police and soldiers need to be put into position. Has the holiday been postponed? Of course not! (The lighting of the bonfire has been delayed, but its unclear how that delay eliminates the Sabbath desecration.)

Fun Fact to Know and Tell: The Sages canceled a biblical obligation (blowing the shofar on the first day of Rosh Hashana) out of fear of Sabbath desecration!

Author: pitputim

I've enjoyed being a computer science professor in Melbourne, Australia, as well as band leader/singer for the Schnapps Band. My high schooling was in Chabad and I continued at Yeshivat Kerem B'Yavneh in Israel and later in life at Machon L'Hora'ah, Yeshivas Halichos Olam. View all posts by pitputim