Opening businesses on Tisha B’Av

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asked 7 years ago

Hello!! What do you think about opening businesses on Tisha B’Av?
Should we intervene by violating the status quo, or not intervene because it leads to the good goal of separating religion from state?
Thank you very much.

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מיכי Staff answered 7 years ago

What do you remember about opening businesses on T’Bav? What about desecrating Shabbat, same-sex couples, eating kosher. Does the country you live in observe Halacha? It’s probably not the country I live in. To worry that on T’Bav businesses that sell non-kosher food will be closed sounds crazy to me. It’s not because it leads to a good or bad cause, but because it’s crazy. By the way, the more you ensure that businesses are closed on Tibbet, the closer you get to the separation of religion and state.

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לדעתי replied 7 years ago

No different from the closure of businesses on Holocaust Remembrance Day and Memorial Day.
The partial closure was originally intended as a day of mourning for the Jewish people, not to enforce fasting (after all, no one would fast because their favorite restaurant was closed on the night of Tev B'Av).
Not related to the status quo at all.

מושה replied 7 years ago

Rabbi, if we think like this, we can open food businesses on Shabbat, because why would we let our brothers buy food that is not kosher or not certified?
In any case, there is no blessing in the money that is worked on Shabbat or in the money that is earned on fast days. Check it out!

מיכי Staff replied 7 years ago

Indeed, it is no different as long as there is broad agreement on it (as on Holocaust Remembrance Day). But there is no room for coercion when the majority of the public does not identify.

לדעתי replied 7 years ago

Maybe.
On the other hand, it is possible that the fact that tens of percent of the public identify, and a few dozen more are probably indifferent (i.e. do not oppose), is enough if it is accepted as law.
Ultimately, it would be shameful if the State of Israel were to ignore the greatest disaster that befell the Jewish people until the Holocaust.