It’s Too Early To Criticize Gilad Shalit
That didn’t take long. Gilad Shalit is now fair game for criticism, so it seems. Shas Minister Meshulam Nahari publicly condemned Shalit for going to the beach on his first Sabbath out of captivity, instead of going to synagogue. So reports Ynet.
Well I don’t know about you, but I’d say it’s fair that after five years in captivity, Shalit do what he likes on his first free Sabbath.
I’m troubled by this jumping-to-conclusions on the part of the Shas man. He says that Shalit should have gone to say the prayer for people who have been in dangerous situations. Well excuse me, Mr. Minister. He walked free on a Tuesday, meaning that if he wanted to recite the prayer on a day when there is a Torah reading in synagogue, he may well have done so on the preceding Thursday (the Torah being read on Mondays, Thursdays and on the Sabbath). Or he may have gone to synagogue before heading to the beach.
What is it again that Jewish tradition teaches us about judging people favorably and giving them the benefit of the doubt?
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
