In Jerusalem, reports the API, there’s a proposed ban on the importation of fur.
While I’m a die-hard vegetarian, and a portion of my 10% tzedakah money has historically gone to animal-rights charities (not PETA; they waste it all on Super Bowl commercials), I can’t completely support this. It seems too arbitrary — and, I mean, who else besides haredi Jews need to import fur? It’s not like Israel is the Upper East Side.
Like any veto-happy government, Knesset has not taken this lying down. Parliamentarian Menachem Eliezer Moses of the United Torah Judaism party spoke out against the proposed ban — protesting, in the words of the article, “outlawing such an important religious necessity.”
“Oy vay, you will send thousands of haredim to prison. The proposed bill will bring a halt to the importing of shtreimels to Israel, it is inconceivable that anyone could support it,” he told the newspaper. Moses said while he does not object entirely to the proposed bill, he would like it to exclude the shtreimel.
And the thing is, I can’t entirely argue with a man:
a) named Moses,
b) who isn’t entirely opposed to a fur-banning law, and
c) begins a parliamentary argument with the words “oy vay.”
haredi
Pronounced: hah-RAY-dee, Origin: Hebrew, literally “in awe of” or “fearing” God, this means ultra-Orthodox or fervently Orthodox.
Knesset
Pronounced: k’NESS-et, Origin: Hebrew, Israel’s parliament, comprising 120 seats.
Torah
Pronunced: TORE-uh, Origin: Hebrew, the Five Books of Moses.
