It's hard to believe, but it seems the Prime Minister is actually considering an election on Sukkot (October 14). The first and second days of Sukkot are full religious holidays and observant Jews can work (or vote) on neither day. Despite being reminded of the holiday it seems the Prime Minister is going ahead with the vote.
The festival of Sukkot, also known as Chag'ha Succot, the "Feast of Booths" (or Tabernacles), is named for the huts (sukkah) that Moses and the Israelites lived in as they wandered the desert for 40 years before they reached the Promised Land. These huts were made of branches and were easy to assemble, take apart, and carry as the Israelites wandered through the desert.
The festival of Sukkot is instituted in Leviticus 23:33 et seq. No work is permitted on the first and second days of the holiday. Work is permitted on the remaining days.
Dion calls meeting with Harper a 'charade'
Liberal Leader Stephane Dion says he left a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper Monday afternoon with a clear message: There will be a fall election.
"(Harper) doesn't want Canadians to have too much time to see he is ill-prepared to face the economy . . . he doesn't want to face byelections," Dion told reporters.
Dion called the 20-minute meeting a "charade" and repeatedly took Harper to task for his willingness to call an election before the fixed election date of October 2009.
Harper is expected to dissolve Parliament this week and set an election date for Oct. 14 of this year.
3 comments:
I think the key words are "the festival of Sukkot" Its a festival not a high holiday. There will be six weeks for voting and there is no reason to not call a vote during a relgious festival. In fact it's probably darn near impossible to not call a vote during someone's religious festival. How many ultra orthodox Jews were going to volunteering at polling stations all day??? And they could probably get granted exceptions for that anyways, even if they were forbidden, which I don't think is exactly true. I'm sorry it's a food festival, not a high holiday.
Just to clarify, Sukkot forms part of the High Holy Days. In fact, the last two days are also days when not work is done. These two days, Shmini Atzeret (the day Dalton McGuinty avoided in the Ontario General Election) and Simchat Torah end the High Holy Day season.
It is not just Ultra Orthodox Jews who observe these days. Modern Orthodox, Conservative and Reconstructionist Jews observe these days and the restrictions/prohibitions that surrond them. Only Reform Jews have a doctrine that combines observance of the days with normal weekday activities.
For anonymous at 11:16pm perhaps abit more study of the Jewish Community and its practises are in order.
No Rabbi would grant an "exemption" from observance due to an election.
Also, to say that these are "food festivals" is both naive and insulting to the tens of thousands of Jews who observe and celebrate these days.
I would have no problem if the election were on the Thanksgiving Monday, and I suspect the vast majority of Canadians would agree, but the Elections Act states that any election scheduled on a statutory holiday will be on the Tuesday following.
Perhaps Harper should've called the election last Sunday, for an Oct. 6th vote, but then the Liberals would howl that he was calling an election in the week of their scheduled caucus retreat, etc.
If he set it back a week to Monday, Oct. 20th, the Francophonie summit would take place in the last week of the campaign. Then the Liberals would either howl that Harper was using other statesmen as props in his re-election bid if he went to the summit, or they would howl that he should be at the summit, and that he has insulted all the foreign dignitaries and brought shame to Canada internationally, if he didn't attend!
It is unfortunate that potential Jewish scrutineers will not be able to participate on actual election day, but they will be able to partake in each of the three Advance Polling dates of Oct. 3rd, 4th, and 6th.
If Parliament were in session and the opposition brought down the government this week, would we all be crying that they had no concern about possible conflicts with religious holidays? I doubt it ... it would just be our democratic institutions at work.
Post a Comment