Shabbat road work

Your article “Haredi leaders demand emergency meeting with PM over rail construction” (August 28) says that a section of the Ayalon Highway “was closed for 27 hours over Shabbat.” Since Shabbat, from beginning to end, is 25 hours, those two extra hours should raise a red flag.

Regardless of whether one feels the work should have been done on Shabbat, all can agree that closing the road two hours before Shabbat was inexcusable. Heading south, I found myself in a large parking lot. I was surrounded by vehicles driven by people both with and without kippot. We all shared looks of anguish and disgust.

Orthodox Jews need to be at their destination before the start of Shabbat. Non-Orthodox Jews frequently are going to see friends and parents for Shabbat, and are due by a specific time. That my normally 55-minute journey ran over two hours is unacceptable; I arrived at my destination with two minutes to spare.

If work is done on Shabbat, it needs to start after people have finished their pre-Shabbat travels. Whether it should be done or not is beyond the scope of my letter. ELLEN MINAKER

Netanya