Israel: Swine Flu Tackled By Praying Rabbis Flying Over Country

AP:

AP

A planeload of Israeli rabbis and Jewish mystics held an airborne prayer meeting in the belief that it could help check the spread of swine flu in Israel, an Israeli newspaper reported Tuesday.

The Yediot Ahronot daily said a plane with 50 people on board circled over Israel on Monday, with the passengers chanting prayers and sounding the ritual ram's horn.

The newspaper report carried a photo showing bearded and black-clad Orthodox Jewish men standing on the steps of an aircraft of Israeli short-haul airline Arkia. Airline officials could not be reached for comment.

"The purpose of the flight was to stop the (swine flu) epidemic so that people will not keeping dying from it," Rabbi Yitzhak Basri, one of the participants, told the newspaper.

Israel's Health Ministry has confirmed more than 2,000 cases of swine flu, with five fatalities in the country so far.

Warnings have been issued of widespread infections in Israel in the fall and winter, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to obtain enough vaccine to protect every Israeli citizen from swine flu.

Get HuffPost World On Facebook and Twitter!

Read the whole story: AP

Comments

[MemoryAlpha]

12:04 AM on 08/12/2009

Amused Query:
The only "Western-style democracy" in the Middle East, huh?

[lightningbolt]

08:26 AM on 08/12/2009

Yes. People are free to practice their religion in any way they want. Much crazier things happen in other Western-style democracies.

[bermanator]

09:56 PM on 08/12/2009

Wow, are you really going to pretend like these Rabbis are a problem? They paid for the flight on their own and they're free to do whatever they wish as long as the carrier agrees.

I think it's ridiculous too, but it's up to the Rabbis, as it's their dollar(shekel) at work.

If anything, this is in the spirit of tikkun olam, but I doubt you know anything about that and even if you did, you'd never admit it.

We all know that if it were the Grand Mufti and his brethren, you wouldn't say a thing.

[myopinion2]

04:47 PM on 08/11/2009

While I consider this action ridiculously superstitious, it simply is not respectful to mock another's religious beliefs.

And where is the use of US tax dollars. No matter; it's an opportunity to criticize Israel, go for it.

[TheFriendlyAtheist]

04:20 PM on 08/11/2009

Flying Rabbis bannish swine flu. Now that's funny. I quess swine flu ain't kosher. But hey, what can it hurt?

[who38]

03:12 PM on 08/11/2009

Your US tax dollar at work.

[lightningbolt]

04:19 PM on 08/11/2009

Where does it say that the U.S. is funding this?

[lightningbolt]

08:30 AM on 08/12/2009

How so?