Translated Uri. The Grinch Who Stole Shabbat?

Uri Orbach, the one 'Doss' on Galei Tzahal, just wrote one of the lamest pieces I have ever read.

Click here and make sure you are near the terlit. (There is a great "Malkah from Beit El" talkback I suspect is from a fellow NZU-Blogger)

I mean, at first, I was sure it was a joke. Uri is funny during morning talk shows on Galei Tzahal, next to his square and usually less-educated co-hosts. I read it again and realized he was using a bit of humor to sugar-coat something that is truly one of the most jarring aspects of Israeli society today. Again, there are folks like Aussi Dave in the talkbacks who insist that it is satire and the more I think about it the more I think it must be:

Yes, some of my best friends are secular, but on Shabbat I pretend I don't have any. I love them, I cherish them but I won't call them and they don't call me.

Don't come on Shabbat, stop by on Sunday, Monday, and bring all of your kids with you. But not on Shabbat. It's too complicated. One Shabbat – two nations.

As someone who consciously lives on a hilltop where half of the people are secular (not to mention having grown up in upstate New York), I certainly am familiar with the issues that apparently drove Uri off the edge. Secular Israelis (as they've been told to call themselves, though most are actually traditional or simply less observant of the outwardly visible mitzvot) still love the Day of Rest and enjoy experiencing the religious aspects of Shabbat now and then - or just being in close proximity to those who do so as to expose their children to it as an option.

Now maybe it is because Uri lives in the world of Israeli journalists - a truly sordid bunch if there ever was one - that he feels the need to speak on behalf of the Sabbath-observant Jews of this nation and issue a grand un-invitation to our brethren. I mean, I am not sure I want Razi Barkai telling me to "sim nekuda" every time I try to get a word in edgewise at the Shabbat table - but let me speak clearly in the name of those outside Orbach's world: It is a pleasure to have visitors on the Sabbath.

He must have been kidding. Right? Maybe it's Ynet's translator's fault.

Update: Here is the Hebrew link. It seems it truly was lost in translation due to the nature of Uri's use of witty words and a certain inflection that Hebrew readers can detect in his written word. I am still not certain of the effectiveness of the satire and unconvinced that he totally feels the opposite.