Question:
What exactly is the issur of getting in a car on Shabbat?
Specifically, was it permissible for the daughter of the president, and her husband to get in a car on Shabbat because there was a claim of pikuach nefesh?
Was it permitted for them to put themselves in a situation like that at its inception, lechatchilah?
Answer:
I don’t know the exact situation, but would make sense that the daughter and son in law, and chief adviser to the president, under normal circumstances, especially at a time when there is so much controversy over him and protests against him, would surely be considered pikuach nefesh. Especially if they were told so by the security officers, since it was pekuach nefesh, then he was allowed to enter the car.
Regarding the fact that they put themselves into that situation, it was not necessarily considered as if they “put themselves into the situation, but for “shalom malchus”, they most probably had to be there, so there shouldn’t be embarrassment to the president that his ministers and family weren’t there, and it can cause animosity, therefore it wasn’t merely an elected and l’chatchila situation.
This is a controversial response, especially since – as the rav said – he does not know the exact situation, and of course one cannot pasken without knowing the reality of the situation.
Certainly it would have been a Kiddush Hashem if people would see that the daughter of the President and his son-in-law proudly keep Shabbos without compromise.
To say that it would cause embarrassment to the President if his daughter did not go to some party is really a stretch; he is not the kind of guy who gets embarrassed easily.
The question asked was how could it be permitted, and that is what I answered that there is room for it to be permitted, although I don’t know the exact situation, and obviously I was not paskening on it. The question originally was only theoretical.
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