Quiet Waves

They're forecasting quiet waves this weekend. What, you ask? Well, the forecasters here do occasionally supply viewers/listeners with a sea forecast. Invariably, the forecast is always the same -- והים יהיה נוח. But what are "quiet waves"?

I'm not exactly sure when it began, but the גל השקט, loosely translated as the "silent (air)wave" is a constantly broadcasting radio station which only interrupts the prevailing silence for emergency messages and critical news. During the Gulf War, at least, the station was operated for the benefit of Shabbat observing families such that they would not need to keep on the television or (regularly broadcasting) radio to hear news of an impending missile strike (nahash tzefa - viper snake) or the ever important all-clear. (I just read in a news forum that the station was apparently also operated during the first Shabbat of the so-called Al-Aksa Intifada.)

The authority pushing for the operation of the silent frequency is no less than Rabbi Yonah Metzger, the Ashkenazic chief rabbi of Israel. Rabbi Metzger has also issued a ruling whereby residents of areas endangered by the missile strikes need not (and perhaps are prohibited from) praying in synangogues.

We can only hope for a Shabbat as peaceful as the tranquil sea.