I am writing this letter on Sunday afternoon - Lag Baomer.
The videos and pictures coming from Meron are disheartening and simply awful to look at. It is hard to imagine without being there to actually see it myself that this can all be true.
I am not talking about the unfortunate emptiness of thousands upon thousands of Yidden unable to celebrate this holy day as we have in the past. For a reason we certainly do not know, yet must take a lesson from, Hashem has decided that this year, 5784, Meron would not be available to us.
After all, just a few days ago we saw, incredibly, bombs land and explode on Har Meron. B”h nobody was hurt. the IDF and or the Israeli government and or the Israeli police deemed Kever Rashbi and Har Meron as dangerous, and a place that must be off limits for this weekend. Perhaps they had intelligence that we are unaware of, perhaps they were concerned that masses of people gathered together would be a major target, perhaps they felt that with everything going on they were unable to safely guard and secure the area, perhaps they felt that if CV something went wrong they would not be able at this time to respond to a mass casualty event, perhaps they simply felt with everything going on in the country this was not the time or place for such a large gathering of celebration.
Truthfully - who cares what their reason was. The authorities made a decision, and the people need to follow the law. Period. End of story!
What has Meron become?
The pain of losing 45 Kedoshim is still raw and fresh and with today being their yartzheits it reminds us of that fateful night where all the pushing and shoving led to a stampede. Oy my heart hurts and tears well up just thinking of that scene and what happened in Meron that night.
Now, just a few years later, we again need to see horrible scenes coming from this same Mokom Kodosh? Why? When will we learn our lesson?
Not one Yid, no matter who they are, no matter what their reason, not one Yid (that is unless they had specific personal permission) should have been on Har Meron or at Kever Rashbi this Lag Ba'omer. Not one!
How dare a few yidden, at a time like this, during a war, when specifically told with more than enough time in advance, how dare they choose to go anyways and through their (immature selfish) actions put a dark stamp on the face of all of the Oilam Hatorah AKA Chareidi world. What an outright chutzpah!
Now, of course seeing one Jew hit, push, kick, another Jew is terrible. It should not have happened. Nevertheless, the onus is NOT on the policeman. they didn't want to be there in the first place, they wanted to be with their brothers and sisters fighting to protect us. Yet, they did their job and came to make sure all was in order.
On the other hand, those yiddin who made their way to Meron had no right to go and they knew when they went that they were going to cause trouble. They just didn't care.
In all of the terrible videos that are going around, all we see are people refusing to leave, fighting to be allowed to go to the kever, and trying not to budge when being prodded and moved.
Our nature of seeing is believing made too many of us think that what we saw is all that happened. NOT TRUE. What we saw was the END of what happened.
The first part of what happened is that these people were turned away without force, and the police were there to keep order and not allow people to break the law and did so. It only became the unfortunate reality of what we saw because this yiddin refused to follow orders.
Yes, even the elderly yid who got that one final strong push causing him to fall and be hurt, if you watch the video again you will see he was leaning back refusing to follow orders and do what he was told. What did he think was going to happen? The Police would just let him in? Had he listened to instructions he would be fine right now. Instead, he is suffering. Sadly, he brought this upon himself
Don't blame the police. Blame the people.
In this instance unfolding today it is the people who were entirely wrong and the police entirely right. What a shame and once again what a terrible sight to see coming out of this holy place just a few years to the day after we lost 45 lives. Sad and Angry
15 comments:
"Truthfully - who cares what their reason was. The authorities made a decision, and the people need to follow the law. Period. End of story!"
truthfully insane. any torah jew DOES care what the reason was!
You are a piece of ....... Can you tell me why the last 2 years the police were fighting tooth and nail it should be hard to get to RASHBI's kever,
This year they came up with an idea of war time so Meron has to be closed, if it is so dangerous to be in Meron how are you giving permits to some people are the once with a permit more
Protected them the once without?
So with that said go fly a kite you .....
3:14
Even though you sound just like a child, as no reasonable adult would make such an ignorant comment, I will be "masbir" you as if you were a 9 year-old!
Ok??? Take out your pacifier from your filthy mouth first!
First of all, there is no mitzvah of going up to the kever not on Lag Be'omar, and not ever. Period!
Harav Eliyashiv z"L was never there in his entire life. That itself speaks volumes.
This is a money-grubbing scheme to empty your pockets, and so that you don't realize what's actually happening they serve you free kugel!
Second of all, reasonable talmeidei chachamim such as the Chasam Sofer z"l, said that R' Shimon Yochai's yurzeit is not on Lag Be'Omer.
Many Talmeide Chachamim said that he is not even buried there! In fact in Benjamin of Toledo's diary, he describes in detail his visit to Meron and only mentions that this is the resting place of Bais Hillel and Bais Shammai. He doesn't mention R' Shimon ben Yocahi at all!
Finally, Israel is at war, we are losing precious neshamois every single day! Yet, the Meron goers don't give a damn and want to be moiser nefesh on something that is according to most a "naarishkeit"
The IDF and thePolice and the first responders can only handle a finite amount of people in one place, a place that Hezballa launced over 60 missles on the mount itself on Lag Be'Omer. There aren't shelters for tens of thousands of people at the mount, and there aren't enough first responders to take care of that many people. They could manage a couple of hundred but thousands while under bombardment would have been impossible, and if something Chas Ve'shalom would had happened and the masses at the mount would have stampeded to get out, 45 karbonas would have been child's play had ONE bomb landed, never mind 60!
Take your childish naive comments to YeshivaWorld and the other blogs that tolerate dumb yeshiva guys like you.
I'm wondering are you married?? which even half-intelligent woman could live with a miserable creature like you?
What kind of chitzpanik is that writer? How will inzere hymishe Chasidishe kigel fressers get all the yeshies they need without going to Hadlukes in Meron?? Another terrible gezyre!
And what about Chai Rotel mashkeh? Every Chusid must drink until he gets shikker on Lag Baoimer, חייב חסיד לבסומי בל"ג בעומר עד דלא ידע בין רשב"י לרשב"ג!
Anyone that doesn't like the treatment of the police when breaking the law and planning it (not breaking the law out of impulse but with all the kavona in doing so) than have the charidim join the police forces this way you can have charadi police handling these charadi events
I am by no means a talmid chuchum .... but it seems really off to me how you both are attacking and name calling each other particularly on this matter as it relates to Sefirah and the reason of our mourning over the Talmidim of Rabvi Akivah and how they mistreated each other with lack of derech eretz to each other and now you all are just repeating history....... very sad!
7:47
The nature of a blog is that people comment. Reasonable people may disagree in polite terms. However 3:14 is a troll and whatever I post he has a nasty comment, but as he is a masochist he continues to read the blog! I don't get it because if I don't like a blog I stop following it. Most of his comments I delete since this blog's purpose is to give a "Rare View" and those who vehemently disagree I would post if it's polite. A teacher once told me that when you wrestle with alligators you have no choice but to get into the mud! I think that Rebbe Akiva would agree!
This is an example of how Chareidism has replaced Judaism.
There is no better place to spend the Yamim Noraim than in Israel, especially Jerusalem. So why do tens of thousands go to Uman?
Lag B'Omer is an invented post-Talmud holiday with no true mekoros in Tanach or Talmud. So how did it become "We must go to Meron, yehareg v'al ya'avor"?
Many chassidim do not have media, including social media, except maybe Yated or something. Maybe they didn't realize the gravity of the situation, of Meron being in a war zone.
Ha,spews ignorance.chassidim ?
Yated? What a joke
Next year instead of going to Meron, go visit an old man in the hospital or in his home. Hashem will appreciate your ahavas Yisrael more than your visit to a dead Rabbi’s grave.
Come on that is this whole blog
Bais Hillel and Bais Shamai?? How many of them?
4:15
What I understand is that 3 1/2 Bais Hillel, and 10 1/4 Bais Shammai!
Author of the article: thank you for your comments. What you explained should appear obvious to everybody, but I guess that there still are some people who just don't get it.
My solution to this problem would have been to let anyone who wanted to go and be in Meron, to let them go! The warnings about the dangerous situation had gone out and the possible consequenses were made crystal-clear. If anybody still felt that he had to be present in Meron, then go at your own risk and don't place the chayolim and/or mishtarah also at peril. The government does not have to be responsible to micro-manage every situation and if someone wants to act like an idiot, here's the red carpet!
This could be understood like in the USA when hurricane or tornado warnings are issued in advance of these weather systems. There are always some crazies who will go out in these weathers - some even pursue these conditions - and the police do not interfere. If people want to risk killing themselves, then do so, but do not involve the authorities who have told you to stay at home.
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