“I don’t speak because I have the power to speak; I speak because I don’t have the power to remain silent.” Rav Kook z"l

Sunday, May 2, 2021

R' Chaim Yitzchok Icht From Beer Sheva Still Missing in Meron

משטרת ישראל מבקשת הבוקר (ראשון) את עזרת הציבור באיתור הנעדר החרדי  איכט חיים יצחק, בן 39 תושב באר שבע, שנראה לאחרונה בל"ג בעומר בהר מירון, בשעה 20:30, ומאז נעלמו עקבותיו. 

תאורו: גובהה 1.85, מבנה גוף רזה, שיער חום בהיר, עיניים חומות. מזוקן עם פיאות. מרכיב משקפי ראיה עם מסגרת שחורה. לבש בגדים בצבע שחור/לבן. מגבעת שחורה או קסקט שחור / אפור.

כל היודע דבר אודות מקום המצאו מתבקש לפנות למוקד 100 של משטרת ישראל או למשטרת ישראל תחנת באר שבע בטלפון 08-6462744/5 .
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Democrat Party’s War on Blacks Picking Up Full Steam

 


Tim Scott, a black United States Senator who in 2016 won 61 percent of the vote in the conservative state of South Carolina, who earned more raw votes and won by a wider margin than Donald Trump, has done more in just a few days to drag the racism of the Democrat party out into the sunlight than the feckless Republican party ever has.

On Wednesday night, during his brilliant rebuttal to His Fraudulency Joe Biden’s congressional address, and through the simple act of stating a truth, Scott smoked these racist monsters out and proved once again that racism is still very much a part of the Democrat party’s DNA, a DNA that stretches back to their creation of the Jim Crow South and their willingness to go to war to stop a Republican president from taking away their slaves.

“Hear me clearly,” Scott said. “America is not a racist country.”

With those nine words, Scott undermined everything that motivates today’s organized left, and to prove Scott wrong, to prove America is indeed a racist country, Democrats hurled the worst kind of racism directly at Scott.

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Female soldiers were attacked by Haredim when assisting at Meron disaster

 


Soldiers of the Israel Defense Force’s Home Front Command were physically and verbally attacked by ultra-Orthodox Jews while they were assisting in searching for dead and wounded in the stampede during Lag B’Omer celebrations at Mount Meron, the IDF said late Saturday.

“We entered the gravesite to search for injured people and suddenly a commotion began that there are female soldiers in uniforms who are touching the wounded,” a soldier told Army Radio earlier.

“They started to kick and spit on us. The female soldiers were kicked, spit on, and punched from every direction,” the radio station quoted the soldier saying. Hebrew media reports said five female soldiers were targeted.

The military confirmed the incident, saying in a statement that “the force continued on its mission and ignored the harmful behavior.”

“The IDF views this incident very gravely and condemns any violence — physical or verbal — toward female and male soldiers. The IDF in general and the Home Front Command in particular will continue to extend a hand, to assist and to save any citizen or resident in a time of need,” a spokesperson for the military added.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz said in a statement: “Saving live is a supreme value and I’m proud of all IDF soldiers in treating the wounding in the disaster at Miron and firmly condemn whoever attacked the soldiers there.

“Many citizens owe their lives to those who were called to the event. Just like at Moron, just like during the coronavirus, IDF soldiers will continue to save lives wherever they are needed.”

On Friday, a spokesperson for the IDF said “Search and Rescue Brigade troops, Northern Command medical teams and a number of IAF helicopters with medical teams and Unit 669 forces are assisting in the mass casualty incident in Mount Meron.”

Forty-five people were crushed to death and more than 150 people hurt, including several in critical condition.

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Florida Gov to Sign Bill that Will Not Allow Twitter or Facebook to Kick Off People Their Platforms

 


Social media companies would be unable to permanently kick people off their platforms under a tough new Florida law.

The bill, passed by the GOP-dominated state Legislature Thursday and awaiting Gov. Ron DeSantis’ signature, would make it a crime to remove state political candidates from Twitter and Facebook, and would mete out penalties of $250,000 a day for any statewide candidate who is deplatformed. 

Removing more local candidates would cost the company $25,000 a day. 

The bill also requires tech companies to give users seven days notice that they are at risk of being banned and offer them the opportunity to correct the issue. Suspensions of up to 14 days would still be allowed.

“What this bill is about is sending a loud message to Silicon Valley that they are not the absolute arbiters of truth,” GOP state Rep. John Snyder said Wednesday, NBC News reported. “What this bill does is send a loud message that the Constitution does not have an asterisk that says only certain speech is free and protected.”

Big tech advocacy groups have struck back saying the law would violate their First Amendment right to decide who can participate on their platforms.

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100 Year-Old 6'10" Fish Caught in Detroit...

A US Fish and Wildlife Service crew caught a nearly 6-foot-10, 240-pound sturgeon on the Detroit River.

 A US Fish and Wildlife Service crew got the shock of their lives when, while on patrol on the Detroit River, they reeled in a nearly 6-foot-10, 240-pound sturgeon, likely over 100 years old.

The fish, believed to be one of the largest ever caught in the United States, was found near Grosse Ile. The crew tagged and released it back into the river.

“We’re trying to protect this fishery,” Justin Chiotti, a US Fish and Wildlife Service biologist told The Detroit Free Press. “Everybody is always catching a huge sturgeon. Everybody catches a 100-pounder. But a fish this size is very, very rare to catch.”

The scientists estimated to the paper that the fish hatched in the Detroit River sometime in the 1920s when Detroit was the fourth-largest city in America. But, they added, that’s a conservative guess. It likely is even older.

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Is R' Shimon ben Yochai Even Buried in Meron? Was he Niftar on Lag Be'Omer? Did he actually write the Zohar? You will be very Surprised!


From EMAILIM BATORAH 

1) Where is Kever רשב"י located?

According to ר' מנחם החברוני (13th century)
רשב"י is buried in Kfar Chananya *(15 km. south of Meron)

2) What day in the עומר was רשב"י niftar?

According to the חיד"א, there is no מקור anywhere
that רשב"י was niftar on Lag Baomer**.

3) Who wrote the Zohar?

According to the יעב"ץ, (The Chasam Sofer seems
to agree) it was R. Moishe d'Leon (not רשב"י)


4) What day did the Talmidei R. Akiva stop dying?

According to the many Poskim, they still died on
Lag Baomer but stopped on the 34th day of the עומר .

5) How many Talmidim of R. Akiva died between
Pesach & Shavuos?

The גמרא (Yevamos 62) says 12,000 pairs of
Talmidim.The מדרש says it was only 300 Talmidim.

6) How did they die?

The גמרא says they all died of a disease called Askera.
 According to Harav Hagaon Y. Henkin zt"l and others, the
גמרא uses Askera as a code for getting killed fighting
the Romans.

7)  How can you bring Nachas to רשב"י (guaranteed)?

The שואל ומשיב  5 - 39  writes " if you distribute the  money
to עניי ארץ ישראל instead of spending it to go to his
 Kever etc., he guarantees רשב"י will have  much more
Nachas Ruach.

8) Why do we celebrate Lag Baomer with קצת שמחה?

According to the Chasam Sofer  the קצת שמחה has nothing
to do with רשב"י but because it's the Sefirah of הוד שבהוד***
and to commemorate the first day the מן came down in
the מדבר.

9)  Why you should not celebrate ל"ג בעומר with
dancing & music in חוץ לארץ ?

According to the   מנחת אלעזר ח"ד :ס because it is only a
Minhag Eretz Yisroel Celebrating in Chutz Laaretz is
onsidered strange & haughty כזרות יחשב וכיוהרא 

10) Why is it forbidden to dance in front of a fire?

The תוספתא (Shabbos 7:1) says clapping hands or 
dancing in front of a fire is אסור because of דרכי אמורי

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Daniel Morris from New Jersey among dead in Meron disaster

 

The Sha'alvim Yeshiva is mourning the death of Daniel (Donny) Morris, a 19-year-old student from Teaneck, New Jersey, who was studying at the yeshiva.

Morris was among the 45 killed in the Meron disaster at 1:00a.m. Friday morning.

Following the stampede, the yeshiva's staff searched for Morris in the various hospitals, until they received the heartbreaking news that he was among the dead.

"Daniel was an amazing student, he was studious and beloved by his friends, he had a sense of humor and was bursting with love of life," the yeshiva said. "Daniel had an excellent character and acted with pleasantness; he loved very much to learn Torah. He came to Israel from New Jersey, in order to learn Torah in the Land of Israel."

"Sha'alvim embraces the bereaved Morris family and is in touch with his parents, family, and community rabbi, who all received the bitter news. The school's staff is embracing Daniel's friends and the shocked students, and is in touch with professionals to provide the necessary support."

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Saturday, May 1, 2021

When A Similar Tragedy Happened in Meron on Lag Be'Omar in 1911

An 1885 photograph of the balcony that collapsed some 26 years later, in 1911.



 The tragedy at the celebration of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai occurred on the night of Lag B’Omer 5671, May 15, 1911, when a crowd of about 10,000 filled the compound and a railing collapsed, causing many to be crushed in the collapse and the panic that followed. Eleven people were killed in the tragedy, the deaths of seven were determined at the scene and of four others in the days following the incident. There were 40 wounded.

According to Shmuel Har-Noy, Director General of the Safed Academic College, the Jewish community in the first decade of the 20th century in Tsfat numbered between seven and eight thousand – Tsfat was the second-largest Jewish community in the country, after Jerusalem, with the largest Chassidic community. There were many kollels in Tsfat, most of whose students depended on the “distribution” charity for their livelihood. Medical treatment in the city was provided by several Jewish doctors but was based mainly on the English and Scottish mission institutions. Towards the end of the first decade, a hospital built by the Rothschild family was inaugurated.

On 18 Iyar, 5671, May 15, 1911, crowds gathered for the annual celebration at the tomb of the Rashbi in Meron. The author Joshua Bar-Yosef describes in his book “Magic City” (1949) what happened next:

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After tragedy, reports emerge that politicians were pressed not to limit Meron event by Haredi politicians and their political allies

Terrifying video shows moments before deadly stampede at Israeli holy site


 

Ultra-Orthodox Jews stand at the bottom of a staircase, leading from a narrow walkway where a stampede led to mass fatalities at Lag B’Omer celebrations at Mt. Meron in northern Israel, Friday, April 30, 2021.

As the initial shock and horror over Thursday night’s deadly crush at Lag B’Omer festivities on Mount Meron began to subside, focus started to turn on Friday toward the matter of who was to blame for the packed conditions at the site that led to the deaths of 45 people and the injuring of dozens of others in the fatal stampede.

Stark questions will likely be directed at political, civil and law enforcement officials involved in planning, approving and securing the event, amid talk of a potential state commission of inquiry to thoroughly investigate the disaster.

On Friday night, multiple reports in Hebrew media outlets indicated that there had been immense pressure by religious lawmakers ahead of the festivities to ensure that there would be no limits placed on the number of attendees. Some 100,000 ultra-Orthodox pilgrims ultimately attended the event; a framework drawn up by the Health Ministry, in consultation with other government officials, police and others, would have limited the event to 9,000 participants, but was not implemented.

Officials with knowledge of the investigation told Channel 13 that cabinet ministers had pressed police to allow large numbers of people to enter the gravesite of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, saying this was to compensate for last year’s event being canceled due to coronavirus.

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Arab towns offer food, drink to Meron survivors; hundreds give blood in Tel Aviv

 


Local Arab villages set up stations to offer food and drink to evacuees from the site of the disaster at Meron on Friday morning, as many hundreds lined up to donate blood in Tel Aviv.

Media reports said residents of nearby villages and towns in the north of Israel set up stations with free food and drink for the many thousands of Jewish worshipers still trying to make their way out of the mountainous Meron area in the wake of the overnight tragedy.

According to Yoseph Haddad, an Arab Israeli activist, initiatives to help the evacuees were launched in Tamra, Jish, Yarka and Peki’in.

Radi Najm, mayor of the Druze town of Beit Jan near Mount Meron, said his town had opened its facilities and many families had opened their homes to evacuees and rescuers from the disaster.

“Beit Jan residents and the local council join in the grief of the entire nation,” Najm said in a statement. “They open their homes and the council’s facilities to offer any help possible. I have ordered the [town’s] emergency services to provide any help necessary to the rescue crews. The residents are ready to receive evacuees and families from the disaster area.”

Arab leaders expressed sorrow over the tragedy.

Joint List leader Ayman Odeh spoke of “heartache” for the dozens of families “left torn and bereaved.” He said he was heartened to see Jews and Arabs work together to respond to the disaster, calling it “a small ray of light in the great tragedy.”

Joint List MK Ahmad Tibi tweeted of “a terrible disaster” and his“deep sorrow for those who died on the day they came to celebrate.”

Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas sent condolences to the bereaved amid his “difficult feelings over the terrible disaster.”

Meanwhile, in Tel Aviv, hundreds of Israelis lined up to donate blood at Magen David Adom mobile units in the iconic Rabin Square, after the organization sent out a call for anyone to come to assist following the deadly stampede.

“I’m number three hundred and something, and I think they’re seeing number 100 now, so I have a long wait ahead,” a man waiting to donate blood told Channel 12 News.

A woman told the outlet that said she had been waiting for two hours to donate but felt that it was important to stay.

According to Channel 12, Magen David Adom had planned to close the units in the early afternoon but decided to remain open as hundreds of residents waited in the sun to donate.

Tel Aviv additionally plans to light up the municipality building with the Star of David on Saturday night, in solidarity with the victims and their families.

At least 45 people were crushed to death and more than 150 people hurt, including many in critical condition, in the tragedy that began to unfold at around 1 a.m. on Friday.

Tens of thousands of people had gathered at Mount Meron in the northern Galilee for an annual pilgrimage around the gravesite of the second-century sage Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai. Army Radio reported that children were among the dead and injured.

Visiting the site of the Meron disaster, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Sunday would be marked as a day of national mourning.

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