Look at his finger...that's a ring from a lulav which he wore while testifying as a segula that his lying testimony should go thru ...
Read his testimony, sounds like a tzaddik, admitting that he is from an extremist cult, but always listens to what the police order him to do....that's a lie, as the Police have warned many times that this is a recipe for a disaster and they never did anything to make it safer. He now blames the police asking with a straight face..“What was I supposed to know? What do I understand? I’m an engineer? An architect?”...
Well, his segulah was highly “successful” since he was able to evade responsibility for just about everything that happened with his disingenuous “I knew nothing” response to the questions posed by the prosecutor while simultaneously blaming the police, the public works ministry etc. etc. Every witness so far has blamed someone else and it seems no one was responsible for anything.
Retired Supreme Court Justice Miriam Naor, the head of the commission, asked Heller about their contacts with the police. Heller responded that four years ago they received instructions from the police to raise the stage where the Rebbe sat and to remove the children. “We removed them in accordance with their instructions and we also moved the women to the top level. Everything was done in accordance with police instructions.”
Heller said that he entered his position as the liaison with the police for the Hamekomos Hakedoshim 15 years ago. “The police issues instructions, we need to fulfill them, and only then do we proceed,” he said. “This year we had six meetings with them. They issue instructions and we carry them out. They tell us what we need to do, how many levels for the bleachers, how many barriers, what to fix – and we proceed only in accordance with their instructions.”
Naor then asked about the number of people allowed to enter the Toldos Aharon area for the hadlka. “The engineer testified and told us how many are allowed to enter. Did you know anything about that?
“I didn’t know about it until after the disaster,” Heller responded. “There weren’t any signs in the area saying how many could enter. We never ever heard that there’s a limit on the size of the crowd or the area. Anyway, who are we that we can tell people who can enter or who cannot? Does it belong to us? We’re not the police. Are we even permitted to put up barriers? There were areas we wanted to block off, by the steps of Rebbe Elazar where all the women are. We wanted to separate between the men and women but the police didn’t let us. They told us that we can’t because it’s an escape route. We accepted this despite the fact that in accordance with our way of life there should have been a mechitza there.”
“We didn’t put in a single nail without the police and the engineers. There’s no one who will say that Toldos Aharon did even little things without a permit. Two hours before Lag B’Omer I received an entire booklet. The engineer came, threw me a booklet, and said: ‘Here’s your signed permit.'”
“What was I supposed to know? What do I understand? I’m an engineer? An architect?”
When Naor mentioned the size of the crowd, Heller responded that he didn’t notice that the crowding was more intense than in previous years. “They should have told us – stop the hadlaka,” he said. “Why didn’t anyone do that? We simply obey what the police tell us. If the police would have said before the hadlaka that there won’t be a hadlaka, there’s too many people – then there wouldn’t have been a hadlaka. I promise you that we wouldn’t have carried out the hadlaka. If they would have told me – stop the event, they wouldn’t have had to repeat it twice – it would have happened immediately. The police were the ones who managed the event.”
In answer to Naor’s question about the difference between lighting at Meron or in Jerusalem – Heller answered that the Rebbe said that there’s no obligation to travel to Meron. “On the street, we’re known as an extremist sect but we’ve worked in close cooperation with the police throughout the years and you can check this out. We ensured public safety.”
Heller wore a “ring” from a Sukkos lulav on his finger while testifying, apparently a segulah for success.
