The Sentry
Real life stories. Documents. Quotes.
Following the tragedy in Meron last year [after giving the police a long time to invent, practice, and polish their story], the government set-up a committee to investigate what happened and how to prevent it in the future. As we reported, the government has had an eye for some time on taking control of Meron and turning it into a national historical site. The decision of the committee was therefore a foregone conclusion.
A few weeks ago the chief of the committee M. Naor died in her sleep. She was a Supreme Court judge who had a long history of hostility toward chareidim. She was involved with uprooting the status quo of the draft, destroying Shabbos, altering the process of Torah conversions, and tampering with kashrus. But there is another fascinating aspect to the story.
The committee called many for testimony and questioning. The police who were in control of the affair were questioned with kid gloves. There was no heavy probing of the police blocking the exit where the tragedy occurred, or of the many reports from ambulance drivers of the police interfering with their ability to arrive at the site. Yet when Reb Meir Carlebach who runs the Hachnosas Orchim in Meron was called for questioning, they buckled down on the grilling. They delved into the particulars of the kugel distribution, and the operating of a raffle that didn’t follow Israeli raffle legalities.
After about fifteen minutes of seeing where the questions were heading, Reb Meir told the committee the following warning; “In 5671 [a hundred and ten years ago] a wall fell [in Meron] and ten people were killed. In the sefer ‘Eden Tzion’ it is written that it happened because they prevented people from coming to the hilulah of Rashbi. It states that at an earlier time as well they stopped women from coming, and the one who decreed that did not live out the year. It is forbidden to tamper with the tradition of the place.”
Ten years ago when the government began to attempt the takeover of Meron, Rav Elyashiv zt”l wrote a letter sharply warning against any changes in the control of Meron.
During that period the government destroyed the “Gesher Hakohanim” that was in Meron [see below]. It was painstakingly rebuilt, but has once again been destroyed in recent days.
Hagaon Rav Meir Soloveitchik zt”l spoke then at shalosh seudos and revealed what was going on, he said; “What is applicable to our situation today in Eretz Hakodesh; Meron the burial place of the Tanna Reb Shimon Bar Yochai zy”a and now the tzionim have started a battle to remove it from the control of the hekdeishos, who have run the area efficiently for hundreds of years. And in their brazen chutzpah they have named [this project] hafka’ah, [as if to say] hefker bais din hefker. They are coming to steal the ownership of the place! They are coming to steal the ownership of the place, and to gain control of it!
Their plans are known; [they want] to turn the place into a tourist attraction R”l, where all the shkotzim and prutzim will come there, and for a chareidi Jew it won’t be possible to daven there. Throughout the generations it was known that if a Jew wanted to be misboded with his Creator he would ascend to Meron and learn in kedushah v’taharah. And when a Jew was in an eis tzarah he would ascend to Meron to pour out [his heart] in tefillah. [It could come to a situation] that they won’t allow a Jew who is adorned with a beard and payos to enter there.
Last year, Erev Lag Baomer, a group of talmidei chachamim went to Meron to check the area to see if Kohanim can enter there. After they discovered that there are burial areas around the entire area, they spent a huge sum of money [about a million shekel] and built a gesher taharah kipah al gabei kipah, special for kohanim to be able to go up on this path to the mountain. This week the government came with hundreds of police officers and army personnel and surrounded the entire area, on the chance that a Jew from Yerushalayim might come and express a his protest and pain. Without mercy they destroyed a bridge that was built with toil and a tremendous amount of money. Did the bridge request of them food or water, or any other expense for them? What does this disturb them? Only this is the point of the hafka’ah; to steal the place from the chareidim and to do there as they wish.
Truthfully, there were some Rabbonim who were aroused to the danger of removing Meron from the hekdeishos [and transfer it] to the government, and they arranged protests etc., but where is the outcry of the Jews of chutz la’aretz, who come in masses hundred and thousands each year to daven at the tzion hakadosh of the Tanna Eloki Reb Shimon Bar Yochai, why aren’t we hearing their uproar? Today they are destroying a bridge, and there will yet come a day that a chareidi Jew won’t be able to step foot in Meron.
My father said, during the times of spiritual persecution of Stalin, that there will come a day that we’ll have to run away from Eretz Hakodesh to Russia in order to keep the Torah, because of the redifas hada’as [spiritual harassment] that will intensify. This was known all the time, however recently it has come out in the open. Now it is still possible to stop it, but if we will be silent now, there will be nothing left to do.
And recently there has been frightful happenings here, persecutions that are increasing more and more. They say; ‘It is not the state [doing this], but rather the media.’ But who is the media if not the state?
Who is the guilty party in all of this? It is the chareidim that wish to come close to the chilonim, [who wish] to explain to them that the chareidim are not as bad as they are portrayed. It is well-known the words of the Bais HaLevi on the passuk ‘vayisrotzitzu habonim b’kirbah’ that when Yaakov and Eisav are too close together they are hence forcefully separated, against their will. From the establishment of the state there hasn’t been such a large representation of chareidim in the government. Yet their influence is worth nothing. They receive more and more ‘beatings’ from the [secular] and they still don’t learn their lesson.”
The police attempted to censor all pictures of the site of the tragedy in Meron. A photographer reported being beaten by police as he was trying to take pictures. However some pictures leaked-out. Here is a picture of the police creating a human blockage of the exit where the tragedy occurred.
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