HaGaon HaRav Yitzchak Yosef arrived at the Ohr Chaviv shul on Sunday afternoon and witnessed the damage caused by a deliberate act of arson overnight.
The sight caused tears to roll down his face.
HaRav Yosef arrived at Ohr Chaviv together with Shas chairman Aryeh Deri, who met earlier with senior police officials at his home. Deri also spoke with Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, who informed him that the Shin Bet is treating the incident with the highest level of severity, as a nationalistic terror attack, and that an accelerated investigation is underway.
According to a Kikar H’Shabbat report, the Shas party is paying for a personal security guard for HaRav Yosef until the end of the investigation.
Deri and HaRav Yosef were accompanied on the visit to the site by senior police and Shin Bet officials.
Deri, with HaRav Yosef at his side, spoke to the press: “There is no greater hate crime than this. To come and burn a shul – this is an unforgivable act. We saw the burned sefarim kedoshim, and it is a great neis that the Aron Kodesh and Sifrei Torah were saved. The sight is heartbreaking. We have just heard from the police and Shin Bet officers, and they hope that they will be able to solve the case in the coming hours.”
Deri emphasized: “Enough with the hatred! Enough with the incitement! See where this discourse leads. It’s not just about debates on the air – ultimately, there are people on the fringes who take things seriously and do terrible things. We could have come today and discovered that there is no shul and no sifrei Torah, chalilah. It is a great neis that the firefighters arrived immediately and extinguished the fire.”
“I call on everyone to stop. Words can kill. Imagine if such an event had occurred in France or any other country – we would be shocked. We must not accept such a reality in the State of Israel.”
Earlier on Sunday morning, Shin Bet investigators arrived to examine the scene after it was decided that the Shin Bet would manage the arson investigation alongside investigators from the Central Unit of the Jerusalem Police.
A preliminary investigation suggests that the arsonist sought to personally harm HaRav Yosef. The security camera footage shows him entering the shul, approaching the Rishon LeZion’s chair, pouring flammable material on it, setting it on fire, and fleeing the scene.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
I’m asking this bc I see inconsistencies and I would like some answers that actually make sense.
When the country gets a 1,000 rockets fired at it the claim was Torah protected the people. But now we need to higher a security team for the Rishon Letzion?
I’m not saying he shouldnt have a personal security team or Limud HaTorah doesnt protect. I just don’t understand how you can say BOTH at the same time?
The answer has to be applicable to both scenarios. No?
On the fence,
Good question
IMHO the answer is that the ones that are saying “Torah protects” aren’t saying that all you need is Torah, it saying one should try to do whatever hishtadlus he needs to do but realize what’s really protecting is the Torah, so the “Torah protects” faction says we need an army because of hishtadlus but the reason they are successful is because of the lomdei Torah
The same is true here
Coffee addict
I hear what your saying. Then we run into other issues. Like how do you define “whatever hishtadlus he needs to do” or “we need an army”. Surely what was too much hishtadlus today can be too little tomorrow and vice versa….. But if at the end of the day if it’s the Torah learning that makes you successful then why should the amount of hishtadlus matter all together? How do WE measure the Torah learning that will be successful? Do we have such instruments to measure if it was or wasn’t the Torah learning? (Ask a yeshivah bachur and he will tell you it was his Brisker learning, ask a chanadsker and he will tell you it was his Tanya learning. I’m not saying one is and one isn’t learning torah God forbid. I’m just trying to point out that from my personal experience of speaking to a few different people, it seems there is no way to know. Why can’t the claim of it’s the zchoos of Eretz Yisrael that stopped all those rockets.)
There are many people out there that don’t have Torah learning and seem very successful. Also there has to be different rules when talking about an individual and the public.