On Erev Shabbos (erev Rosh Chodesh Nissan 5772) Rav Eliezer Berland Shlita left his home in Betar Illit and began heading to Caesarea for Shabbos as planned. The rav, who is rosh yeshiva of Shuvu Banim community had planned spending Shabbos Vayikra in Caesarea but at the last moment, without warning, he decided to do an about-face and head for home.
Persons close to the rav admit “no one knows what was going one. He was already on the way for Shabbos and suddenly, without any apparent reason, he instructed the driver to turn around and take him back home”.
According to Chadrei Chareidim, when Breslov Chassidim in Yerushalayim heard the rav returned home they decided to walk to their rebbe on Shabbos morning and that they did. When they arrived they learned that unlike the rav’s regular practice, there were be no seudas shlishis and the walk was for naught. The chassidim waited until Shabbos was over and returned home.
It appears that over recent weeks, chassidim began walking from the capital to Betar Illit on Shabbos to be with the rav for seudas shlishis.
At the time of this report, the reason for the last-minute cancelation of the Caesarea Shabbos remains a mystery.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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6 Responses
“It appears that over recent weeks, chassidim began walking from the capital to Betar Illit on Shabbos to be with the rav for seudas shlishis.”
Is Beitar within the Techum of Yerushalayim? I know it’s a short drive, but I’d think it’s iffy re: the Techum.
an Israeli Yid
WOW
I find it amazing this would be a news item
who cares
1. I was wondering the same thing. If I recall it was about 20-30 minutes OUTSIDE Y’lem with not too many houses along the way (do we count yishmalim ym’sh?).
IsraeliYid:
Ahavas Yisroel should tell you that if they walk on Shabbos, its okay, there is no tchum problem and it isn’t iffy.
Walking from Yerushalayim to Beitar Illit?!
Indeed that sounds to me like a very big tchum issue…
But aside from that…. is that something one should spend half their shabbos on? That’s at least a 3-4 hour walk!
Measured from Bikur Cholim (the center of Yerushalayim) to the entrance of Beitar Illit, it’s 12.5 km / 7.8 miles – that would be 3 hours in a straight line.
There certainly is a tchum issue from Jer to Beitar as far as I am aware of. On top of that there is an even greater safety issue. The Rav of Beitar states that tefilas haderech with a bracha should be made when traveling that road because of the dangers from the Arabs. Besides a tchum issue this would cause a lot of chilul shabbos as the army would be required to drive up and down that road for safety reasons.
I’m wondering if there is misinformation in this article. It’s hard to believe that the information here is factual.