At the weekly Cabinet meeting on Sunday, 11 Tammuz, Ceremonies and Symbols Committee Chairman Minister Stas Misezhnikov briefed ministers on the arrangements for the funeral of Israel’s seventh Prime Minister, Yitzhak Shamir. The levaya will begin at 18:00 on Monday, 12 Tammuz.

At 10:00, Yitzhak Shamir’s coffin will lay in state at the Knesset. The public will be able to pay its respects until 16:00.

At 18:00, the state funeral will begin at Mt. Herzl. A representative of the family, President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin will speak. The public will be able to attend the funeral.

There has been an outpouring of sentiment following the announced petira of the late prime minister, who was niftar on shabbos in a Tel Aviv nursing home. Most recall the former prime minister’s past as a leading commander in the Lechi underground, as well as his years in the Mossad and of course, in Knesset and twice prime minister.

Kikar Shabbat interviewed Tel Aviv Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, who recalls when he became the chief rabbi of the city for the first time in 5748, Shamir was prime minister. Rabbi Lau explains that having met one another before that, the prime minister went out of his way to attend the inauguration ceremony for him, something he never forgot. He explains that while commander of the Lechi Shamir maintained a constant dialogue with HaRav Yitzchak Yedidya Frenkel ZT”L, and as a result, he too became acquainted with the late prime minister.

Rabbi Lau added that after serving as prime minister Shamir moved to Sharret Street in Tel Aviv and he set aside a makom kavua for the former prime minister at his side in his shul, Heichal Moshe. He adds that Mr. Shamir and his wife were guests for a yomtov meal at his home their first Rosh Hashanah in the city. Rabbi Lau recalled how Shamir personally came to his office as chief rabbi in Heichal Shlomo and began presenting documents pertaining to the Jews of Ethiopia, seeking the Chief Rabbinate’s approval to recognize them as Jews. He pointed out that the prime minister did not send a shaliach, but came himself, in person.

Kikar Shabbat also interviewed MK (Yahadut HaTorah) Yisrael Eichler, whose recollection of the later prime minister is from a somewhat different perspective.

Eichler recalls that Shamir contributed to growing disdain for chareidim. He explains that he personally met with Shamir on numerous occasions, adding the niftar signed the לוחמי המדינה document that is also signed by his late father, Rav Menashe Eichler.

“Yitzchak Shamir was the commander of Lechi that fought the British rule and against Ben-Gurion and the Haganah. There was a religious group in Lechi and the attitude towards those fighters was arrogance, as was the case in the Haganah”.

“With the founding of the state, Shamir crossed the line and served under Ben-Gurion in the Mossad for many years. He was secular already in Bialystok and he brought an end to Likud respecting the religious as was the case under Menachem Begin. To the contrary. When he betrayed the coalition deal with Agudas Yisrael he stated openly ‘you can frame and hang the agreement on the wall with my signature as a remembrance’. Since that time, Likud has been hostile to the frum, no less so than Labor – against the chareidi tzibur that always backed Likud”

Eichler recalled a meeting with Shamir from 20 years ago, quoting the late prime minister as saying “in the future, the state will be frum and chareidi. Our youth is breaking away from the idea of Eretz Yisrael and linking with the left-wing or leaving the country, or joining the criminal element. The national security burden will fall on the shoulders of the young religious and chareidi and you must prepare for it”.

Eichler explained that he told Shamir that those people who placed the responsibility for the chinuch of the nation’s children in the public school system cut off the nationalist branch upon which the state was built and if the children are released to the realm of the secular school system, no one will remain Jewish chas v’sholom and there will be no Jewish state.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)