The Jerusalem City Hall plan to set up a waterless beach has chareidi councilmen up in arms. Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat announced he plans to import sand to set up a beach near the old train station, a 2,000 square meter area that will give Jerusalemites the feeling of being on the beach, albeit without the ocean.
The beach was done a few years ago too but this time around the opposition is far fiercer.
For the chareidim, the plan signals yet another move to increase chilul Shabbos in the city chas v’sholom. The chareidi councilmen explain this administration has and continues to violate the city’s long-standing religious status quo and they vow to fight the establishment of the beach with tenacity.
The chareidim fear the beach will provide a venue for more unacceptable dress and behavior and it is simply an unwanted addition to the holy city.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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11 Responses
I hope those factions w/in our tzibbur that thought they would come out ahead by supporting Barkat- are learning their lesson for next time.
On the flip side, this will take p’ritzas out of the parks where children play and direct it to the “beach” so that chilren will have a totally frum environment when playing in the parks on Shabbos.
Besides which, it will not give anyone the feeling of being at the beach, which experience includes hearing the waves, smelling the sea, feeling the sea breeze, etc. It will give people the feeling of being in a desert, which is right next door to J-m anyway.
Once they allowed the Toaiva Parade to pass thru Jerusalem without any “serious” objection & attempt to prevent it, this is nothing! You didn’t care about Kvod Shomayim with all your PC Svaros & Cheshbonos, so cause & affect, HKB”H is now teaching you phonies a lesson!
Two questions for the Mayor and his cronies:
1) Who in the world is interested in going to a “water-less” beach? Isn’t the whole idea of a beach is to be close to the water?
2) Don’t they call a stretch of land full of sand a “Park”?
I’ve gotta hand it to Barkat to come up with stupid ideas!
What’s the chiddush? The chilonim see themselves in a waterless beach all year long, especially when the weather gets a bit warm. And now they want to legalize it and help them with it? Hashem yerachem! Aren’t chiloni cities, like Tel Aviv, bad enough? If anything, they should make Yerushalayim if not all over Israel freezing ice-rinks where they’ll have to dress like human beings.
I am not Yeshivish.
I am not Chassidish.
I have been reading the articles and comments on this website for a long time and I am personally amazed.
Regardless if one is Litvish, Cahssisidish, MO, OO, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist – we better learn to stick together.
THE DISTINCTIONS WE MAKE AMONG OURSELVES ARE COMPLETELY INVISIBLE TO OUTSIDERS.
They see us as a single group, and often a group they would like to be rid of.
If we don’t realize this, we one day may be taught it against our will.
Hmmmm…. They should try this in Nebraska.
Waterless beach….guess you’ll only find chareidim there…who would want a waterless beach?? The beach idea is the water more than the sand!
1Jew2opinions – I understand your opinion, but I don’t get what your comment is doing here in this article. What triggered that response? I might have felt some of these comments were foolish and wasted breath, but I did not see any that outright attacked any other religious group. The main vibe I got from all the comments (albeit some more politely written than others) is that this is a stupid idea.
What do you want? That everybody agree with ever stupid idea that a Jew comes up with so that the world thinks we are together? And what about when Neturi Karta kisses up to wicked Moslem leaders? Should we back them up too because they are Jews? Stupidity is stupidity and it’s Asur to back stupidity!
While this is indeed narishkeit, the charedi leaders no longer have any standing to complain about chilul Shabat given that they forced chilul Shabat by refusing to consider moving forward the date of the Lag B’Omer bonfires, as supported by many dati rabbis. This nutty idea might be HaShem’s divine retribution.