The Rabbanut decision to permit the transfer of kevarim under Ashkelon’s Barzilai Hospital will only be formally announced in about two weeks. A meeting was held on Tuesday evening between Ra’anan Dinur of the Prime Minister’s Office and Oded Viner, the director-general of the Rabbanut, after which the timetable for the official statement was released.
In essence, the chief rabbis have already decided the kevarim may be transferred to finally permit construction of the fortified section of the hospital after delaying the project for over a year. Nevertheless, the rabbanim requested from Viner to permit a two-week delay, to permit adequate time to ensure Gedolei Yisrael are not opposed to the decision.
According to Ladaat.net, Maran Rav Wosner and Maran Rav Karlitz have released their p’sak, that moving the kevarim is not permitted, and the claim of ‘pikuach nefesh’ does not apply for a number of reasons, including the fact there will not be any lives directly saved as a result of the act. In addition, the Gedolim state they understand the unit can be built in a different location, another side of the hospital, which does not demand the exhuming of bodies. Maran Rav Elyashiv reportedly concurs, writing in his own handwriting that the new hospital wing should be constructed without upsetting the kevarim.
It now appears that if the reported decisions of the Gedolei Yisrael are indeed in opposition, the Rabbinical Council and chief rabbis will reverse their decision permitting the transfer of the kevarim.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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11 Responses
Whose kevarim are these?
Ashkelon needs a secure and large hospital to care for the many southern residents in times of need. Hamas is not disappearing today or tomorrow, so plans must be made to expand the facility and build underground emergency rooms.
Who cares about the details?
The Gedolim have spoken.
Period.
I don’t get it. If the Rabanut plans to differ from the Gedolim, why then the delay?
I don’t want to question the da’as torah of our holy Gedolim. Also, I apreciate that big decisions or complicated issues are run past them. But we don’t run every decision past them – I don’t ask the gedolim what to eat for breakfast (the halacha is that one should have breakfast, so I try to keep that, and not worry further), and I don’t think they get consulted on every building. Would they not allow other things which we do on a daily basis? would all gedolim pasken like this, or would others allow the moving of graves to prevent a major loss? I just don’t know.
I’m surprised to see that apparently the management of the hospital are having a discussion here on Yeshiva World! How else do we understand the insistence of #2 (& #6) and #7 to know the reason of the psak and to check up to see whether it was quoted correctly?
#4 you misunderstood. The Chief Rabbis are inclined to allow it and, to their credit, are prepared to withdraw their opinion in deference to the Gedolim
The Amazement of the era that we live in.
No questions, no discussions, no differences of opinion — not like the glorious eras of the tanaim, amoraim, or the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Reb Moshe zt”l and his contemporary gedolim differed on halachic decisions and were respected, honored and even adhered to.
How dare any of you make it seem like someone is doing something wrong by wishing to understand a p’sak.
What a repulsive and disgusting way of thinking.
This is not how our fathers and grandfathers grew up. People discussed. They debated. Sometimes famously.
Now we have anonymous poskim on blogs saying “you’re not allowed to ask a reason”.
Absolutely disgusting. It’s opinions like that which are distancing people from Torah nowadays. Instead of embracing interest and inviting the desire to understand, you throw it away in a pathetic self righteous way.
If this is how you act online I can only assume you’re probably the same or worse offline and you will most likely be responsible for “turning people off” from Yiddishkeit.
You’ll have more to answer for than the guy who asked did. Menuval.
#8/Israeli,
There is a difference between “wanting to know the reason to understand, or wanting to know it to challenge it.
It is clear some amaratzim (i.e. aliza #5 and others) do not care to understand it for its own sake. They want to knock the Gedolim Shlita. To that they have no right; and are offered no opportunity; and one need not provide them any “reasonings.”
Pray tell, how is this different than relocating the graves in Gaza?
Curious if somebody knows the answer.
#14, whatever the resolution on this matter, it has no connection to the Gaza graves. Those meisim were moved for their own benefit – that is clearly permitted and required. If they’d been left behind, what do you think would have happened to them? The meisim we’re talking about here are not being moved for their own benefit, but for ours. The need for a fortified ER is clear, and if there is nowhere else to build it then it seems clear that we must move the dead for the benefit of the living. But if there’s a way to preserve both, then that’s obviously what should be done.
Aliza/#13,
1) My #3 comment was not a response to #2, and nowhere did it indicate that it was. In fact, when I submitted my #3 comment, comment #2 was not posted by the moderators yet.
2) You are a baal letzanus, and have amply demonstrated as such with your comments vis-a-vis the Gedolim many times over on this blog.
3) No. You are no one to challenge the rulings of the Gedolim Shlita.
4) If the best you can muster is mocking a transliteration of a word, you have indeed admitted to your lack of solid arguments.