Zaka found and CEO Yehuda Meshi-Zahav spoke to the press at Mount Herzl, where he was attending the Wednesday evening official Independence Day Ceremony. He explained that since he was among the torch-lighters in 2003 he has attends annually, adding it is very emotional for him.
Meshi-Zahav spoke of the “kibbutz galiyos’, the ingathering of the exiles of Jews from around the world. Avos Avoseinu could only dream of this, an independent Jewish state”. Mesh-Zahav added that not only is the nation advancing in the physical realm, “but not since Chizkiyahu HaMelech has so much Torah been studied by Am Yisrael. Ben-Gurion is in Gan Eden in the merit of the limud Torah in the State of Israel. Am Yisrael has not known such good days since the destruction of the Second Beis Hamikdash”.
Press
What brings a chareidi to this ceremony?
Meshi-Zahav
I represent Zaka, one of the largest chessed organizations in Israel. I identify with everything taking place here.
Meshi-Zahav added that something needs to be done, explaining on the one hand the chareidim are criticized for not taking party in the ceremony but on the other hand, chareidim are not included. He promises to do something about it by next year’s ceremony.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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25 Responses
Hagaon Harav Yehuda Meshi-Zahav shlita must be a great godol for his views to be of import to us.
He is entitled to his opinion but he is clearly NOT Daas Torah.
What’s the chiddush? Ben-Gurion would have been held only for the first eleven months, not forever, before being released.
Even if you feel a Bracha came from it etc. it’s far cry to say he’s in Gan Eden.
It’s like saying Haman is in Gan Eden for giving us Purim…
What I wrote isn’t an extreme example. The scociety we know in EY today is not at all what the founding Zionists envisioned.
When Ben Gurion visited the Chazon Ish in 1950 to demand that he use his influence to comply with the government’s demand that Frum girls be drafted in to Zahal, the Chazon Ish refused to look at him, quoting after the meeting the Gemara “Al tistakel b’pnei rosho – do not gaze in to the face of a wicked man”!
However,as R.Kook explained, the Yishuv could ONLY come in to existence by dint of the effort of the Erev Rav and Secularists. So maybe Ben Gurion has finished his spell in Gehennom & really has entered Gan Eden to glean some reward for that effort.
I think George Washington is in Gan Eden for sure. He didn’t kidnap Yemenite children or secularize Yaldei Teheran, or shoot at the Italia (Irgun soldiers bringing supplies). George Washington liked religious Jews as we read in his letter to the Newport Synagogue. Ben Gurion thought that בני תורה are a dying breed and loved that. Boy, was he wrong.
With all due respect to the terrific organization that Zaka is, how can Meshi-Zahav makes such a statement. The Torah learning in Eretz Isroel has nothing to do with Ben-Gurion. What has to do with him, is unfortunally that thousand of Jews lost all connection to Yiddishkeit.
With all due respect to Mr Meshi Zahav, Ben Gurion YMS is in Hell and he aint coming out anytime soon. Please do not forget about the thousands of innocent Yemenites, Moroccans and Jews from elsewhere in the Middle East that were stripped of their Yiddishkeit by Ben Gurion and his cronies. Yidden were tortured and brutalized by the Zionists because they chose to adhere to a Torah lifestyle.
The Chazon Ish ZTL refused to look at this Rashas face, so for some newbie to come along and proclaim he is in Gan Eden, should be taken with a grain of salt.
As the Brisker Rav, already living in E”Y at the time, noted “Two things are certain: Zionism is Avoda Zara, and all who live in E”Y stumble in Zionism”.
As others mentioned, the Chazon Ish wouldn’t look at him in the face because it’s forbidden to look at a rasha’s face.
Yet this man from ZAKA comes up with this idea that David BG must be in Gan Eden because of all the Torah learned in E”Y, as if David BG had even the slightest hope for such a thing, never mind what he actually did do, as others have mentioned? Maybe, just maybe, Hashem gave David BG all his schar in this world.
Further, it is simply delusional to claim that “Am Yisrael”, whatever that is supposed to refer to (Israelis? Israeli Jews? all Jews?) has never had such good days (in E”Y?) since Bayis Sheini. After over a century of Zionist incitement in the region and the threat of a nuclear Iran, not to mention all the savage rock throwers and others, the Jewish, (not Zionist) nation has definitely seen far better days than these.
We learn from certain ancient Sforim (especially Zohar and “Reishis-Chochmah”) that for extreme sinners there are far worse places than Gehinnom.
It’s called “Kaf-Ha’kela”.
There are no specific time limits for sentences to Kaf-Ha’kela.
Some sentences can be for centuries!
And when a soul is finally released from there, he is then allowed to enter Gehinnom.
At that point the soul actually rejoices! Because Kaf-Ha’kela is far worse than Gehinnom! (That is so beyond our comprehension, that it is simply extra mind-boggling… We can’t fathom “ordinary” Hell, and KH is worse!)
The limit of 12 months (NOT 11 months) is only for Gehinnom.
To sum it up in one word:
YIKES!
Chachom, some roshoim stay for longer than 12 months, some -forever R”L.
@roshvrishon
The boat you’re referring to was called “The Altalena” (not Italia)
as areply to chochom comment three:-
you should change your username because the gemoro says mefurash in rosh hashonah that poshei yisroel b’gufon are in gehenom even after gehenom has stopped going. even if you want to say that he might have put on tefillin at most he has been turned into ash to trodden under the feet of the tzadikim!
I don’t know if Ben Gurion is in Gan Eden. I do know that he was one of the founders of a State that has given refuge to hundreds of thousands of Yidden who have fled from nations that persecuted them.
I also know that Aryeh Deri was in jail as a convicted criminal and that he is soon to be a minister of the State of Israel.
Who would you choose to invite to dinner? I’ll take Ben Gurion any day.
millions of Jews today in Israel do not even say שמע ישראל ONLY because Ben-Gurion and his men would not implement it in secular schools… very much doubt he is in Gan Edan!
No Ben-Gurion -> no state of Israel -> no state supported frum mosdos / no Baal Teshuva movement. This is not to say that he wanted it but you must admit that these things are as a direct result of the state.
:} Foolish man. :\!
Meshi-Zahav has sure gone a 180 from his background
To paraphrase old charedi philanthropist Moshe sheinfeld: Torah learning has been in spite of, NOT because of the Secularist State.
Recall also what Ben Gurion said about the holocaust:
“6,000,000 died ? So what? They died”
To roshvrishon:
For the sake of accuracy only, the name of the Irgun ship that was tragically attacked was the “Altalena”.
Ben Gurion did what he thought was best for the country and the Jewish people given what he knew and the cards he was dealt. He came at it with a set of prejudices as any person would and believed that he needed a different set than what Chazan Ish thought. Was he right? Of course not! But one can argue that his intentions were not to destroy yidishkeit but to build a country in the 20th century that can compete and survive in the middle east. Was he successful? I think so. Yiddishkeit flurished in Israel because there was a Jewish state not despite it and so Ben Gurion, despite not valuing it, deserves some credit for where torah is today.
#17 & #21
Really !?
If you were writing about Jabotinzsky or even Weitzman ,perhaps what you’re saying would have some merit .
But Ben Gurion!?
Back in ’31,when Jabotinzky stood up and tore up his Zionist membership card in disgust at the Mapai’s chicanery ,he declared “we will yet have a state despite these rascals”
Of the several thousand children that disappeared
69 % Yemenites
28 % North african
2.5% were ashkenazim
His intentions were to be oker torah. Period.
@avreimi – Read Ben Hecht’s Perfidy.