Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman announced on Monday that his Yisrael Beiteinu party will begin advancing reforms to giyur and the Kosel compromise plan next month. The reform to giyur will allow any three municipal Rabbanim, including Tzohar rabbanim, to perform giyur. The Kosel plan will establish a permanent pluralistic prayer area at the Kosel. Foreign Minister Yair Lapid also addressed the subject of the Kosel plan on Monday, saying at a meeting of his Yesh Atid party that he’ll do everything he can to ensure that the plan will be implemented by January. Ironically, the pluralistic prayer area that was established by Robinson’s Arch is almost always empty. Additionally, the Reform movement long ago deleted any references to Israel as “Tzion” and to the rebuilding of the Beis Hamikdash in Jerusalem from their prayer books, rendering the Kosel completely insignificant to the movement except as a political battleground. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

About 25 Chareidi and religious Knesset members will use their parliamentary immunity at the Kosel this Friday, Rosh Chodesh Kislev, to prevent Reform Rabbi MK Gilad Kariv (Labor) from repeating the provocative actions he engaged in last month. On Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan, Kariv took cynical advantage of his parliamentary immunity to smuggle a Sefer Torah into the women’s section at the Kosel during Shacharis and read from the Torah amidst the women in the Women of the Wall Group. UTJ MK Meir Porush protested the incident shortly after it occurred by entering a meeting of the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, headed by Kariv, and reciting Pirkei Tehillim aloud. At the time, UTJ chairman Moshe Gafni said that he will not allow Kariv to repeat his act in the future even if he has to block him with his own body. Religious MKs from UTJ, Shas, the Religious Zionist party and Likud will gather at the Kosel on Friday morning at 7 a.m. in a “protest” to protect the kedushah of the Kosel, and have called on others around the country to attend as well, with hundreds expected to attend. On Wednesday morning, UTJ MKs Meir Porush and Yitzchak Pindrus and Shas MK Michael Malchieli met with Jerusalem District Police Commander Superintendent Doron Turgeman to coordinate the protest with the police. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

HaRav Shmuel Rabinowitz, the Rav of the Kosel and Mekomos HaKedoshim and head of the Va’adas HaChamisha, the “Committee of Five,” which is in charge of the Kever Shimon Bar Yochai complex, testified on Monday to the state commission of inquiry into the Meron disaster, which began its first hearings on Sunday. Rav Rabinowitz began by emphasizing that although the Va’adas HaChamisha is responsible for the Kever complex itself, it is not responsible, and cannot be responsible for what goes on at Meron on Lag B’Omer. “If the state had told me that I’m responsible for the Lag B’Omer event, I would have resigned immediately,” he said, explaining that the Va’adas HaChamisha does not have the capability or manpower to be responsible for such a large and complex event. The Kosel Rav clarified that the Lag B’Omer event is the responsibility of the National Center for the Development of the Holy Places and Israel Police, and this point has been agreed upon by the Deputy Attorney General. Rav Rabinowitz continued by saying that when the Va’adas HaChamisha was formed in 2008, the Meron site was in significantly worse shape than it is now and he insisted on and implemented many changes. “The situation there was terrible – no infrastructure, illegal construction, power cables everywhere. We had to fight a war over every brick we wanted to move. I made a decision that it was forbidden to give in because the site was very dangerous. Any child could have touched an electric cord and been electrocuted.” The commission members asked whether he was aware of safety issues regarding Gesher Dov, the narrow passageway where the disaster occurred. Rav Rabinowitz responded that the safety advisors the committee hired in 2008 and afterward didn’t mention anything about Gesher Dov. Rav Rabinowitz added that he did think that “the whole area looked like the third-world. We requested to plan and rebuild everything and started working on a plan to renovate the entire area.” When asked what he thinks should be done for the future, he responded: “Either the hadlakos should be moved to another place or canceled altogether, except for the hadlaka of the Boyaner chassidus, which has an ancient mesorah.” Rav Rabinowitz said that he welcomes the state commission of inquiry, mentioning that he was personally affected by the tragedy, as he lost his nephew, Menachem Asher Zekbach, z’l, 24, a resident of Modiin Illit who left behind his pregnant wife. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

As the Yamim Tovim approach and thousands of visitors are expected at the Kosel, a special test was carried out to ensure the stability of the mechitzos at the site, Kikar H’Shabbat reported. “The test was performed on the partitions themselves as well as on the panels from which the partitions are assembled when needed, to ensure that in cases of pressure or falls they can withstand the load in real-time,” one of the inspectors from Isotest Laboratories said. The government has set the number of mispallelim allowed at the Kosel as 10,000, and the plaza area will be divided into capsules. A conflict arose at the government’s cabinet meeting last week, with the Kosel Heritage Foundation requesting an allowance of 15,000 mispallelim and the Health Ministry demanding the number to be limited to 5,000, the official number of participants currently allowed at gatherings in open areas. A compromise was reached, with the number set at 10,000. Beginning on Thursday, the Kosel plaza will be divided into capsules in accordance with Health Ministry regulations. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

A woman in the advanced stages of pregnancy and her husband were attacked while on their way to a birthday celebration at the Kosel. According to the couple, when they passed Wadi Joz in East Jerusalem, on Thursday, they fell victim to an attack that included a large group of Muslim men throwing rocks at their car and trying to pull them out of the vehicle. The woman suffered an injury to her shoulder and the car was badly damaged, The husband told N12 News, “Waze led us through Wadi Joz. When we were in the heart of the neighborhood we realized that we were caught in an ambush. In front of us, a Toyota Corolla car pulled out and suddenly slowed down. Within seconds, dozens of attackers came from all directions: from vehicles, bus stops, and shops. They shouted ‘Sllah Akbar’ and threw stones at us. It was an assassination attempt. We thought we would not get out of there alive.” “I realized they were going to get us out of the car,” he recalled. “All the windows were shattered and after a quarter of an hour that felt like an eternity, I managed to get around them and escape from there. My wife called the police in tears – at first, they could not locate us, and eventually, a police officer came to rescue us and accompanied us out of the neighborhood.” The couple said that they were very happy that their three children were not in the car at the time, as the gang of Arabs had completely destroyed the backseat thinking that there were kids in the car and wanted to hurt them. The couple was taken to a police station on Har HaZeisim, where they filed a report and a complaint to the police. They also met other families who had suffered a similar situation and who also gave testimony against the same Toyota vehicle that purposely slowed them down. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

One of the victims of the Meron disaster was Menachem Asher Zekbach, 24, the nephew of Rav Shmuel Rabinowitz, the Rav of the Kosel and mekemos hakedoshim and member of the “Vaadas HaChamisha,” the organization responsible for Kever Rashbi. Menachem, z’l, was a resident of Modiin Illit and learned in the Kollel Ateres Shlomo in the city. He left behind a pregnant wife and parents and siblings. “I personally felt the terrible pain and saw the grieving on Erev Shabbos when I came to identify my nephew, the beloved avreich, Reb Menachem Zekbach, z’l, who passed away in the tragedy,” Rav Rabinowitz wrote. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

As Israelis line up to be inoculated, the Kosel isn’t left out of the quest for univeral good health and is being inoculated with preservatives ahead of Pesach, the Israel Antiquities Authority stated last week. However, unlike Israel’s vaccination program against COVID-19, the Kosel’s inoculations regularly take place twice a year, ahead of the Yamim Noraim and Pesach. Israel Antiquities Authority conservators and Western Wall Heritage Foundation engineers carry out a thorough inspection of the Kosel, examining every stone and inject grout into crevices using syringes. The work is carried out according to halachic parameters established by the Rav of the Kosel, Rav Shmuel Rabinowitz, almost 18 years ago, following consultations with Gedolim, especially HaGaon HaRav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, z’tl. “The Wall’s 2,000-year-old stones are subject to natural weathering and we’re making sure to strengthen them,” said Yossi Vaknin, the Israel Antiquities Authority’s head conservator in the Kosel area. “Our routine biannual inspections enable us to track the condition of every single stone. We have an ‘identity card’ for each of the hundreds of stones in the plaza and monitor dozens of features. Our most recent survey revealed that it was necessary to treat the ‘peel’, or outer layer, of several stones. Our work on the historic wall is non-destructive. We do not drill into the stone, but delicately inject dissolved stone into the gaps and fissures. Limestone-based grout is injected into the fissure as a liquid, and when dry, the crack is repaired. It is the best possible method of ‘healing’ the stones and the ultimate defense against weathering for the most important stones in the world.” Vaknin added that the conservation work is carefully carried out in a way that won’t damage the Kosel’s unique ecosystem with its own life forms, including plants and birds. “The Kosel is a unique ecological environment that supports its own life forms. A lot of plants have taken root in the Wall’s stones – particularly thorny capers, golden drops and golden henbanes. Added to this, many birds nest in the Kosel, including the common swift which arrives every year, ravens, and doves. As part of our conservation work, in recognition of the importance of the site’s unique flora and fauna, we also preserve this ecosystem while guaranteeing the stones’ stability, thus ensuring that the Kosel will remain strong for at least 2,000 more years.” (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

A shidduch story that took place in Israel has been making the rounds in Israel in recent days, Kikar H’Shabbos reported. HaRav Chaim Shmreler, who is heavily involved in the issue of shidduchim for older singles, told the story in a shiur that was uploaded on Kol HaLashon. The story began about a year ago, when Reb Gershon Klatzkin, a shadchan from Beitar Illit, suggested a shidduch to the father of a yasom who was learning in a yeshivah in Jerusalem. The father was apparently not interested in the shidduch because when the shadchan called back to inquire about it, the father didn’t answer his phone calls. Two weeks passed, and one day when R’ Klatzkin was on a bus to Jerusalem, he suddenly overheard a man saying on the phone: “I haven’t answered his phone calls for two weeks already. I don’t think the shidduch is mat’im (appropriate).” The shadchan, who until then was only acquainted with the father over the phone, realized who it was, and decided to take action. He introduced himself to the surprised father and suggested to him that he reconsider the shidduch. The shadchan was successful in convincing the father to change his mind. The shidduch proceeded quickly and ended with a mazal tov and a jubilant chassan and kallah. A day after the vort took place, the mashgiach of the chassan’s yeshivah approached the shadchan and told him the “real story” on how the shidduch ended up proceeding, despite the father’s initial reluctance. At the very hour that R’ Klatzkin “coincidentally” rode the same bus as the chassan’s father and overheard him speaking about the shidduch, the chassan himself was at the Kosel crying bitterly. “Ribbono shel Olam, I’m broken,” he davened. “I don’t have a mother. I didn’t have a mother at my Bar Mitzvah, I didn’t have a mother to ask me how my first day of yeshivah went, and I didn’t have a mother to send me homemade to yeshivah.” “I never complained despite the fact that it pained me,” the bochur continued to daven. “But now I can’t anymore. All my friends have married and I’m left alone in yeshivah.” When the bochur finished his tearful tefillah, he returned to yeshivah, where a phone call from his father about R’ Klatzkin’s shidduch was waiting. Days later, he was engaged. The incredible power of tefillah, especially the tearful tefillah of a yasom at the Makom Hamikdash, had an immediate effect. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)