It appears Jerusalem City Hall is coordinating with police, preparing to carry out a demolition order on a portion of the Toldos Avraham Yitzchak Beis Medrash in Meah Shearim. The city is not acting on its own but it was served with a court order to demolish a portion of the building a number of months ago. Askanim have been working to prevent it but it appears all efforts to date have been unsuccessful.
The demolition order pertains to the new addition that was done about three years ago. A case was opened against the chassidus for the building, which authorities indicate is illegal. Chadrei Chareidim reports it has learned that authorities plan to execute the order next week, on Monday, 8 Iyar 5772.
It appears senior police commanders accompanied by city officials were on location on Wednesday, 3 Iyar and they assessed the situation in preparation for what will undoubtedly be a confrontation.
Toldos Avraham Yitzchak has filed an urgent petition to the court seeking a delay or elimination of the order. The court has yet to respond.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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10 Responses
Was it illegal re: zoning, safety rules, tax reasons?
These same authorities are today illegally building on large tracts of illegally occupied territory today and have been doing so for years.
Were the Jews who donated to Toldos Avraham Yitchak for this project made aware in advance by the mosdos that the project may not be compliant with the municipality???
If it gets ripped down, will they be reimbursed by Toldos Avraham Yitchak?
#2, what’s illegal about it? Whose law is it against?
So, for years, this building addition did not bother anybody. Why the sudden objection?
This sinas chinom–fierce hatred against religious Jews in Israel, and especially against Chassidim, is despicable.
By the way, Arabs routinely build in Jerusalem without bothering to file legal papers. Will the authorities do anything about that? You betcha they woudn’t dare.
The double standard should make it obvious what’s really going on here–Some people are acceptable, and some are not.
It is against the law of G-d as expounded by the Torah sages for Jewish people to rise up and conquer the Land by force of arms as the nationalists have done and continue to do. It is also against the laws of man because the U.N. in 1947 voted for a much smaller territory. Even the U.S. will not recognize Jerusalem as the capitol
#6, it’s not against any law of G-d for Jews to build homes and live in their own land. And it’s not up to the UN or the US or anyone else. Eretz Yisroel belongs to Am Yisroel, whether we’re in golus or geulah, and every Jew has the right to live there. Golus does not mean that there’s a mitzvah to live in chutz lo’oretz! According to the Ramban mitzvas yishuv EY is noheg today, and even according to the Rambam it’s something every Jew should try to do, even though it isn’t an actual chiyuv mid’oraisa. And no goy has the right to tell us that we can live in this region and not that one. Nor is there any “international law” that says so.
Att. Milhouse,
Ur right that we have a right to live anywhere we want (almost)… but we dont have a right to try to be and to be- the owner of isreal! As written in talmud bavli. But aside the rights we have, do u really think that if tbe rambam would’ve seen whats going on in today’s days in Israel he would’ve said the same? Do u think it could even be a mitzva for a jew to go make an aliya? With all the suicide bombers, the missiles and rockets, the millions of jew hating arabs inside and all around the Medina’s borders, iran, and im talking yet about the ridiculous shameless destruction of every religious Jew’s life by the so called jewish state’s government???
Att. shloimele, we are the owners of Eretz Yisroel. It belongs to us. Are you alleging that the Talmud Bavli says otherwise?! You are talking kefirah. Hashem gave us our Land as נחלת עולם; we always have the right to live there, and the Arabs are trespassers.
And yes, the Ramban holds that living in EY is a mitzvah d’oraisa that applies at all times and in all generations; the Rambam holds that it’s not an actual mitzvah but merely something that all Jews should aspire to, and should do if they can. In the Rambam’s and Ramban’s times EY was a lot more dangerous than today. That is why the Rambam’s own effort to settle there failed, and why the Ramban only went late in his life. But if they would see the situation today they would be astonished that people still consider it difficult! By comparison with how it was in their day it’s perfectly safe and easy to live there.
Each of us who doesn’t live there has our own reasons, and our own cheshbon with the Ribbono Shel Olom. Just because you have a home somewhere doesn’t mean you have to live there all the time; sometimes people leave their homes for an extended period, to work in another city, or for school, etc. But they know where home is, and where they intend to return. Every Jew must know that EY is his home, and chutz lo’oretz is only a temporary relocation until the difficulties are resolved and he can go home. If someone forgets that and regards chutz lo’oretz as his home, then the gemoro says that it is as if he has no God, chas vesholom!
Att. Milhouse,
I fully agree with the second half of ur sentence, but what u said in the first half- no offense – i strongly disagree with, hashem gave us eretz yisruel as a נחלת עולם, and we lived there for a number of years- exactly how long hashem yisburech wes satisfied with our doings and behavior, and then he sent us in gules- i guess he had a reason y he did it- and he didnt took us home yet! So eretz yisruel “is” ours, yes! But- the one who gave it took it back- temporarily, as if every father would have done to his child to make him behave and educate him, and we do have to consider it as our home, our goal, but the thing we can do is do more mitzves, chesed, and pray and hope to our father hashem to bring us back there sooner… same as u understand that when a father gives his son a present and the boy gets all excited and starts disbehaving the father will tell him “i will have to take back the present i gave u cuz/if u dont behave properly” and if it dosent help and the have to actually take away the present, u understand that the kid cant just go and take back the present himself, same story happened here, we got a present from our father ןישמן ישורין ויבעט we disbehaved, and our father warned us that he will have take away his presents- eretz isreal and the bais hamikdush – as written in a few of the נך sfurim, and unfortunately we didn’t pay much attention and he was forced to take his present till we will turn back to him and do tshuva, we cant just go and grab isreal from the arabs, Palestinians, un,us or whatever and say “hay its mine ” yea, it was yours but the one who gave to u took it away… so lets pray and hope to get redeemed out of the gules and our father will return himself and his present eretz yisruel to his beloved children am Yisruel ans we will return back to tzion without fights, wars, and hate between our neighbors, וראו כל עמי הארץ כי שם השם נקרא עליך ויראו ממך, בביאת הגואל צדק במהרה!!