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There has been at least two disturbing incidentals at the famous “Landau’s Shul” in Flatbush over the past two days.
Both incidents involved people furious over the fact that the Shul – located at Avenue L and East 9th Street – was opened, despite calls from Federal, State and Local officials to close all Shuls.
The first incident occurred on Wednesday night, when a man nearly drove over a crowd of people outside the Shul.
Sources confirm to YWN that a man driving a minivan nearly jumped the curb and began shouting that he was going to kill anyone that was defying the ban. A person standing there tried talking to the driver, who instead backed up his car, struck the man talking to him, and sped off.
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The NYPD and Flatbush Shomrim responded, but the man had fled. Thanks to access to security camera footage, the NYPD have the mans identity, his address and information. He is expected to be arrested and charged with multiple offenses – including a hate crime.
The victim struck was taken by Flatbush Hatzolah to Maimonides Hospital where he was treated for neck, back, leg and arm injuries. Thankfully he was not more seriously injured.
Meanwhile, later that night, the Shul reached out to YWN to inform us that the Shul was being closed, and sent us a flier to post (which was published immediately on the YWN Live Blog).
On Friday morning, Dr Ditchik published photos on his Facebook page of people Davening in tents that had been put up outside the Shul. Outraged residents from the Jewish community arrived at the Shul and began screaming at those Davening in the Minyanim, and it nearly turned physical.
The Shul claims they tried taking down the tens yesterday, but were unable to.
Dr Ditchik also wrote that people should call Shomrim to complain. YWN reached out to Flatbush Shomrim who made the following statement:
“Flatbush Shomrim does not approve of this practice of having Minyanim and not obeying the Psak of all Rabbonim as well as following the law put in place to save lives. That being said, Shomirm has absolutely no legal authority to get involved in issues involving private property. While Dr. Ditchik has wonderful intentions to protect lives, we want to inform people to call the proper authorities to deal with this issue and not Shomrim.”
AT this point, every single Posek in America, based on the unanimous agreement of every single doctor in the United States has stated the dangers of the coronavirus, and Paskened that no on should Daven in a Shul or Minyan.
There are many people already in serious condition, and despite people claiming that the virus is only dangerous to the elderly, this is clearly not the case. The CDC now says that 40% of those sick enough to be hospitalized are between the ages of 20-54.
Eventually, both tents were removed on Friday afternoon.
(YWN World Headquarter – NYC)
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25 Responses
Re: Veretzky announcement
It’s not enough to inspect a makom tefillah, if people and their germs fill it whenever it’s open for business.
The Rav shut down the shul, even after it was approved by the city officials. They actually said that if all the shuls were run this way they would not have had to close them down (limiting size of minyan to 15 people with a guard at the door). The company has not taken down the tents yet although they were asked to. (they were put up originally to limit amount of people in one place). There is no way to stop people from congregating on the sidewalk. Please verify the facts.
When the history of this pandemic is written, there will be a chapter about religious people, Jewish and other, who defied the advice of public health authorities and continued to hold religious services. I hope the sub-chapter on the Jews is very small, but there are a few nudniks among us who keep drawing attention.
Mr. Ditchik should be arrested for inciting violence and stalking.
Why is the man bieng charged with a hate crime?
He should only be charged for assault.
Why in heavens name is anyone davening with a minyan Friday morning?! We haven’t yet seen enough?!
Are we more frum that ALL of our poskim, ALL of our Gedolim?
every single Posek in America, based on the unanimous agreement of every single doctor in the United States has stated the dangers of the coronavirus, and Paskened that no on should Daven in a Shul or Minyan. (YWN)
FAKE NEWS!!
YWN ones & for all stop spreading lies & hate among us!
Enough!
Such silliness. Disobeying the psak of almost every single Gadol in regard to this inyan, but if those same gedolim said that you needed to kasher you teeth for Pesach by pouring boiling water in your mouth, they would rush to do it. Classic example of a chassid shoteh.
1.) What would the late Rav Avigdor Miller, zekhuso yagein aleinu, say now if he could?
To illustrate the severity [khomer hadavar] of gezel shinah— disturbing the sleep of another– R’ Miller cited the example of “tzadikim” who talk too loudly with each other while walking to shul early in the morning, thereby awaken people from sleep that is absolutely critical for them. R’ Miller said that such people, who think they are doing a great mitzvah of mashkimim, are actually rotskhim [murderers], R”L.
The kal v’khmoer, when the question is b’geder pikuach nefesh mamash, k’pushuto, goes without saying.
Can there be any doubt, based on just this alone, that any individual who is at all, in any way, involved or complicit in such behavior as making minyanim in tents (which, if anything, could very well be more dangerous than in a relatively large shul) is the quintessential khosid shoteh?
Also germane to cite here is the well-known incident involving the lengths that Rav Yisroel Salanter, zekhuso yagein aleinu, personally went to one Yom Kippur during a cholera epidemic in order to set the proper example for others. Fearing that the afflicted, despite being m’khuyav [obligated] to eat mishum pikuakh nefesh, would/might fail to do so, R’ Yisroel himself, b’rabbim, made kiddush and ate a piece of cake.
2.) The very incident reported here illustrates another danger that is itself also b’geder pikuakh nefesh: That of inciting resentment and animosity toward Jews, and especially Torah-observant Jews, Rakhmana litslan.
(This, in addition to khillul H’, which is b’geder y’horag v’al ya’avor.)
Hashem yishmoreinu v’yatsileinu mikol ro’ah
[Corrected version to replace previous]
1.) What would the late Rav Avigdor Miller, zekhuso yagein aleinu, say now if he could?
To illustrate the severity [khomer hadavar] of gezel shinah— disturbing the sleep of another– R’ Miller cited the example of “tzadikim” who, while on their way to shul early in the morning, disturb people’s sleep by talking too loudly as they pass by their homes’. R’ Miller said that such people think they are doing a great mitzvah of mashkimim but they are actually rotskhim [murderers], R”L.
The kal v’khmoer, when the question is b’geder pikuach nefesh mamash, k’pushuto should be obvious.
Can there be any doubt, based on just this alone, that any individual who is at all, in any way, involved or complicit in such behavior as making minyanim in tents (which, if anything, could very well be more dangerous than doing so in a shul) is the quintessential khosid shoteh?
Also germane to cite here is the well-known incident involving the lengths that Rav Yisroel Salanter, zekhuso yagein aleinu, personally went to one Yom Kippur during a cholera epidemic in order to set the proper example for others. Fearing that the afflicted, despite being m’khuyav [obligated] to eat mishum pikuakh nefesh, would/might fail to do so, R’ Yisroel himself, b’rabbim, made kiddush and ate a piece of cake.
2.) The very incident reported here illustrates another danger that is itself also b’geder pikuakh nefesh: That of being goreim eivah; inciting resentment, animosity and hostility toward Jews, especially Torah-observant Jews, Rakhmana litslan.
(This, in addition to khillul H’, which is already b’geder y’horag v’al ya’avor.)
Hashem yishmoreinu v’yatsileinu mikol ro’ah
every single Posek in America, based on the unanimous agreement of every single doctor in the United States has stated the dangers of the coronavirus, and Paskened that no on should Daven in a Shul or Minyan.(YWN)
FAKE NEWS!!!
Why were the mosques on coney island avenue and avenue H allowed to stay open with hundreds of them doubleparking and going in to pray as they go every Friday No sheriff no fire dept no police and no traffic agent to give them tickets. Is there a double standard or do Moslems have immunity from the Corona Virus. Can our Askanim look into this and get some answers from the authorities and inform the Tzibur.
So, chaya1, you are concerned about the health of Muslims? Good for you. We need more of that.
In every jewish crisis in history we suffered from our own Mosrim with a sham shomayim teretz
chaya1, maybe it’s because the police hate the Moslems?
chaya1 – they sheriff and police are only too happy to have more arabs die, so they allow them to congregate every friday and pass the virus on from one to the other.
chaya1 … let the mosques stay open . Why do you care . if they want to engender their lives so be it. If you feel you really have to daven with a tzibre then go daven with them .
To zie a manch Fake news? WHATS WRONG WITH YOU? DO YOU NOT SEE WHATS GOING ON?START TAKING THIS SERIOUSLY! IT IS NOT A MITZVAH TO DAVEN OUTSIDE WITH A MINYAN!YOU ARE PUTTING OTHER PEOPLES LIVES IN DANGER, FORGET ABOUT YOUR OWN! DAVENING WITH A MINYAN IS D’RABUNUN VNISHMARTEM MEOD LNAFSHOSEICHM IS A DEORYSAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!??????
Davening with a minyan these days is like someone saying that he’s so connected to the mitzvah of tefillin that he just can’t let 52 Saturdays pass each year without putting tefillin so he wears tefillin on Shabbos.
As far as all the Poskim holding that shuls must be closed, the ones that disagree aren’t publicized. Also in this week’s parsha, it talks about the offering that a leader must bring if he errs and causes the Jewish nation to sin, so leaders do err.
As far as guarding ones soul, we pray twice a day that we love g-d that we love g-d with all our might and all our sou and by davening with a minyan they are demonstrating that.
As far as you catching the virus from them, if you stay home you wouldn’t catch it. What is happening is people want to impose their religious believes on others which is unconstitutional.
Any chance that a second Adar will be added by Gedolei Hador, to delay pessach?
@ “Old Crown Heights”: I’m afraid that tefilah b’tsibur at the present time (which is a grave, brazen defiance of halakha, common sense and dina d’malkhusa all-at-once) is much worse than donning tefillin on Shabbos would be.
[Edited version of previous comment to REPLACE it; please remove previous when posting this. Lack of a preview feature is a distinct disadvantage.]
In response to the comment above by “chaya1” and the ones made in response to it:
All people (regardless of religious, racial, ethnic, or national identity/origin) who persist in behaviors that violate the present directives of social distancing act in brazen defiance of both the law as well as common sense and basic social responsibility. Such reckless behavior places in grave danger (R”L) both those who indulge in it as well as society-at-large (on every level, from their immediate family, all the way to mankind as a whole; no man is an island, certainly not in today’s world).
If a double-standard is being applied with respect to Muslims (or any other group, including Jews), then questioning, calling-out, and criticizing any such double-standard would be quite legitimate. Gratuitous, ugly comments about Muslims, however, such as those that have been posted here, are not only a chillul H’, but are also all-too-likely to at the very least contribute to decidedly less-than-friendly sentiments toward Jews everywhere [goreim aveih; goreim sinas Yisroel], H’ yishmoreinu.
Additionally, anyone who has had positive experiences with Muslims or members of any other religious, ethnic, national or racial group, would recognize that the type gratuitous, categorical, unqualified swipes in-question are also inherently unfair and morally reprehensible.*
(*None of this is to deny the reality of group differences, or to endorse what one significant dissident thinker has coined the War on Noticing. The choice between the prevailing politically correct (now Woke) reality-denying absurdities vs. violent, Nazi-like supremacist ideologies is an utterly false one.)
As a Shomer Shabbat physician diagnosing people of all ages with the Covid-19 virus it pains me to see people who feel they are stringent on being shomer mitzvah that they are willing to put the lives of other at risk.
Our gedolim, zekanim, Bubbes and Zaides are at risk of severe illness and death if we as a community do not contain this pandemic
Also at risk of illness and death are our wives, sons, daughters, husbands, parents, brothers and sisters, friends as well as the nurses and doctors you will need to keep your families alive
There are few mitzvoth that we are obligated to die for. There are even fewer mitzvoth that we are allowed to kill others for.
Please adhere to the requests of our rabbinic and civil authorities. Practice social distancing, Daven in solitude and say tehilim for those still healthy as well as those ill. And isolate yourself if you are asked to be quarantined.
My life and the lives of your rebeim, zekanim and families depend on it.
WHILE I DONT KNOW THIS DOCTOR PERSONALLY (Dr. Ditcheck)
i did hear amazing things about him throughout the years, many of my talmidim have been awed and inspired by him all the years as his involvement with the cholim by us are legendary!
THIS IS FOR ALL THOSE VOICENOTES AND “rabbis” “Doctors”
If you notice it is all the same pundits that are rallying against shuls and yeshivos!! They are never ever recorded anywhere praising these institutions! If you would line up
All the “rabbis” and all the doctors two weeks ago We would be able to tell you exactly which one would maaser or threaten or put out a video.
Of course we should all quarantine
However this public outcry is based on something way way more sinister than Ahavas Yisroel
And if they are legally allowed to stay open ,then stop all this hatred!!!
We know you are not doing this lishmo
Its the old שנאת עם הארץ לתמיד חכם!!!
STOP THE HATE!!!!