It is a long standing tradition that the main Lag B’Omer fire is lit atop of Kever Rashbi by a descendent of Beis Rizhin, in this case the Boyaner Rebbe Shlita. This year, Rishon L’Tzion HaGaon HaRav Shlomo Moshe Amar Shlita announced he plans to light on the same location, but at 02:00, hours after the rebbe will light but in Beis Boyan.
While some point out Rav Amar’s fire will be “hours after” the Boyaner’s, there is a feeling that the chief rabbi’s announcement to light on the same location is a backdoor approach to encroach and the chassidus’ chazaka dating back to Beis Rizhin.
It appears the tensions surrounding the matter have risen to the point that Aryeh Deri was approached last week while sitting shiva for his father z”l to work out a solution with the representative of the Boyaner Rebbe, Deputy Minister of Health Yaakov Litzman.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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7 Responses
Thank you YWN for publishing this. It is very important for all of us to know!
My simple understanding is that
1) the Sadigura rebbe purchased this “right” from some sephardim at Meron.
2) The Sadigura rebbe never lived in E”Y, and he passed on this right to the Pachad Yitzchak, who also never lived in E”Y.
3) I can only assume that the only Boyaner rebbe of the next generation who lived in E”Y was the Boyaner Rebbe of Tel Aviv.
4) The only other Boyaner Rebbe in the dynasty in E”Y is the Boyaner Rebbe of TA’s grand-nephew, R’ Nachum Dov Brayer. (Boyan of Yerushalayim)
5)So all in total we have two generations of Boyaner Rebbe’s lighting at the Kever,
6)Long story short, this chazaka is relatively young given the general history of Meron, and even according to the Sadigura Rebbe, initially belonged to the Sephardim at the site.
7)One could easily imagine that the Chief Sephardi Rabbi might contend that the Sephardim who sold it to the Sadigura Rebbe did not have the right to sell it and it remains a right of the sephardi population of meron, represented by the Sephardi chief rabbi.
AM I MISSING SOMETHING???
Machlokes during sefira. Brings back memories…of Rabi Akiva’s talmidim. Haven’t we learned anything yet?
BTW, we just finished the parshios dealing with lashon hara. Did you really HAVE to print this story?
can you explain to me what part of the above article is loshon hora. I think you should learn what it is about before commenting!
@Y_dont_U_research_b4_speaking: Actually, with all due respect, you are missing quite an important detail. Although Meron has been heavily populated as of recently by jews of Sefardic background, Lag Beomer festivaties as such were run almost exclusively by Chassidic masters. With the original minhag of the bonfire of course being flared up by ARIzal, chassidim perpetuated it until it reached its gustoic levels it so famously does today.
So, you see, before the Rebbes of the Ruzhin dynasty bought the rights to light, it was not as common a practice as it currently is. It definitely was not an issue to quarrel over…
Have a happy Lag.
The Rebbe inherited the Zechus to light the main fire on the roof of the cave. He does it in the same place every year, in the years when his zeide the previous Rebbe was in Eretz Yisroel on lag BaOmer he lit there too and other years his brothers lit there. On years when the Rebbes were unable to be in Eretz Yisroel on Lag BaOmer they sent a handkercheif (or tie) to the Rav of Tzfas and made him their shliach to light for them.This zechus goes all the way back to the Rizhner who bought this zecus, it was inherited by his son the First Sadigerer and then was inherited by the first Boyaner Rebbe the Pachad Yitzchok, it was divided among his 4 sons and since the rebbe from NY was the last surviving son it was passed to him and his grandson inherited it by agreement of his uncles and mother.
Shtickelbitfunny — one sticdking point in your analysis.
if the Sadigura rebbe bought it from the sephardim of Meron, he effectively made it clear to the world that is was their’s to sell.