The Tzemach Tzedek Shul in Tzfat was broken into on Friday night Chabad officials report. Six sifrei torah were stolen from the ancient shul.
When mispallalim arrived on Shabbos morning to begin learning chassidus before shachris they discovered the break in. A non-Jewish policeman was sent to the scene to take preliminary information and an investigation was launched on Sunday.
The burglars did not make do with the sifrei torah, breaking into the private lockers of mispallalim and they made a large pile for all the tefillin. For reasons that have yet to be determined, they did not take or damage the tefillin. Since the Shabbos tablecloths were gone, it is theorized they used them to wrap the sifrei torah.
Gabbai Rav Gavriel Marzel is quoted by COL saying “When we saw they broke into the Aaron Kodesh we began crying. We were all in shock. We slowly regained our composure. One of the policemen said they will do everything possible to apprehend the culprits”.
Rav Marzel also spoke with the city’s Sephardic chief rabbi after Shabbos, Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu Shlita who was apparently aware of another break-in into a city shul and in that case, Baruch Hashem the sifrei torah were recovered.
Rav Marzel made an appeal to Chabad Chassidim and sofrim dealing in sifrei Torah to be on the lookout for the stolen seforim.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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One Response
Its like a plague. Every other week we read here or on other religious websites about sifrei torah being stolen from shuls or a fire where sifrei torah were burned. What will it take for yidden to realize that sifrei torah have an element of kedushah and are not like some seforim or a shtender in shul and must be guarded with state of the art security systems. Its too late to wait until after the theft or fire to cry or scream gevalt. Every shul should evaluate how they protect their seforim and update as needed and not cry poverty or or disinterest.