The government is set to approve the appointment of Religious Affairs Minister Matan Kahana (Yamina) on Sunday as the minister in charge of the Meron site on Lag B’Omer.
Kahana will serve as the project manager of the Lag B’Omer event and will establish a team of directors headed by the Director-General of the Religious Affairs Ministry, and comprised of the Director-Generals of the Finance, Internal Security, and Transportation Ministries. The directors will formulate a plan for the Lag B’Omer event, including the number of participants allowed at Meron at any given time.
Aso, the National Center for the Development of Holy Places, which in recent years has been partially responsible for the Lag B’Omer event, will operate at the request of the government only as an external production organization, and transportation for the event will be transferred to the Public Transportation Authority.
The changes are being carried out at the suggestion of the State Commission of Inquiry into the Meron Disaster.
A later report on Thursday by Walla said that in accordance with the commission’s recommendation, Kahana will plan for one main hadlaka at Meron on Lag B’Omer. However, contrary to the commission’s explicit recommendation to allow the Boyaner Rebbe to lead the hadlaka, Kahana plans to give the honor to a Dati Leumi Rav recognized by the State.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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31 Responses
According to tradition, the privilege to light the bonfire was purchased by Rabbi Avrohom Yaakov Friedman, the first Sadigura Rebbe, from the Sephardi guardians of Meron and Safed. The Sadigura Rebbe bequeathed this honor to his eldest son, Rabbi Yitzchok Friedman, the first Boyaner Rebbe, and his progeny. Everyone respects the tradition and quite frankly, i would be surprised if any DL rabbi will even accept the honor. More than that, the DL rabbis who are so removed from this tradition and may, in theory, accept, are against the whole event, calling it a form of AZ. Mark my words, the Boyaner Rebbe will light meron this year and Kahana will be out of office before he can change anything.
these Hellenists aka Zionists go from bad to worse
This Kahane is a am haartetz.It is the schut of the Bojaner Rebbe to light in Meron.
Im wondering if one of this Zionist Rabbis will agree. But Kahane will not be very long Minister for religious affairs.
besalel, I hope no DL rabbi wants to participate in so non-traditional an event. Hasidim ought to be allowed to worship as they wish
karlbenmarx, calling zionists Hellenists indicates your astute insight into ancient and modern history
yes boyan owns the rights to the hadlakah i dont chap how hes allowed to do that even legally. this guy is straight up sonei chareidim
@karlbenmarx
I do not think it is just to give them the label “Zionists” and on that basis, branding them “bad”. Kahana is a disgrace, and it’s unfortunate this new government came into power, but I would like to point out that without Zionism, you and your relatives would have all been killed out in pogroms in Poland long ago. Zionism saved the Jewish nation and gave them a refuge from where to escape to.
Who owned this honor in the first place from which it was “purchased”?!
Why mark your words , inside info ?
By the way according to tradition you may be a kool aid guzzling naive juvenile also — it’s tradition so don’t argue with me.
What’s wrong with allowing others to light as well ? In fact perhaps you should ask the Rebbe he may want to share the kavod.
Why aren’t you giving the Rebbe the benefit of the doubt that he would ?
Mr. tradition— The gadol i grew up and learned with ran from kavod . You would never have even known that Rosh Hayeshiva from Kew Gardens Queens even existed because he didn’t argue or jockey for position on anything.
Easy on tradition .
Based on prior experience, and knowing the DNA of most Israelis including the Chareid tzibur to ignore government directives on public health and safety, I am skeptical the “new” arrangements for the Lab B’aomer events will be an orderly event and preclude c”v a repetition of last year’s tragedy.
DrGoyy, you have no qualms in the many other non-traditional events RZ “rabbis” otherwise participate in?
bouncing whatever your name is, the Zionists today are a threat to Yahadus they want to close down yeshivas, draft girls into their tuma army where there is ZERO tznius but dont touch Arab women, they want to have every goy become a Jew through a fake giyur process. how did the “zionists” save the Yemeni children who they stole from their parents? or the soldiers they sacrifice in order to avoid “civilian casualities”, Zionism is PURE Treif. The Torah is around thousands of years the Zionist state will be lucky if it lasts 100 years nowwithstanding all the tefilot for the medina that Young Israel like shuls say for this trief thing.
RE-opening the Israeli border so that we can all even attend this even is INFINITELY more important than who sets matches on a candle onto a bonfire.
Don’t worry hopefully moshiach will be here by then
What A Ferd
DrYidd, where did you get that from?
@hymish (almost) everyone in the yeshvishe velt know of Hagaon Harav Kalman Epstein shlit”a.
All the yeshivishe roshei yeshiva (BMG Roshei Yeshiva, Rav Avremel Ausband, Rav Elya Brudny, R”Y of Mir EY, Chevron… and many more) are extremely machshiv him. From what i heard from the Shaar Hatorah chevrah in Lakewood, he was also chavrusos with Rav Avraham Yehoshua when they were together by Rav Berel zt”l in Brisk as bachurim.
Many people have heard of him despite the fact that hides from kavod or positions.
Well that will certainly help with safety at the site. After all, who’s gonna show up?
Look at the news reports from 60 years ago. The Hadlaka was led by Rav Neria and Rav Bina, with most participants from the nearby Dati Leumi yeshiva.
I have nothing to do with the minhagim in Meron and have never gone in Lag Ba’omer… but this is just hilarious. Haha a: what a freaking joke! Can’t imagine even anti-chareidi people are not at least a little embarrassed at his childish antics… I mean, you take a century-or-whatever-old tradition and say, “Oh, me want it, me, give to kahanny….” Kahana: Stip being a two-year-old. Play nicely, you big babyish fool.
looking to divide the religious for political gain
Ashkifard- agree he’s a tremendous tzaddik also
Was referring to his father ztzl ybclc
“According to tradition, the privilege to light the bonfire was purchased by Rabbi Avrohom Yaakov Friedman, the first Sadigura Rebbe, from the Sephardi guardians of Meron and Safed.”
When you say only know something “according to tradition,” you acknowledge the following: “We have no evidence for its being true, no evidence that such a transaction took place, and no evidence that the ones who supposedly “sold” this privilege had any right to do so, let alone that they sold it to this particular individual. And no halachic or legal or logical reason why anyone outside our chassidus should believe it, let alone consider it binding.”
The Charedi world have done such a poor job with Corona and other things that no one really cares what they think any more.
The ends justify the means. For years they are trying to take over Miron. Could of never happened.
Suddenly… Some suspicious activity, and few deaths… And they got exactly what they wanted! You thought the kosel women’s reform was all they wanted..
And before you start ‘oh they would never do that… Read some history, read R M. B. Wiessmandel.
#wakeup
I guess the poor so called DL Rabbi will be taking his life into his hands. If you think tens of thousands of young wild chareidim will allow this to happen your in dream world. It would be like someone marching down with an Israeli flag in middle of a satmar shul with ten thousand chassidim. No normal DL Rabbi would be willing to fight thousands of chareidim. The next move the government will appoint a reform rabbit to also light the bon fire. If you think last year was dangerous you can imagine a reform lady rabbi burnt in the lag bomer bon. The government would never do anything do drastic as a revolution among chareidim worldwide would begin. They try to destroy the Kossel by building a big area for the reformers but they had to back off. Instigating a half million people going to Meron will make the government fall. Don’t forget it’s the Orthodox Jews in America that voted for pro Israel candidates. The reform don’t care much about Israel as Trump has stated many times. Don’t mess with chareidim or Orthodox Jews. We can bring down the Medina in many ways.
This minister is a BAD person! No respect for tradition.
Sholom D, you are completely wrong.
First of all, we only know the Torah is true “according to tradition”. Our right to Eretz Yisrael rests on nothing but “tradition”. Especially since not only do we have no evidence that the gift of the land ever took place, we can’t even prove the Giver even exists, except by our “tradition”. Without our “tradition”, who says He’s “konei shomayim vo’oretz”? At least in the case of Meron we can identify the sellers with sufficient specificity — the rabbanim who had had the privilege before, and their right to it was affirmed by the then-existing tradition.
Second, both according to halacha and civil law such a tradition IS evidence, and it’s all the evidence one needs. The Boyaner Rebbes have exercised this privilege of theirs, openly and notoriously, for almost two centuries. That is far longer than required by either halacha or civil law to establish ownership beyond all doubt, and anyone who usurps that right from them is simply a robber.
And since, like real estate, a privilege cannot be physically stolen, it will remain their property even after this piracy, and each year whoever usurps their place will be a robber. Any so-called “rav” who agrees to take such a role should be put in cherem.
Bouncing_Yak, how could zionism possibly have saved anyone from pogroms in Poland? By the time they succeeded in violating the Torah and establishing their state there were almost no Jews in Poland. And ever since that date, it has been safer for Jews in Poland than in Eretz Yisrael.
Nor have their state’s existence ever saved anyone else. Every Jew who came to Eretz Yisrael could have gone somewhere else, somewhere significantly safer. There are many arguments that can be made for the State of Israel’s existence, but the one that it must exist in order to be a refuge for Jews has never made any sense. A state that must constantly fight for its very existence cannot be a safe refuge for anyone. If we consider only the perspective of physical safety, and nothing else, America is the ideal place for every Jew, and Israel is far behind. There are of course many other considerations that make living in Eretz Yisrael far better, but physical safety is not one of them.
@cobycom1
You are so right!!!!
Milhouse:
Thank you for your lesson in logic, in history, and in halacha.
However, as someone of your erudition surely knows, the halachic basis for establishing ownership over something is far more complex, especially in a place like Meron, where multiple factions have historically claimed ownership and continue to do so until this day, with their claims going nowhere, both in the secular courts and in battei din.
As for tradition being a basis for establishing the truth of a claim, I’m not sure you want to go there. Throughout history, various groups see their own traditions as supreme and others’ as invalid. Pretty hard for one group to claim exclusive rights to something (especially when it’s to their advantage) and impose that “tradition” on others.
And I’m especially sure that if you are so interested in the authenticity of traditions, that you will not want to look into the tradition of lighting bon fires (it’s pure avodah zarah — look it up), who it was that started this “tradition” there (Mustaraba), and how the Mustarabas’ bringing this “tradition” to Meron was opposed by the Gedolim of that time.
Sholom, there is nothing complex about the halacha. Your fantasy that “multiple factions have historically claimed ownership” is just not true. Nobody has ever disputed the Boyaner’s ownershp. And according to halacha that established their ownership as valid and binding and enforceable in any beit din.
Like it or not, our whole Torah is based on nothing but our tradition. That other people claim to have other traditions is irrelevant; ours is the correct one. Who says so? We do, and that is all that matters. We don’t care about their opinions. We don’t need their approval.
If the tradition of bonfires at Meron came from the Mustarabim, so what? In what way were they lesser Jews than you and your Protestant ancestors and teachers? But your fantasy that bonfires originate in avoda zara is a total LIE, and so is your fantasy that the ones at Meron were ever opposed by “Gedolim”. They were not, ever. And the greatest gadol who was ever there, the Ari Zal, supported and encouraged them. So anyone who opposes them is a kofer in the Ari Zal’s teachings, which came directly from his rebbe, Eliyahu Hanavi, so it is the same as being a kofer in the Torah.
Millhouse, you can start here:
Shu”t Chasa”m Sofer Yoreh De’ah 233
https://web.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/bonfires_mandel.pdf
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/305517