During his weekly shiur, Harav Meir Mazuz, Rosh Yeshivas Kisei Rachamim, expressed his pain on the recent chillul Shabbos [involving public transportation being provided on Shabbos] and praised the mayor of Herzliya, Moshe Fadlon, who refused to let buses enter his city on Shabbos, a “Charedim 10” report said.

“We have one tzaddik in S’dom – the mayor of Herzliya,” Harav Mazuz said. “I don’t know how much he keeps Shabbos but he didn’t join the sinners, he didn’t join Huldai. He told him: ‘Be honored with your status among the rats and leave us alone. I don’t allow your buses to come my way.’ He deserves a bracha of mazal tov and hatzlacha. Moshe – gematria of ‘hatzlacha raba,’ Moshe Fadlon – the gematria of ‘shira, tefillah.'”

“May it be Your will that he merits to be spiritually elevated,” Harav Mazuz continued. “Anyone who keeps and honors Shabbos, even if he doesn’t keep it personally, and is only mapkid that there will be an atmosphere of Shabbos on the street, Hakadosh Baruch Hu will repay him many times over.”

In an interview with the Chareidi website Kol Hazeman, Fadlon said: “I don’t think that I need to be a partner to the incitement of the Charedi and religious sector. In my eyes, you are people like everyone else and I think we need to act with sensitivity. This is not the spirit of the city. We have mutual respect between our residents. We are united here and each person lives according to his faith. Ron Huldai [mayor of Tel Aviv] isn’t in charge of Herzliya.”

“Why do we need a Jewish war? I’m for cohesion, for togetherness. We have enough troubles in this country. We’re under the constant threat of Hamas and Hezbullah – in Yehudah and Shomron – Syria, Iran – this is what should interest us right now and not a civil war between us.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)