It appears more than the weather will be hot in Yerushalayim this coming Shabbos as the chareidi community appears to be preparing to show Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat it will not tolerate the opening of a parking lot by the city to accommodate chilul Shabbos.
The mayor during a press conference earlier in the week indicated he would prefer to open the Carta parking lot, which is in receivership, but an urgent request to the Jerusalem District Court did not achieve its goal so it appears, at least for this Shabbos, the Kikar Safra municipal parking lot will be open. The court stated it will only rule on the request on Sunday, not providing the mayor with an alternative for this coming Shabbos.
Eida Chareidis loyalists explain the protests will be widespread, involving many more chareidim than just the Eida as was the case a number of weeks ago.
On Wednesday night, a shaliach of the Vaad L’maan Shabbos visited the home of Maran HaGaon Rav Elyashiv Shlita, asking if one should protest. The Gadol HaDor instructed him to go ahead with protests to protect the kedusha of Shabbos. Vaad members are expecting further instructions from Rav Elyashiv regarding their joining the mass kabbalas shabbos planned for the Shmuel HaNavi – Bar Ilan area.
Rav Elyashiv’s signal to join in makes the protest action widespread, encompassing the chareidi community of the capital, adding significant strength to the Eida-led protests.
The secularists are planning a large support rally to “strengthen the hands of the mayor” who stood firm and ordered the parking lot opened. That rally will take place outside Jerusalem City Hall on Shabbos at 5:00pm.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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8 Responses
ki saavir memsheles zadon min haaretz
let this put to rest the canard that the rally to protect Shabbos is only from the eida.
it is, as we see, from all frum jews, let by rav eliyahsev shlita himself.
Why cant we protest before Shabbes? Many came to Hillul Shabbes last time…
It would seem to me that a protest of 10 or 20 Gedolim would accomplish more, and be a kidush HaSh-m, whereas this protest of thousands (who don’t know appropriate behavior) will be a ‘balagan’, a chilul HaSh-m, and will land people in the hospital (or r’l worse).
rav eliashev has spoken. we are requested to show up in large numbers at the shabbos rally. you can be confident rav eliashev thought this through and decided appearing in large number l’kovod shabbos is the best course of action.
now is time for action.
Explain how forcing thousand of policemen to be Mechalel Shabbos is somehow a good thing…
(In Judaism we never heard of “the end justifies the mean”.)
Number 5, will their actions be “l’kovod shabbos” or will they be committing more melochos than the garage people during their protest like last time?
I agree that everything should be done to maintain the sanctity of Shabbos.
I would just like to point out, that if there was Achdus, a Frum Yid would be the Mayor of Yerushalayim and this protest wouldn’t be necessary.
Then again, if there were Achdus, many of our problems would disaappear. It’s time to put aside selfishness, be it for the individual or group, and do what is right for the entire Klal Yisroel.