The following is the text of a letter signed by Hagon Rav Moshe Sternbuch Shlita regarding the violent Hafganos taking place in Yerushalayim. This is the first letter by any Gadol being addressed to the community at large regarding this issue. Yesterday, Hagon Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel Shlita, the Rosh Yeshiva in Mir Yerushalayim wrote a letter to all the students (Bnei HaYeshiva) of his Yeshiva forbidding them to attend any Hafganah in any neighborhood.
This letter is most significant since Rav Sternbuch is the Vice-President of the Rabbinical Court and “Ra’avad” of the Edah HaChareidis in Jerusalem – the organization which supposedly has been calling for the protests.
It was written in English by the Ravad himself, & signed on Friday (today):
With regards to the lady from Yerushalayim being accused of mistreating her child;
What we have to strongly protest here, in a peaceful manner, are the barbaric actions of the police force in arresting a women who is allegedly sick according to their claims, and chaining her, putting her in a cell with dangerous criminals. If their allegations are true,
then this women deserves the appropriate medical treatment, but not to sit in a prison cell, with such subhuman treatment.
We condemn any types of violence, I have stressed this many times before. Anyone who commits acts of violence declares that he doesn’t belong to our community. Any talk of boycotting the hospital is against the Halacha and “very self-damaging.” We have nothing against the Hadassa hospital, and many in our community receive their services in the Hadassa hospital with great care.
Signed.
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(Thanks to Rabbi Daniel Eidensohn for sending YWN this letter)
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16 Responses
Why in english if his main constituents are israeli (ecspecially those that would riot) kudos to reb daniel for pulling this one off
ok now where are all those people who commented in previous posts how it was ok for people to act in the violent manner they did becuase of how horribly the charedim are treated in EY?
Ditto to number one. why English?
We need to introduce the concept of peaceful protest into Eretz Yisrael. If Ghandi could use it against the British Empire (whose colonial policies are the basis of much of the deprivation of civil rights in Israel), or if Dr. King could use it against the American south, we can do so in Eretz Yisrael.
Violence won’t work unless we are prepared to give up learning and take up fighting – which makes us no different than the zionists. The likelihood we could ever defeat the zionists, who have made military science into a core part of their culture, is dubious. The Jewish people have survived for millenia only because we have managed to work around annoying oppressors, and avoided a war we could never win.
Baruch Hashem. Let’s remember who we are.
This letter lacks quality and substance and will do little to stop what’s going on. The primary violence is against the officers who run into crowds of innocent people and arrest them.
What has the Eida done about the inncoent people going about their day that were arrested and denied kosher food and tefillin?
now that she is under house arrest we can stop the violence
How is violence defined?
No throwing rocks I suppose, but what about destroying property, etc.?
“doesn’t belong to our community” means what? Won’t get an aliyah, has to leave town, thrown out of yeshiva, or what?
The more I read this letter, I see why the situation in Chareidi Jerusalem is the way it is.
The Eida itself has recently brought in members who were not authentic yeruashalmi, and did not have the original Yerushalmi mesora.
Rabbi’s Weiss, Sternbuch, and others are not representing the residents that look up to the Eida. Within the Eida’s dais there is a split among the Rabbonim. There are those that still believe in the authentic yerushalmi way of fierce protests against the Medina, and there are those that can be called more moderate and want to “change with the times”.
This letter is from Rav Sternbuch and not from the Eida. The Eida as a whole will not issue such a letter, as they wholeheartedly support the demonstrations.
he wrote it in english bec most in his shul speaks english.
As the DJ on Kol Chaim said this morning:
When the Aida Chareidis want to do something they are quite capable: e.g. When they decide that there are separate sidewalks for Simchas Beis Hashoeva, they implement it with internal “cops” (Sadranim) – and nobody dares interfere.
So if they let this get out of hand, it wasn’t “by accident”; it was by design.
The article states: “This letter is most significant since Rav Sternbuch is the Vice-President of the Rabbinical Court and “Ra’avad” of the Edah HaChareidis in Jerusalem – the organization which supposedly has been calling for the protests.”
Just to clarify, the Eidah only called for the Shabbos protests. The protests regarding this woman are a different matter altogether.
“This letter is from Rav Sternbuch and not from the Eida. The Eida as a whole will not issue such a letter, as they wholeheartedly support the demonstrations.” – I was personally standing there when one of the prominent members of the Eida who is 4th-generation Yerushalmi -was asked what the Eida thinks of the hafganot that are causing so much damage phyisially and spiritually and he said quite clearly: The Eida is against them entirely. When asked why they don’t come out with a public statement as such, he responded in order to not cause further division in Klal Yisroel.
I feel that it is of utmost importance to protest the posts of “sammygol”, who it is difficult to believe is still a currently practicing shomer shabbos. The comments s/he makes is aside from false, utterly disgusting.
It is truly unbelieveable how some will side with those against our mesorah above their own brothers.
“My problem with the letter is the fact that it makes it seem like the police did something wrong in arresting the mother. Let’s assume this woman was black, and you read in the paper that a black mother was taped on video starving her child. Every single one of us here would be screaming to lock her up and throw away the key. Which normal society would have done any different?
Why the double standard? Do black mothers deserve any less rights than religious Jewish mothers?”
#13, if you were a member of the african american people, you would have also called for justice on the black mother’s behalf,
dont compare our objective views of a group of people, to the strong feelings and connection we have with ours, we have a right as a unit, as a people, as a family, to try to our utmost to protect and safeguard everyone that belongs in our group, as the blacks do theirs. what would you do if a member of your immediate family was the one in question, would you as well compare that person to a group which we cannot possibly have the same feelings for,
whether something is right or wrong, when dealing with our own family we must make sure that when we right a wrong we do it in the most loving and protecting way, no matter if the rules of right and wrong are changed in the process,
kol yisroel areivim zeh lazeh, because we are a family, and our priority is our family no matter the cost, no matter how right or wrong we may think that part of our family may be.
Well said #20.