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VIDEO: Yeshiva University Student Is Witness To History On Trip To Egypt, Escapes Protests At Tahrir Square


Sion Setton, a fourth-year rabbinical student at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Thelogical Seminary (RIETS) and a Yeshiva College graduate, had no idea that over the course of his short vacation to Egypt to trace his family roots, he would witness the beginning of a historic revolution.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Setton may be a native New Yorker but his roots are Egyptian. “While Egypt’s history with Judaism has been long and often turbulent,” said Setton, “a lot of people might not realize the presence and the value Egypt had for the Jewish nations throughout history. Egypt has housed many sages, from Maimonides to Rabbi Yosef Azoulay, known as the Hida, and even Rabbi Ovadia Yosef for several years. There are many synagogues to see and a rich history to learn from.” And so for winter break, he decided to travel from Israel to Egypt to take what he likes to call a “family heritage trip.”

“I wanted to see where my parents grew up, the different synagogues they went to and the streets they walked down. I wanted to go and experience that myself,” said Setton.

“We didn’t think it was such a big deal. When you’re from Manhattan, you think of a protest as peaceful picket signs. We didn’t think it would become something so chaotic.”

Setton recounts the tale of that terrifying taxi ride. “As we were going through Tahrir square we started to see hundreds of people walking around—some with masks and batons—and we noticed very few cars. Soon we noticed people crowding around our taxi.” At this point the police had used tear gas to contain the riots in the square and the crowds were seeking shelter wherever they could—including in Setton’s cab. “I was in the front locked my door, but my friend in the back didn’t have his door locked and someone opened the door and was trying to get inside.” He continued, “Suddenly the driver just put the pedal to the metal, almost hitting a few members of the crowd and drove as fast as he could away from the square.” It was reported that three people died that night and 74 people were injured while Setton and his friends safely got away. “G-d bless this driver who saved us from that chaotic square,” Setton said.

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13 Responses

  1. Mind your own business! It is creeps like you who turn people off from frumkeit, always looking towards other people’s faults and wrongdoings. Did you get a “hetter” for insinuating that this boy, who’s name is publicly displayed on the site, violated halacha? You are a pathetic example of a frum jew, and I am embarrassed that we share a religion.

  2. David, I am sorry that your status of religion is on a level that little things like this can make you be embarrassed of it.
    1st of all, part of Jewish religion is to mind everyone’s business like chaza”l tell us KOL YISROEL ARAIVIM ZEH LOZEH. Moreover, it not considered minding SOMEONE ELSE’S business in view of the fact that all of Israel is (are) one.
    2nd of all, in this case my concern was that this frum website is posting something that to my knowledge might be objectionable to the Torah. This is that a Jew is not allowed to go to Egypt. The fact that many gedolim lived there doesn’t mean that everyone may do so without a personal hetter from a competent ruv.

  3. 1: The concept of Arvus does not demand you insinuate negative things about other jews, nor does it imply that you should publicly state their faults.

    2: If it is truly important to you to know and/or clarify the truth, his name and where he is from is listed, look him up, call him up and ask him directly.

    Viahavta lireacha kumocha, also important.

  4. The Mussar Sefarim (something you should study) speak about the 2 ways that the yetzer harah tricks us into aveirah. 1) By hiding the aveirah until it is too late. 2) By making us believe that issur is actually hetter. This second method is described as the more dangerous of the two, as the perpetrator believes from all his proofs, chazal, and Torah that he is in fact is a tzadik. With someone like you, who will always find a chazal to support his “krum” opinion, there is no arguing; it is a futile exercise.
    Rather, the Mesilas Yesharim points out that the only way to discern the true path is to 1) learn mussar, and 2) follow the path that our rebbeim and mesorah leads us on – Daas torah.
    That being said, I challenge you to find one respected authority who will agree that raising an issue of impropriety by this frum, young man, on a worldwide website, with his name revealed for all to see, is the correct “path” to choose. (If you were really “lsheim shamayim” you could easily send a message to the website rasing your concern, rather than spewing lashon harah worldwide.)

  5. ok every one calm down your fighting over a good innocent guy who does not know any better he goes to Y.U. and your asking who let him go to egypt he doesnt even know its asur among many other things that Y.U. guys do not know is asur.

  6. To All of u, who use mussar seforim and chazal to pat themself on the back, your gehinnom is deeper than u think. who actually gave YOU a heter for loshon hora borabim.
    Do you think Hakodosh Boruch Hu really cares what type of Jew u are,yu, chasid, litvak, temoni, yeshivish. we are all bnei avrohom yitzchok vyaakov and any loashon hora that we speak causes many averios on our account. I hope u peopole do teshuvo before it is too late.

  7. While the initial posted question does not deserve a response, it should be known that many major poskim feel that visiting Egypt on a temporary basis such as a short trip is not a problem. It is only questionable when deciding to move there on a permanent basis.

    While the Rambam obviously questioned his own decision to live there, it is clear that the Rambam as many other gedolim felt that it is ok to visit or even live there if there is a reason to go.

    and #8 – i’m assuming you’re joking, so it’s a funny sarcastic joke (although i’m sure others will take it seriously.)

  8. I happen to have gone to yeshiva with him and all I can say is that he is a mench, Ben Torah, great chaver, with complete yiras shomayim. Where he attends yeshiva is completely irrelevant. Keep your nasty comments to yourself. From my time spent with him in yeshiva, I can almost guarantee he had a heter to go or at least consulted his rav prior to going.

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