The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court last Tuesday, 29 Teves 5772, handed down a ruling that supported Israel police against the plaintiff who was banned from blowing the shofar at the Kotel HaKatan on Rosh Hashanah.
Chadrei Chareidim explains this story begins in 5767 when a group of 15 mispallalim arrived there on the second day Rosh Hashanah. The group included talmidim from Yeshivas Zilberman. They wanted to daven at the Kotel HaKatan, the area that is officially in the so-called Muslim Quarter.
On that day, Rosh Hashanah, the policeman stationed at the Kotel HaKatan informed the mispallalim they may not blow shofar and if they do not cease in compliance with his instructions, he would confiscate the shofar. The bal tokea was taken in for questioning and released a number of hours later, but restricted from the Har HaBayis area for a number of days.
Police explained the bal tokea was detained for ignoring instructions from a policeman and jeopardizing the fragile situation at the location, with police fearing shofar blowing might lead to Islamic violence. The bal tokea filed suit against police and the state for false arrest, confiscating the shofar without cause and negligence.
Justice Shirley Rener however viewed the events in a different light, justifying the actions of the policeman and rejected the suit.
The court explained that on the one hand there is the matter of religious freedom, but in this case, there were also the fears of police regarding a situation that could have led to violent confrontations. The court explained police must exercise good judgment and evaluate each case on its own merit. In this particular case, the court agreed with police, that blowing the shofar would have constituted a threat to public safety.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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8 Responses
If the so called frume people want to blow shofar in the so called Muslim Quarter, then what would be the principled objection to mineret calls in the so called Jewish Quarter. A naked provocation that law enforcement regards as a bonafide threat to security is just that even, if clotherd in so called religiosity. So called.
So we can’t blow shofar because it might affect the poor sensibilities of the sweet arabs, but they can make their whining awful noises with their loudspeakers five times a day. Typical.
#1, Get this through your thick head: JUDAISM AND ISLAM ARE NOT EQUAL. What are the Israeli police FOR, if not to give force to the fact that the Jews control Eretz Yisroel and the Moslems do not? If they act like this, then how are they different from the British yimach shemam who arrested R Segal AH for blowing the shofar at the kosel?
Milhouse…I would wager my head head is materially less thick than you think…unless, of course, one’s head thickness is merely a function of agreeing or disdagreeing with you.
Part of Civics 101, my uneducated little friend: In a free democracy minority religious rights are not dependent upon the percieved correctness of their theology…if that were the test, just what do you think Christian America would do vis a vis Yidden and the religious rights we enjoy in this country?
If you, sir, want Israel to be a theocracy where only Judaism is protected…then you have soulmates in the Taliban; you might fiercely disagree with their religion and theology…but you obviously have no problems with the nature of their policy. “G-d is on our side, and to heck with all the nonbelievers.”
Excuse me? We have an OBLIGATION to impose the rule of the Torah whenever and wherever we can. Do you not believe in the mitzvah to destroy avoda zara? Do you not believe that wherever יד ישראל תקיפה we must enforce the sheva mitzvos benei noach? Do you not believe in the halacha that אין מניחין אותן לחדש דת, ולעשות מצוות לעצמן מדעתן?
Milhouse – I do believe in those halachos from the Rambam, just as I believe in the mitzvos to bring Korbanos, but we are in galus, and we cannot fulfill those mitzvos. Until Moshiach comes, we have to live in peace with our gentile neighbors, including in Eretz Yisrael. Pikuach nefesh is doche every mitzvah and hisgarus b’umos leads to shefichas damim, RL.
Milhouse – that is a massive sugyah. First off, it is not clear that Islam is avodah zarah. Here in E’Y we regularly daven in mekomos hakdoshim that also serve as mosques, which would be an issue if Islam were avodah zarah. Secondly, the extent of our obligation to try to impose hallachah when we do not have a melech AND when we do not have a medinah is not that simple. This is a huge sugyah.
Precisely as YonasonW and Kolemes say.
I just don’t understand why some people feel a need to davka jeopardize their and everyone else’s safety. Don’t they understand what their behavior leads to? Do they simply not care?
The same applies to going on Har HaBayis. I completely believe those who say it’s perfectly fine halachically to walk around the outer perimeters – they are quite convincing. However they completely ignore (rather, they know, yet are determined to enflame) the political situation.
How many Arab newspapers will write about the Jews who are trying to take over the Arab area of the Old City, or Har HaBayis, because of such things? How many Arabs will then come to demonstrate, throw rocks, or commit other attacks against OTHER random Jews who just happen to be walking somewhere?