I had just finished my weekly trip to the supermarket. This week I went to the local Shefa Shuk (sometimes I go there, and sometimes I go to Aleph).

I take my cart to the car and load up the bags. I head back to return the cart to the supermarket, and I see three Gerrer Hassidim walking towards Shefa Shuk with their hands full of flyers. They stood outside the door of Shefa and started handing them out to people who were approaching to go in and shop.

The flyers were calling on people to avoid shopping in Shefa because of the chillul shabbos of one of the other chains owned by the same owner.

They spotted me with a cart and came hustling over to tell me not to shop there. They hand me the flyers and explain not to shop there because the other store is mechalel shabbos, and there is Aleph across the way so one can shop there. I mentioned that the owners of Aleph also own companies that are mechalel shabbos, so I treat both stores equally. They started to argue and I said it does not matter and I understand....

So I am walking back to the car and I glance at the flyers they had handed me. One is the standard flyer saying not to shop in Shefa and not to help destroy the shabbos. The second was a letter signed by rabbonim. That got me curious because the whole cherem thing has been hinging on the threat of a pulling out a letter signed by rabbonim to officially declare a cherem, but that letter is supposedly still locked in a safe somewhere, leaving it at the threat level.

So I looked at the letter. It calls on the public to avoid Shefa, and the ownerdamages shabbos by forcing other people to work (they have to keep their stores open to compete or go out of business), blah blah blah...

I look at the signatures, and am surprised to see it signed by six rabbonim of the Dati Leumi community.

I found it ironic that Gerrer Hassidim are handing out kruzim signed by Dati Leumi rabbonim. I turned around and went back to them. They come over and I say, "I just want to say one thing - Mashiach must be coming! Here are three Gerrer Chassidim handing out kruzim signed by Dati Leumi rabbonim! Mashiach must be coming!"

One stammered and started to say no, they have other flyers but they ran out of them... he must have misunderstood and thought I was criticizing them. The second guy stepped in and said that yes, because we came to Ramah Aleph so we brought these...