Why did his name come up?

During the torch lighting ceremony on Har Harzl, the night of Yom Haatzmaut, perhaps you noticed the camera panning on the crowd rest momentarily on the above person.

I noticed and wondered who that is and why he is dressed like that as it is clearly not Rishon LeTzion Chief Rabbi Dovid Yosef (who, if I am not mistaken, bowed out of the ceremony due to illness) or his brother former Chief Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef or former Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar. 

It seems many other people were wondering as well because throughout the day of Yom Haatzmaut this was one of the most discussed topics - who it was, why he dressed like that and more. Quite a stir was caused by his appearance.

So it turns out this is a fellow named Eyal Tziyunov who seems to be quite a character, claiming at times to be mashiach, dressing not infrequently like a Chief Rabbi, (I saw a cute line of someone, I think it was Yair Cherki) calling him the Rishon LeTziyunov), going up to Har Habayit dressed in this garb despite the Chief Rabbis all supporting the official Chief Rabbinate position of not going to Har Habayit.... is he a rabbi or not? I dont know, but sometimes I have seen him referred to as Rav Eyal Tziyunov and sometimes just as Eyal Tziyunov.

The interesting thing is there was both outrage and a supposed security incident with him at the ceremony dressed like this.

There were attempts to push the Rabbanut to file a complaint with the police and have him arrested. I am not quite sure for what. Is it illegal to wear the robes and hat? is Purim a legal exception or is it illegal then as well? Is the Sephardic Chief Rabbi (and former SCRs) the only person legally allowed to wear the outfit? As far as I know he has never claimed to be the Chief Rabbi and in interviews over the past day or so he has explicitly denied any claims that he is claiming to be so.

People also complained a security failure because he was able to get into the event and be in the crowd in proximity of the Prime Minister. I am not sure why that was an issue. I assume security checked him and did not find him to be carrying a gun or any other weapon. He never attacked anyone. I am nto quite sure what the failure is. Maybe people are assuming he was not checked because security might have thought he was the Chief Rabbi? I would assume a badge or some identification has to be shown to get through security, and I would like to believe security at these events is already familiar with the Chief Rabbis and cannot be so easily fooled (though you never know). Also the design on his robe and the quality of the garments is not the same as that of the garments used by the Chief Rabbi and are easily distinguished.

I hope this guy gets the help he needs if he is more than just eccentric, but let's not turn everything into a crisis and an insult.

the video got passed around and went somewhat viral and it created quite a stir with different personalities such as Aryeh Deri and Aryeh Erlich, among others, getting involved, donating money and spekaing out against what happened and calling on people to donate..

Inbar Twizer, the journalist who posted the video, later defended herslef, to the onslaught of attacks against because of her video, saying that her husnad had just returned from funerals of six of his friends in miluim who had fallen in battle in Lebanon, and all of them were religious, and these 18 year olds knocked on the door and we had a pleasant conversation  in which we asked them why they have not inducted into the army. If anyone thinks we shamed them, we can agree about one thing - that not inducting into the army at this time - that is definitely something to be ashamed of.

Each and every person has the right to decide to whom to give charity. Nobody is obligated to give to whoever knocks at the door, and if you dont approve of the lifestyle of someone asking for tzedaka, feel free to not donate.

That being said, while you can choose to donate tzedaka or not donate tzedaka to any given person r organization, there is no need to treat people disrespectfully. There is a time and a place for those discussions. Go arrange a meeting between representatives of the various communities and aks the questions and have your discussions. Set up one on one meetings with average young and old haredim and ask your questions about why they do this or that. You should not treat people disrespectfully. Two young men coming to the door for one purpose do not need to be harassed like that and then shamed online. She could have asked them if they serve in the army and upon hearing no she could have chosen to not donate and send them on their way without causing a big stir. 

That is Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch, one of the Haredi gedolim today and Rosh Yeshiva of Slabodka Yeshiva in Bnei Braq, autographing a baseball in a donor's home (parlor meeting I guess) in Chicago... shortly after this he flew back to Israel... 

Being that he was born in the USA (NY) and lived there for almost 30 years before moving to Israel, I wonder if he has fond memories of baseball (as Rav Scheinberg famously did) and if he was a fan of any team when he was younger....

Traditionally Israelis go out on Yom Haatzmaut and hit the trails, see the sights, bask largely in nature. The weather is beautiful today. 

We went out with friends to his on Gan Emek HaEla up to Shaaraim, an old archaeological site dated to King David and is thought to have been the location of one of his palaces... Because Israelis traditionally go out and hit the trails before having a bbq celebration, there is always lots of traffic on Yom Haatzmaut, and popular sites can fill up very quickly. We try to avoid the traffic by going out a little buit earlier, and doing things closer to home. Shaaraim is right outside Bet Shemesh, and you can even see RBS D from the archaeological site. We accomplished our goals and did not sit in traffic, had a lovely hike and saw some people, though it was not crowded when we were there.

Befitting the day, the trail marker for our tiyul was blue and white...

and on our way out to the tiyul, just as we were heading out of Bet Shemesh, we spotted an eagle doing the air force's regular Yom Haatzmaut and performing a flyover... The Air Force flyovers are canceled this year due to the situation with Iran, so the eagle made sure we did not miss out...

Happy Birthday Israel!

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and (if you watched to the very end you will see), he's a mentsch too!

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