Oct 25, 2012

Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger Calls For Delaying Visits To Kever Rachel

This Shabbos, the 11th of Cheshvan, is known to be the yahrtzeit of Rachel Imeinu. That means, people will be flocking, by the thousands, over the next few days, to pay respects and offer prayers at Rachel's burial spot, kever Rachel. Especially busy will be Motzei Shabbat, this Saturday night.

Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger issued a warning, and a call of concern. The expected masses on Motzei Shabbat will require the security services, both the army and the police, to go into high gear to prepare the security arrangements. The police will surely begin their preparations during the day of Shabbos itself.

Rav Metzger calls upon the people going to visit and daven by Kever Rachel to be careful to not be the cause chillul shabbos, and therefore to only begin going to the kever at least 3 hours after Shabbos is over, not to go before 8:30 PM, and even, if possible, to not go until Sunday. And, Rav Metzger concludes with a prayer, the care for Shabbos should ensure the acceptance of our prayers..








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4 comments:

  1. Not to be too cynical, but...

    The chareidim will be the ones ignoring this and running right after Shabbos. Then they will complain of the chilul Shabbos by the army.

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  2. I don't understand how this helps. The IDF needs to be prepared for visitors no matter what time they arrive. They are not going to delay security preparations because there is a possibility that the rush might start later. If they did that and they were wrong than everyone would complain how incompetent they were and could possibly put lives in danger.

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  3. as far as I understand it is a halachic issue. even if the army will still make their preparations on Shabbos, by giving it enough time (I dont know how they determine how much time is considered enough) to have been done after Shabbat is out, it is considered not having benefited from a Jew's chilul shabbos.

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  4. on another note, this is not like yom hazikaron preps where they have to set up stages and microphones and speakers and prepare events. This is pikuach nefesh preparations, so I wonder how bad it actually is that these preps are done on Shabbos. It is like hachana for pikuach nefesh. It seems a bit strange to me - pikuach nefesh, but the pikuach nefesh is only after Shabbos.

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