The Grateful Dead

An IDF crane moves the tombstone from a Jewish grave in Gush Katif, prior to the Disengagement, when we didn't hear a single solitary word from the UTJ or MK Litzman.

Here are some differences between the moving of graves from Gush Katif before the Disengagement and the Ashkelon Barzilai Hospital's ER fiasco.

Gush Katif: The graves were definitely those of Jews.
Ashkelon ER: Its overwhelmingly likely that the graves are those of Roman pagans.

Gush Katif: The reason for moving the graves was because of antisemitism (the Arabs would have destroyed the cemetary, the same way they destroyed the shuls)
Ashkelon ER: The reason for moving the graves is to save lives (expanding the ER)

Gush Katif: The UTJ and MK Litzman were utterly silent.
Ashkelon ER: The UTJ and MK Litzman scream from every rooftop.

The photos below are all from the Disengagement era when Jewish graves were moved and the UTJ was silent. There was no issue of pikuach nefesh, no issue of 135 Million NIS at stake, and the UTJ didn't say a word.










Photo Credits: SOS Israel.


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Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

And you shall choose life (and not move hospitals)

The Israeli Government caved in to pressure from the UTJ and has decided to move the emergency room from Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon to its parking lot -- because renovation revealed there are human remains at the current ER's site, where they wanted to expand and renovate the ER and bomb proof it.

The cost of moving the ER: A staggering 135 Million Shekels (about 36 Million US Dollars)

"To protest Sunday’s decision, which will boost costs of the project by some NIS 135 million, cause years of delays due to new planning needs and lead to the much-needed structure being relatively far from the main hospital building, Health Ministry Director-General Dr. Eitan Hai-Am resigned on the spot.

Hai-Am, a respected medical administrator who was appointed by Litzman about half a year ago, previously served as a key Clalit Health Services administrator and director-general of Soroka University Medical Center in Beersheba. " (JPost)

What could 36 Million dollars do instead of being used to move a hospital's ER? Don't forget that the bones are:

1. probably those of Roman pagans
2. they could be relocated, respectfully, regardless of whom they belonged to.

As commenter (and personal friend) Avrohom Shimon noted:

The Jewish sources (e.g. Mishna, Tosefta, Talmud) state very clearly that when a city must expanded, the graves (Jewish graves of course) are moved away for the need of the living.

For example תוספתא בבא בתרא א' יא' "כל הקברים מתפנים חוץ מקבר המלך וקבר הנביא"; Tosefta Bava Batra A, 11. "All graves can be moved except for those of a king and a prophet."

In the time of the Second Temple, this is what happened and archeology shows that when Jerusalem expanded to the north, the burial caves that were in the area were emptied and transferred to new burial caves outside the city.

Its unfortunate that political askanim (busybodies) distort reality in the way they present their questions to leading rabbis, so that the answer they receive is what they wish to hear.

Our society does not have unlimited resources.

135 Million NIS could be used to saving hundreds, if not thousands of lives, through upgrading medical equipment, providing life-saving drugs, hiring more doctors and staff, upgrading the hospital, etc.

135 Million NIS could go a long way to helping impoverished families.

If I were buried there, and could be told, "your descendants have a choice -- move your grave or you can save their lives through building a modern ER" -- I don't think its even a question what I would choose.

Obviously we opt to save lives.

I'm embarrassed that Israel's government caved into this pressure and is wasting our money instead of transferring the graves.

PS: I heard this morning that in the parking lot where the ER is supposed to be transferred to, there are newly found graves as well.

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Living History

I found the recent article in the NYTimes on what really happened on Chanukah to be quite amusing. The author (and his readers) was upset to learn that Chanukah isn't about Religious Tolerance or whatever as he grew up to believe, but about civil war and the survival of Judaism. He of course paints the Maccabees as a bunch of religious fanatics/Talibanist fighting the moderates who were looking to "synthesize" the Greek and Jewish cultures together, ignoring how (a) the moderates were trying to destroy Judaism and assimilate, and (b) that it is unlikely there would be much of Judaism (or Jews) left today if it weren't for our coreligionists back then.

It seemed appropriate on Chanukah that the JoeSettler family visit something connected to our ideological and national ancestors. There seems to be so much in common between then and now.

So we took a trip to the Maccabean grave site near Modi'in. Now no one is exactly sure where the grave site is, but for a number of reasons, this is currently accepted to be the most likely candidate (though other strongly disagree).



At the location is a modern "Andarta" to soldiers who died in 1948 defending the region against the Jordanian army (there weren't Arabs who could be identified as Palestinians back then). The design of the pyramids is symbolic of the grave markers that were originally on the Maccabbee graves.





If you head out on the path to highway 443 you can see Jewish burial caves that were uncovered as the road was built (you can actually see it on the highway if you drive slow enough). These graves are from around 100 years after the Maccabee victory.







Heading back to the main area, you can see what are considered the most likely candidates for the graves. These graves where carved out of the limestone themselves, and probably a stone pyramid was built over them to cover them up.





There are actually a lot of small caves in the area. Many (but not all) are marked off so you don't fall into them.



If you head over to Latrun tank museum and climb up to the top of the building you can look around and see where the Maccabees fought the Greek-Syrian armies.

Now that's a living history!



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More Nighttime Adventures in Eretz Yisrael

I've been really busy lately -- which is why I've been blogging less. Not that I don't have a million things to write about. In fact, I'd like to finish this week the following posts I started writing:

Shifra the Soldier
Urban Legends and Israeli Law
An Eretz Yisrael Hilltop Bar Mitzva
A Muqata Limrick
Bush Visits the Muqata

and a few more.

Actually, I'm so busy that an event I normally would have gone to, I had to pass up. One night a year, the IDF allows access to the village of Anapta in the Shomron/Shechem region, and allows Jews to pray at the graves of the 70 Zekeinim and 2 of Aharon HaCohen's sons -- Itamar and Elazar. For those of you who don't know, Rafi G's "Life in Israel" blog has many posts that could easily be found here (and vice versa). Since I couldn't go to Anapta last week, I did the next best thing -- I called up Rafi G and he blogged it.

So what was I doing in the hills of the Shomron in sub-zero weather?

That leads us to the review of my latest Adventure in Eretz Yisrael..

At about 8:30 PM on Thursday night, Jameel calls me up on the phone. Whenever Jameel calls, you know something is up. He tells me that he just got word they are opening the village of [I could not catch the name of the village], and this is a place they only open to Jews once a year. In this village are the grave sites of Elazar and Isamar, 2 of the sons of Aharon Ha'Kohen, and the gravesite of the 70 elders. The buses would be leaving from "Bat Shalosh" at about 12 am and there was no need to pre-register.

We went over the directions quickly, and hung up. I called Jameel about 10:15 to go over the directions again, as I am not as familiar with the roads of the Shomron as he is. He tells me that he probably would not be going, but we went over the directions again.

So I head out to the Shomron. The trip was pretty smooth. Driving through the Shomron at night is a bit spooky, if you are not familiar with the roads. You drive through some Arab villages that straddle the "highway". You know that if you make a wrong turn you will end up on the morning news as the victim of a lynching. The signs "could be better", the lighting of the roads "could be better".

Read it all here (with pictures) at Life in Israel.

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

The Grave of Onkelos the Convert

Graves in Israel are serious business. Just last week we read in the parashat shavua of Avraham buying the Cave of Machpela to bury his wife Sarah.

And yet, last week was also the arrival of a "newly discovered" grave -- that of Onkelos the Convert. Onkeles is famous for his translation of the Torah into Aramaic.

Last week, a sign appeared over an old building in a barren field in the Bayit Vegan neighborhood of Jerusalem. The sign, written in Hebrew read "Grave of Onkelos the Convert." Coincidentally (or not) the field is next to the famous "Kol Torah" yeshiva. Coincidentally (or not), there's also a building contractor who has rights to build a complex of 280 apartments on the same field. There's also a Bezeq cell-tower at the edge of the field as well.

Within hours the building was transformed into a "proper" grave site.

A room was painted blue, benches and seforim were placed in the building, a mechitza for a women's section was constructed....even tzedaka boxes are there.

By Thursday evening, one could see Jews gathering at the holy site, praying and learning. Since then, there was davening there on Friday evening, Moztei Shabbat, and mincha during the week.

And yet, this entire grave site is fiction.

The picture above shows kids putting up the sign on the building...but that hasn't stopped people from visiting the site.

Why was this building transformed into the grave of Onkelos?

1. Kol Torah is interested in preventing the building of an apartment complex next to it (or wants to build there themselves), and the most surefire way to stop building in Israel is to find a grave on the property (let alone a "famous" one).

2. Bored yeshiva guys looking for fun (with no internet or blogging, can you blame them?)

3. Same people who created the "grave" of the horse named Shimon HaTzadik, decided to copy their success.

Due to the high levels of electromagnetic radiation from the nearby cell-tower, rabbis from Kol Torah have instructed their students to stay away.

Now it's only a matter of time before the legend of the "curse of the grave of Onkolos" pops up (wasn't it Halloween last week?)


Sources: Radio Kol-Chai, NFC, and my friend the kan'oi.

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael

Praying at the grave of Shimon HaTzadik?!

This has got to be one of the weirder stories blogged at the Muqata...

While I personally have gone to daven (pray) before at different graves around the country; Hevron's Mearat HaMachpelah, Yehoshua, Calev, and others...this story is without a doubt, one for the record books.

I won't translate the article word for word, but the gist is as follows:

A father and son from Bnei Brak went on vacation near Tevriya, and were enjoying a horse-drawn wagon tour, when they came upon a grave/tomb entitled, "Shimon HaTzadik" -- Shimon the Righteous. The father asked the wagon driver to stop, and went with his son to pray at the tomb.

They immediately heard laughter coming from the wagon driver, and he told the father and son not to pray or say tehillim at the tomb. The father tried explaining the importance of praying at the graves of saintly people, yet the wagon driver waved him off.

"You won't believe it, but this is the grave...of a horse..." said the wagon driver.

The driver continued, as the shocked father listened incredulously.

"In our ranch, we give people's names to all our horses, and this particular horse was named 'Shimon.' After he died, we decided to bury him and erect this tomb in his memory, since he was a particularly exceptional horse. He was hard working and everyone loved him...which is why we put on his tomb, "Shimon HaTzadik"...we also added, 'His dedication to his work showed us the way."

The shocked father mentioned this story to his rabbi in Bnei Brak, who said the story should be publicized so that others should not accidentally pray at the grave of a horse.

Kol Ha'ir Newspaper, Bnei Brak, 3rd Av, July 18th 2007

Wow.


If your Hebrew's good enough, the Hebrew Wikipedia article on the real Shimon HaTzadik and his burial cave in Jerusalem is here.

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael