[the-sentry]

Without a doubt, the Lag Baomer tragedy in Meron is a call for teshuva. And as Hagaon Rav Dovid Michael Shmidel shlita remarked; “Mourning for us means cheshbon hanefesh.” After much deliberation whether or not to write about the details, we would like to preface the following; if you are one who is not interested in the details, and will only become sidetracked from making a cheshbon hanefesh, then perhaps skip this article. A short preface is in order. The police have a longstanding struggle with chareidi Jewry over controlling public events. The Israeli police represent the secular government and enforce their laws versus the Torah. Thus throughout the years, levayahs, hachnasas Sefer Torahs etc. were run without police assistance. In recent years the police have taken to gaining control of public chareidi events. Additionally; the tziyun of Reb Shimon in Meron is one of the only remaining mekomos hakedoshim that is still under an entity called “Hekdeishos”, and not under the government’s jurisdiction. The government would like to gain control of Meron and turn it into a tourist site. Thus, in recent years they have begun to seize more and more control of the Lag Baomer activities. Obviously this year, with corona still a legal excuse, they could establish themselves even more. The opening leading to the hadlakah of Toldos Aharon serves as both an entrance and exit. At about one o’clock in the morning, the police decided to block anyone from entering the area, as they claimed it was too crowded, and they installed massive gates which blocked the opening. Following the hadlakah, a large segment of the crowd typically exits, and the opening is then mostly used as an exit. Unbeknownst to those exiting, the exit was hermetically sealed. Those who reached the exit were stopped, and being that the exit is by means of a winding path, the people exiting behind them could not see that there was a blockage. Thus hundreds continued pouring toward the exit, pressing against those trapped. The police told the trapped people; “Go the other way, this side is closed.” Obviously this was impossible, as there was a massive crowd coming up behind them. Many eyewitness survivors report that the trapped were crying out to the police officers standing a mere few feet away and said; “We can’t breath, open the gates”, “Please give us some water”. The officers just stood there and responded; “These are our orders.” When it become evident that a tremendous tragedy occurred, the police removed the bars. When a newspaper photographer began snapping pictures of the area, the police stopped assisting the victims, in order to beat him and prevent the truth from becoming known. The police then confiscated all private video cameras that were trained on the area. Of course when the Prime Minister arrived he thanked the police for their heroic work. And in the media calls began for the government to seize control of Meron, for the chareidim can’t manage themselves. Haratzachtah v’gam ya’rashtah?! Once again; the fact that such an awesome tragedy took place, is an undeniable call to teshuva. The details are only for the sake of providing a truthful report. [Much of this report is based on eyewitnesses.]