Dear [email protected],
As a Bais Yaakov girl who was in Meron last year, I feel the need to comment on the Matzav story about Meron yesterday.
Hours before the disaster, things were crazy squashed. I saw people who were suffocating and required help from Hatzolah multiple times throughout the night…
It was my first time there, and I kept thinking that every year that people come home alive is a neis galui. My only comfort that led me to believe that I and everyone else there would be okay in the end was the fact that there had never been any known deaths until then… so why would this year be any different?
So anyway, try, if possible, to imagine THAT squish…
Needless to say, that night, the “shomer negeia song” kept playing over in my head. I couldn’t physically control my mobility enough to avoid squeezing into men and bochurim… And I’m not a weak girl, but it was impossible to avoid.
I repeat: it was impossible to avoid.
I add nothing to daas Torah, as the Slonimer Rebbe shared in yesterday’s Matzav.com reports. Daas Torah knows what’s right without me adding my two cents. But for those of you who say that’s not my daas Torah, and I just want to hear the indisputable facts to be able to form my own opinion, here they are: There is no way to be shomer negeia in Meron as it was on Lag Ba’omer in the past.
If you think it’s okay for boys and girls to intermingle, then discuss with daas Torah if singles events or mixed seating by your simchos is the right option. But don’t tell me that hugging every guy who happens to be on the same mountain as you is the right derech.
A Seminary Girl
{Matzav.com}
It’s tge wicked ziomists fault everything is there fault not the chayas who rioted yesterday not the chayas how will storm the mountain without tickets and blame the zionists not the charadim who refuse to cooperate with the authorities to make it safe it’s the zionists I need dass torah to tell me what’s common sense stay away since when is thus the biggest yom tov we have?
How dare you call erliche yidden chayos, unless you’re referring to yourself. Yes, the Zionists are to be blamed for everything bad happening in Israel because they’re evil, corrupt and G-dless! If you don’t want to go, don’t, but let other Jews follow their own Daas Torah.
In truth, it is really the wicked Zionists’ fault.
Of course it’s not possible this year because the Zionists destroyed the mechitza and want everyone walking on the same path. Reshaim Gemurim.
The ספר טל ירושלים (Harav Yehuda Leib Horenstein zt”l) writes,
“Originally there was dancing for both men & women (separately) on Lag Baomer.
A למדן came along and made the women stop dancing. They were upset with him for doing so.
This למדן fell asleep and Rashbi came to him in a dream. He told him “because you disturbed
my Simcha by holding back the women from dancing therefore at your Simcha the same
will happen to you.”
Shortly afterward, he married off his son who died at his own wedding.:
Seems רשב”י is in need of women to dance on top of his grave.
Be careful with the wording that you use when you talk about the Heilige Tanna Rabi Shimon Bar Yochai.
Sounds like propaganda to me…
Last year’s tragedy was a massacre, meant to allow the government to regulate and lower the amount of Jews celebrating in Meron on L’ag B’Omer. By destroying the Mechitzah there’ll accomplish even more as fewer chareidim will go up to Meron.
If you are “Hugging every guy who happens to be on the same mountain” sorry to say but it’s clear you’re prob is not meron !!
That’s what was going through my mind as I read this letter. (Which I doubt was written by a Seminary girl.)
Couldn’t have said it better!!
The guys that you were squishing into were obviously not on the mehadrin path. The mehadrin men only path which was very clearly signposted was created a couple of years ago for that very reason.
Maybe I was on the mehadrin path. It was too squished to to possibly see any sign, no matter how clearly they were posted…
And what about your average NYC subway train commute to and from work during rush hour?
Ever been on the busses by the Kotel on Motzoei Shabbos? Or many Egged busses in many locations. Old joke about how there’s a little obscure se’if katan in hilchos negiah that says they don’t apply on Israeli busses.
well said. I can’t believe that it was allowed to go in for so long.
How true. Yashar koach for bringing up the topic from a REAL point of view
GEVALDIG GEVALDIG
I was there last year. I don’t recall running into this issue. Maybe she was in the wrong areas?
100% true.
Re: “But don’t tell me that hugging every guy who happens to be on the same mountain as you”, etc.
Is that really what happens there?
Yes! I was there!
I’m a real sem girl. This is what really happened. Don’t take it from me though- ask anyone you actually know that was there.
@A guy who missed out- if you missed out on this, then I have a very difficult time imagining that you were there.
What section were you in the whole time??
your right no girls should go. its a men’s event.
Wow!
Kudos to the straight-talking writer for sharing that very important report. It is about time that we heard the unvarnished truth about Lag Baomer at Meron.
Thank you Matzav!
Ladies should be at home cooking and baking.
BTW, there’s no issure negia without chiba. Just like a train car or packed bus. I’m not saying that it’s a good thing though.
I was there a few years ago and was nowhere near hugging people of opposite gender
troll you gave yourself away with the last line “hugging every guy” what kind of nonsense. an unwanted .. uncomfortable push in a crowd is very diff. .. be careful by davening in a spot thats not in the thick of things.. and kedushas hamokom is mesayeya
almost everyone tries their best as in a busy hardware store days before pesach
Yes! I was there!
I’m a real sem girl. This is what really happened. Don’t take it from me though- ask anyone you actually know that was there.
@A guy who missed out- if you missed out on this, then I have a very difficult time imagining that you were there.
What section were you in the whole time??
Seek immediate help.
chazakah uberuchah
So stay home and say Tehilim
Went to Meron many times . Never had your experience , not even once. BH
Alteh Bucher
Why just blame the fake stare? I have yet to see a chareidi blame the Rabbanut for being corrupt. Don’t just blame people who are different. Real courage involves saying “we made a mistake”.
I was personally in Meron once on Lag Ba’oimer a few years back, and regret it. I had much to repent for, and was not exactly such a successful attempt at an embodiment of the kedusha of the place and the Tanna. for. Never mind the exact details of if one will end up transgressing on shoimer negiah, the etzem fact of pritzus on the day and at the very place of Rebbe Shimon Bar Yochai (whose whole legacy, ie zohar etc is the epitom and example of kedushah) is such a disgrace.
But anyway, all you commenters, why are you being so childish, you know very well that the (oh so right) sem girl was not and is not some psychotic deranged idiot running around trying to hug men. It is an educated use of a metaphor, used to raise/ attract awareness to an issue which has long deserved this.
Maybe you are some super-Jew, but most both men and women will get effected by things they see etc (…) so while a person can’t go mad and crazy OCD to protect oneself, one can, should and must do everything that one can healthily do for such. This girl is totally right, and as a Yungerman (then bucher) it is heartwarming to know that there are girls/women out there (obviously) who not only recognize, and understand the issue, but have enough sensitivity for others to come out and share it.
Thanks!!
P. S. don’t pay attention to all those negative comments, they speak for themselves as from where they come…..