God Chit-Chats With Rabbi - Again!
Top rabbi blames garage collapse, rocket explosion on divine anger (Rabbi's God Kills Innocent People To Make A Point & Tells Mazuz What That Point Is)
Rabbi Meir Mazuz, head of Tunisian Jewry in Israel, says God’s unhappiness over desecration of Shabbat is cause of recent disasters
September 11, 2016, 12:35 pm
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Rabbi
Meir Mazuz attends a press conference of the Yachad political party in
Bnei Brak, December 25, 2014. (Photo by Yaakov Naumi/Flash90)
A leading Israeli rabbi
attributed the collapse of a Tel Aviv parking garage that killed six
people and an explosion that destroyed the Amos-6 satellite to Sabbath
desecration, during a Saturday night class in Bnei Brak.
Rabbi
Meir Mazuz, the head of the Tunisian Jewish community in Israel and
spiritual leader of far-right political party Yachad, said the two
disasters “happened because [people] are belittling the Shabbat.”
Last Monday morning, a parking garage that was
being built in the Ramat Hahayal neighborhood of northeastern Tel Aviv
collapsed suddenly, killing six people and injuring more than 20. The
rescue efforts, which began almost immediately after the collapse,
continued until Saturday afternoon when the last body was extricated.
“What happened this week has never happened
before. A building, with engineers, with inspectors. Dozens of people
trapped under the earth. It’s all because [people] are belittling the
Shabbat,” Mazuz said during his weekly class.
Israeli
medics and emergency units work at a construction site
where an underground car park collapsed on September 5, 2016
in the Ramat Hahayal neighbourhood of Tel Aviv.
where an underground car park collapsed on September 5, 2016
in the Ramat Hahayal neighbourhood of Tel Aviv.
Mazuz, who leads the Kiseh Rahamim yeshiva in
Bnei Brak,
was referring, in part, to a recent controversy in Israel
over rail work being done on the Sabbath, which has riled
the ultra-Orthodox political parties and their constituents.
was referring, in part, to a recent controversy in Israel
over rail work being done on the Sabbath, which has riled
the ultra-Orthodox political parties and their constituents.
In addition to the garage collapse, Mazuz said the Amos-6 satellite, which was destroyed on board a SpaceX rocket that exploded earlier this month in Cape Canaveral, Florida, was also caused by desecration of the Sabbath.
The
Amos-6, Israel’s largest ever satellite, and the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket
on which it was perched go up in flames after the rocket exploded on
the launch pad during a static fire test at a launch facility at Cape
Canaveral in Florida on September 1, 2016. (YouTube screen capture)
“They [political leaders] don’t know that in the end the Sabbath will exact justice for this insult,” Mazuz said.
On a different note, the senior Sephardi rabbi
also warned the students in his class against enrolling their children
in secular schools.
“Anyone who sends their child for a secular education needs to know that their grandchild may become a non-Jew,” he said.
In a Facebook post, Rabbi Amnon Bazak, of the modern Orthodox Har Etzion Yeshiva, denounced Mazuz’s remarks.
“Why obscure the simple reason for the garage
collapse — serious negligence, for which some of the people involved
have already been arrested,” he said.
“Unfortunately, different disasters happen as
part of the world: negligence, crime, terror attacks, natural disasters
and more. They don’t differentiate between populations — religious,
secular, ultra-Orthodox, right-wing, left-wing, settlers and Tel
Avivians,” Bazak wrote on a Facebook post.
“No one has the ability to determine that a
disaster occurred because of some event, especially for the generation
after the Holocaust,” he said, referring to the questions raised about
God’s intervention, or lack thereof, during the Holocaust.
Eitam
Henkin and Naama Henkin of Neria, who were murdered in a drive-by
terror attack near Nablus on Thursday, October 1, 2015. (screen capture:
Channel 2)
Mazuz sparked controversy in November 2015
when he claimed gay pride parades and other forms of “sinful behavior”
were the reason terrorists murdered Eitam and Naama Henkin on October 1,
2015.
Mazuz told a memorial event for the Henkins
that their shooting death at the hands of Palestinian terrorists had
been a form of divine retribution.
“We must avoid acts of Sodom and Gomorrah that
have multiplied over the past year,” he said, referring to the biblical
cities destroyed by God for impenitent sin. “Gay pride parade? Pride in
what? What this pride is there in opposing nature? What pride is there
is opposing God? For this comes punishment.”
The Henkin couple were shot to death as they
were traveling in their car near the West Bank settlement of Itamar on
October 1. Their four small children – the oldest was 9 years old – were
in the backseat and witnessed their murder but were uninjured.
Mazuz is known as the spiritual mentor of the
Yachad political party which unsuccessfully ran in the March 2015
elections. Mazuz backed party leader Eli Yishai when he left the
hegemonic Sephardi religious party Shas following a vicious leadership
battle with Aryeh Deri.
Yachad
party leader Eli Yishai kisses the hand of Rabbi Meir Mazuz
during a press conference in Bnei Brak, December 25, 2014.
during a press conference in Bnei Brak, December 25, 2014.
Despite strong polling throughout the election
campaign,
Yachad failed to win the necessary votes to pass the electoral threshold
and earn seats in the Knesset. Bummer!
Yachad failed to win the necessary votes to pass the electoral threshold
and earn seats in the Knesset. Bummer!