Yehuda Segal wrote an article on the government war on prayer at Kever Dan. He received an obnoxious letter from an “objective” lawyer, defending the state. The nerve! So, Segal let him have it…
Note: The back-and-forth is heavily edited to avoid lawsuits!
The original article:
Only in the State of Israel: Kever Dan Was Sealed
Kever Dan Ben Yaakov was sealed this morning with blocks and cement, in spite of the place being a central magnet for Jews from the entire region.
Two years ago the local branch of the Chut Shel Chessed Yeshiva operating near the gravesite was destroyed as an “illegal structure”. But the authorities’ rage toward those “squatting” on their forefathers’ inheritance was not yet satisfied. The Antiquities Authority received a final ruling from the courts to continue blocking up the gravesite with cement and blocks, as they indeed did, to the great sorrow of visitors.
And what’s the excuse? They speak of “state-owned land” (?), “forests”, and missing electricity and engineering permits. Of the slight chance someone might build something illegal, this although there is nothing built there at the moment, but the simple structure over the dome! If this was the grave of an Arab Sheik, you can be sure nothing would happen to it.
Bottom line: We need to wrest this and all other holy sites from the hands of the state and return them back into rightful private ownership. This is the only way we can ensure their upkeep, building safety, electricity, and serve those who visit to pour their brokenhearted prayers at our forefathers’ graves.
At first it appeared Religious Affairs Minister David Azulai would be able to delay the decree for the time being, but that didn’t happen. The Gravesite is sealed and barred.
This article first appeared in Hebrew.
With Heaven’s help, Yehuda Segal
The lawyer:
Arizal did not consider kever dan a holy site with a mesora, and therefore omitted it from the exhaustive list of tradition-based kevarim he composed.
Misrad HaDatot is following the tradition of the Arizal. You’re not.
Do you have a competing, authoritative mesora different than his?
M. HaDatot is trying to discourage people from devoting money and resources [read: erroneously donating their tzedakah money] to a site which may indeed be nothing more than the grave of an Arab Sheik.
Since when does the gravesite of any of our forefathers constitute “private property”? And of whom?
If you want to be taken seriously as a journalist, and especially as a frum journalist, then do your homework [at the very least regarding halacha-related issues], and don’t write an uninformed opinion\editorial article, then pretend as if you were reporting the news objectively.
For select Yehuda Segal articles, see here.