In his popular weekly shiur, HaGaon HaRav Daniel Zer, the Rosh Yeshiva of the Ohr Dovid yeshiva in Bnei Brak, addressed the scenes from last week’s Peleg Yerushalmi protest, during which police officers acted with disproportionate violence and carried out deliberate acts of humiliation by tearing off protesters’ pants—unprecedented acts that have never been seen at any other protest.
“A Chareidi protest—the police beat them cruelly with batons, tore off their clothes,” HaRav Zer said. “A terrible busha. If they had done this to the Kaplan protesters, the entire State would have gone crazy. But it’s a mitzva to beat the Chareidim.”
“These police officers think the world is hefker,” HaRav Zer continued. “To raise batons and strike Bnei Torah? Anyone who harms a Ben Torah—Hashem Yeracheim—they’re kofrim b’ikar. They will suffer in this world as well—there’s no kaparah for humiliating talmidei chachamim.”
“I’ll tell you a story—the police officers should listen. A known Mekubal recounted a story about a Jew from Tzfas, a talmid chacham and Yirei Shamayim, who came to him weeping and told him this story. His father, known as a tzaddik, passed away 15 years earlier and was buried in Chutz L’Eretz, where he lived.”
“Fifteen years after his death, his sons, who were residing in Israel, decided to bring his body to Israel for reburial. When the kever was opened, those present were astonished to discover that while the rest of his body had remained completely intact, his right leg had been consumed by worms.”
“The sons were astonished. Their father was a tzaddik, and as is known, the bodies of tzaddikim are not affected by worms.
“That night, the father appeared to his son in a dream, radiant and glowing, and said ‘Why are you crying?’ The son responded: ‘Abba, you were a great tzaddik. Why was your right leg consumed?’
His father responded: ‘Know that Heavenly judgment is true judgment. I once kicked a Ben Torah with that leg.’”
HaRav Zer continued: “And this was punishment for a tzaddik, a Yira Shamayim. These police officers commit every sin in the world. What awaits them in the next world?!”
(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
