Torah Dedicated at Outpost

A new Torah scroll was dedicated on Sunday at the same outpost in Samaria where the IDF several months ago used Arab workers to destroy a sophisticated sheep barn. Tzfat’s Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu and National Union Knesset Member Yaakov (Ketzaleh) Katz joined 200 people for the joyous dedication at the northern Samaria outpost of Maoz Tzvi.

David Botzar, who served as a commando in the IDF, and his wife Sheina first arrived at the community seven years ago with the intention of starting a farm that would be an educational center for troubled teens. They moved their home to the site two years ago, living in a “caravan,” a small mobile home without wheels.

After they built a sophisticated barn for the center's sheep, the IDF destroyed it, using local Arabs, although both the barn and the caravan shared the same status of not being officially authorized by Defense Minister Ehud Barak. The Botzars and one other family now live at Maoz Tzvi, named after Tzvika Sela, who was a resident of nearby Mevo Dotan before being murdered by Arab terrorists.

David HaIvri, director of the Shomron (Samaria) Liaison Council, said that the Botzars have kept 750 acres of state-owned land in Jewish hands by usinig it to graze their herd of 50 sheep. Although the IDF destroyed the sheep barn, it uses Maoz Tzvi as a lookout point because of its strategic location overlooking the surrounding area.

The new Torah scroll was donated by a family in South America and is the third one to be dedicated at outposts in the past year.