Homesh yeshiva
Homesh yeshivaHomesh yeshiva

Israel's Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi, David Lau, has reportedly been prevented by the IDF from visiting the Homesh yeshiva. According to Kan News, Rabbi Lau had planned to visit the yeshiva last week in order to give a Torah class to the young men learning in Homesh, but security forces refused to authorize his arrival.

Meanwhile, students of the yeshiva and rabbis affiliated with it are being allowed to reach the site.

A statement from the IDF spokesperson noted that: "The policies of the security forces related to the evacuation of the settlement have not changed."

MK Bezalel Smotrich, head of the Religious Zionism party, criticized the government for the decision, telling the Defense Minister, Benny Gantz that, "Preventing the Chief Rabbi from entering Homesh is just the latest in a series of aggravations and disruptions to the functioning of the yeshiva."

Smotrich demanded that Gantz "order the commanding officer to enable the Chief Rabbi to reach Homesh immediately, and stop these repeated attempts to restrict the yeshiva's activities and disturb a Jewish presence that has been continual in Homesh for the past fifteen years."

The administration of the Homesh yeshiva added that, "Preventing the Chief Rabbi from entering Homesh constitutes yet another attempt to harm the yeshiva in order to prepare the ground for its destruction and award a prize to terrorism, finishing off the work begun by Yehuda Dimentman's murderers."

Last week, the first letters were inscribed in a special sefer Torah (Torah scroll) to be written in memory of Yehuda Dimentman, who was gunned down as he left the Homesh yeshiva at the end of a day of learning there. Dimentman's parents along with the parents of his widow paid a visit to the yeshiva in honor of the special event.

"Yehuda was our precious son," said his father, Rabbi Motti Dimentman, at the occasion. "Just a few moments before he left the yeshiva on that final day, he completed learning a daf Gemara [a folio page of Talmud], and he banged on the bimah [lectern] and announced: Yay! I completed another daf!

"For Yehuda, each daf was a special occasion for rejoicing," his father continued. "Yehuda is still with us here; the continued existence of the yeshiva is a continuation of Yehuda's life, as is the writing of this sefer Torah. We are here to strengthen the yeshiva, to encourage you to continue to learn here, and that reinforces our strong sense that Yehuda is still here among us."

Also participating in the event were several of Yehuda's friends who were injured in the terrorist attack. One of the most emotional parts of the occaion was when Yehuda's father and father-in-law wrote letters in the sefer Torah while holding David, Yehuda's orphaned son.