In Bnei Brak today, 50,000 people took part in a funeral for five Torah scrolls that were torched in an arson fire the night before last. Rabbi Chaim Brilant, chairman of the Agudat Yisrael Synagogues Union, told Arutz-7's Yosef Zalmanson that the scene was "tremendously moving, and there was barely room to move." Among the speakers were the elderly sage Rabbi Shmuel HaLevi Vozner and the neighborhood's spiritual leader Rabbi Nissim Karelitz. Rabbi Brilant, addressing the mourners at the end of the ceremony, said that the rabbis had asked that each of them, including boys and girls of Bar- and Bat-Mitzvah age, give 18 shekels ("kofer nefesh") to help pay for new Torah scrolls for the community.
The remnants of the burnt scrolls were taken in a ZAKA ambulance to the Ponovezh cemetery, and were buried between two of the famed yeshiva's leading deans. Psalms 20 and 80 were recited, as was the "Sha'ali Srufah B'Esh" dirge written by Maharam MeRotenberg after the burning of 24 Torah scrolls in Paris over a millennium ago.
Police are investigating the cause of the fire. Rabbi Brilant said that though no one can be blamed until the culprits are caught, "there is no question that the atmosphere of scorn for the Torah that is so prevalent in some circles is what allows this kind of horrendous act to happen."
The remnants of the burnt scrolls were taken in a ZAKA ambulance to the Ponovezh cemetery, and were buried between two of the famed yeshiva's leading deans. Psalms 20 and 80 were recited, as was the "Sha'ali Srufah B'Esh" dirge written by Maharam MeRotenberg after the burning of 24 Torah scrolls in Paris over a millennium ago.
Police are investigating the cause of the fire. Rabbi Brilant said that though no one can be blamed until the culprits are caught, "there is no question that the atmosphere of scorn for the Torah that is so prevalent in some circles is what allows this kind of horrendous act to happen."