Former Minister Ayelet Shaked called this morning (Friday) to avoid disrupting Simchat Torah celebrations - in light of attempts to disrupt and interfere with prayers in public spaces on Yom Kippur and during the Sukkot holiday.
""I was born and raised in Tel Aviv. I'm from here. Simchat Torah circlings have always been a joyful event for everyone. Secular, traditional and religious together. The processions, the colors, the sense of sharing, the special joy that bridges any gap that exists on other days.".
""I ask that you leave it. Exactly like that," Shaked wrote.
Want more news, videos and stories? Join the Haredim 10 WhatsApp channel >>
She added: "Dancing in the streets of Tel Aviv with a Torah scroll is exciting and uplifting. Little children walk around with flags and sweets, young men wave Torah scrolls in the air. This is a childhood landscape. And it is also the landscape that I want to leave for my children and, one day, their children. Let's preserve it. Together. Happy Holidays!".
President Yitzhak Herzog also addressed a similar call to the public: "Even as children in a non-religious Tel Aviv neighborhood, we celebrated the joyful and unifying custom of circumambulation with love and mutual respect, and so did thousands upon thousands like us throughout the country. These are real, honest, and intimate events of love for Israel, which have become the heritage of all parts of the people. I have always felt that this is a deep and unifying part of our personal and national identity.".
The President added: "This year, during the Tishrei holidays, we experienced with great pain a number of incidents of preventing prayer; incidents that seared the heart and were incomprehensible and unacceptable.".
He requested: "In preparation for the Hakafot that we will celebrate tonight and tomorrow throughout the country, I personally address you, citizens of Israel, each and every one of you, and call for consideration, inclusion, respect and love for Israel during the Hakafot and in general, and to allow all of us, together, the feeling of holiday and joy. Without provocations, without disturbances, without quarrels.
""Let's decide - enough raising of voices, enough raising of hands! On the occasion of Simchat HaTorah, we must put aside the disputes and return to the pure and blessed joy of the beginning of the new year and with it the round of reading from the weekly parashats.".
