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del.icio.us Digg It!  new Last update - 15:13 05/10/2007 Due to rabbis' objections, Haredim end Simhat Torah without celebration By Yair Ettinger, Haaretz Correspondent A hallmark of the end of the High Holy Day season was missing Thursday from ultra-Orthodox streets: the public celebrations, known as the Second Hakafot, which have become a tradition after the end of Simhat Torah. Outdoor celebrations, such as the one in Jerusalem's Shabbat Square, which had been not only a religious celebration but a demonstration of political power, have become a thing of the past. The national religious community held its celebrations outdoors as usual, although many were careful to separate men and women. Ultra-Orthodox Ashkenazi rabbinic leaders, among them rabbis Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, Aharon Leib Steinman and Shmuel Halevi Wozner, have prohibited street events, particularly those featuring music, demanding that merrymaking be confined to closed halls or synagogues where men and women are completely separated. Advertisement To enforce gender separation, monitors in Jerusalem's Mea She'arim quarter diverted women to side streets toward separate entrances to the synagogues and halls. On the main streets, men and women were told to walk on separate sidewalks. The rabbis' concern seems to stem from the presence of young men and women who have dropped out from ultra-Orthodox schools, and according to one street poster, or pashkavil, bring "singers or various cantors, thus causing gatherings of boys and girls who have deviated from the path." The Chabad Movement opposed the rabbi's dictums, and last week held the mid-Sukkot Festival of the Drawing of the Water outdoors, angering pashkavilim and drawing public protests in response. Former Agudat Israel MK Menachem Porush, who has for years organized the Second Hakafot in Sabbath Square, had to make a decision. Sources speaking for Porush initially said the only person authorized to cancel the event was the Brisker rabbi, Yitzak Ze'ev Halevi Soloveichik, who had personally ordered Porush to hold the celebrations in public. However, the Rabbi from Brisk died in 1959. Porush eventually gave in to pressure and decided a few days ago to cancel the public celebrations, earning high praise in the pashkavilim. More Jewish World news and features Bookmark to del.icio.us The Last Klezmer Ra'anana will host a concert celebrating the life of musician Leopold Kozlowski. Dignity or Liberty In the case of drug addicts, a person's dignity takes precedence over liberty.   1.   WE DID END IT IN CELEBRATION! 03:57  |  AVI 05/10/07   2.   Remarkable 04:39  |  Gordon 05/10/07   3.   "Simhat" Torah?! 06:25  |  sandra chitayat 05/10/07   4.   "Simhat" Torah? 06:35  |  sandra chitayat 05/10/07   5.   Gordan - try again 06:54  |  Bryan 05/10/07   6.   Israeli boys and girls 07:19  |  steve 05/10/07   7.   So it is... 07:39  |  Esther 05/10/07   8.   Remarkable...hello? 07:49  |  simah 05/10/07   9.   demonstration of political power? 07:58  |  fred 05/10/07   10.   So the Rabbis won, and morality won 08:02  |  Another Jew 05/10/07   11.   Gordon; preventive action is better than looking for cures later 08:05  |  Alexa 05/10/07   12.   Sandra, as usual the paper got it wrong. 08:08  |  Joanna 05/10/07   13.   Esther - yes. Wisdom is never obsolete. 08:13  |  Josephine 05/10/07   14.   "Walk on separate sidewalks"!?! 08:32  |  Michael Steiner 05/10/07   15.   great 09:11  |  eliezer 05/10/07   16.   Article is a typical hogpoge of fact & fantasy 09:19  |  HH 05/10/07   17.   Sick? NO, it`s an expression of freedom 09:20  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 05/10/07   18.   Why not try keeping Shabbat and Kashrut first? 09:23  |  Binyamin Dissen 05/10/07   19.   enough already! 09:52  |  John 05/10/07   20.   alexa 11 18:00  |  realism 06/10/07   21.   When the Great Day Arrives.... 10:54  |  Michael 07/10/07   22.   "realism" and distorting reality 14:33  |  Alexa 07/10/07   23.   Michael and the great day... 14:44  |  Just A jew 07/10/07   24.   alexa 22 17:58  |  realism 07/10/07   25.   Realism, God "hates" both divorce and violence 13:32  |  GratefullyHis 08/10/07   26.   Not freedom! 22:21  |  Miriam 08/10/07   27.   Realism as a therapist I see the real facts. 11:36  |  Alexa 09/10/07   28.   Miriam and fake freedom 13:12  |  Josephine 09/10/07   29.   Alexa, if you are a professional therapist...it sounds like 13:30  |  Dr. Heart 09/10/07   30.   Freedom 17:29  |  Miriam 09/10/07

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