Chilul Hasha"s? Chilul Shabbos at Sephardi Siyum Hashas location

First publication: will the Sephardi Siyum Hashas event support Chilul Shabbos?

A month ago, Eli Simchayof, the deputy mayor of Jerusalem announced that in the month of Av an event of Siyum Hashas for the Sephardi public will take place for the first time in Jerusalem.

The event itself will take place in cooperation with Radio Kol Barama.

At first, the organizers planned to hold the event in Givat Hatachmoshet, and Yahadut Hatorah planned to hold the event in the same location a day later.

But because of what is called by them "logistic problems", it was decided in Sha"s to move the event to the Teddy stadium in the capitol.

In an in-depth research which Behadrei Hareidim held, it seems that over the last years, sport games have been held in the stadium while causing Chilul Shabbos. For example, the last game which was played on Shabbos took place on the 5.5.12, when the football team Beitar Yerushalayim played at 17:40, while Shabbos went out at 20:01.

Over the last years, other games took place in the stadium during Shabbos. In addition, games were held a few minutes after Shabbos, which caused Chilul Shabbos by the security companies, the kiosks in the stadium, lighting workers and selling of tickets which starts in the midst of Shabbos.

So how is Siyum Hashas taking place in a place which is Mechalel Shabbos?

The manager of the stadium, Yaakov (Kiko) Mallul told Behadrei Hareidim that over the last seven years only a few games took place during Shabbos, but the decision regarding these games is not in the hands of the stadium managers, since this is related to agreements of the football union against the Charleton company, a broadcasting body which is responsible for broadcasting most of the Israeli football games.

Despite Mallul's claim, it seems from a clarification we made that the Jerusalem football teams give a payment for every game which is in return for the usage of the stadium. The payment is done every few years and is transferred to the owners of the stadium.

A week and a half ago, a few supporters of the Beitar group met the chairman of the union, Uri Shilo, for a discussion regarding Chilul Shabbos, while they are backed by more than 3,000 signatures which demanded of the team not to desecrate Shabbos. In addition, the supporters also presented signatures of part of the players, the professional staff and the management in this request.

According to a factor who is involved in organizing the event, "the stadium management told us that today the place does not desecrate Shabbos". The factor mentioned that the payment for the stadium devices is transferred to a private company which activates the place.

Eli Simchayof, who is in charge of organizing the event, has not yet responded.
In Radio Kol Barama, they refused to relate to the matter.

As known, at the start of the week the organizing committee of Yahadut Hatorah announced that the central Siyum Hashas event which was supposed to take place in the stadium Hamoshava in Petach Tikva, has been cancelled because of Chilul Shabbos in the place.

Yesterday, Behadrei Hareidim revealed that beyond the problem of Chilul Shabbos which was only revealed once, there has become an internal conflict between factors in Agudas Yisroel and Degel Hatorah, which brought about the cancellation of the event in its present format.

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!