Mispalel sued gabbai of shull: he hates hareidim

The judge gave mussar to mispalelim: "Stop fighting." Photo: Illustration

"Each side must remember that the Third Temple will only be built by ahavas chinam," that was how Paul Stark, a judge in small claims court in Jerusalem, ended last week his judgment rejecting a claim for compensation filed for defamation.

The claim discussed within the court dealt with the conflict between the gabbai of the synagogue in Moshav Beit Zayit and a hareidi mispalel living in the Moshav. In the lawsuit, the plaintiff Zevulun Tzofayof alleged that when he came to live in the Moshav he discovered that the defendant, Eliyahu Mizrahi, who also serves as gabbai of the shull, shows a deep hatred against the hareidim.

According to Tzofayof, with time he became a spiritual figure among members of the Moshav and inter alia came to be a Shliach Tzibur, was asked halachic questions, read the Torah and more. Only a while later, "because he knew me as Haredi," he writes in the lawsuit, "he spoke to me in a disrespectful and an unclean manner, turned things around and spoke angrily to me in public."

Since then, he claimed, he stopped to serve as Shatz and as Ba'al Kore and did not even get an aliya from the gabbai. The conflict worsened until one day he noticed Tzofayof noticed a letter condemning him in the shull and the Moshav signed by a few of the mispalelim.

The letter stated that Tzofayof threatened the gabbai to give him the money that people donated to the synagogue. "He threatened that if people will not cooperate with him, he would do with them as he behaves with me," he wrote in the claim.

Tzofayof demanded a sum of 15 thousand shekels as compensation for defamation.

According to the gabbai, on Erev Yom Kippur he was threatened by Tzofayof that if he did not give him the charity money of the Kapparot, then "we'll see how you finish the year." He filed a complaint with the police against him, but it is unclear whether the complaint due to the same incident in light of the passage of time until the filing of the complaint.

During the court hearing it was further argued that Tzofayof held a 'Pulsa denura' against Mizrachi, when Tzofayof complained to the rabbis that Mizrahi hurt him by breaking the mirror of his vehicle and punctured the tires, and that he lets Mechalelei Shabbos and Reform who want to give women an aliya, and concluded his letter by stating that Mizrahi is "dealing with shedim and kishufim".

The judge ruled last week: "The lawsuit is based on the disagreement among the worshipers, which revolves around the character of the synagogue and their world view. Each side is looking for a way to throw mud and dirt on the other so that his view will prevail over that of others." He added that neither side in the case is "blameless."

The judge discussed the legal issue of the case at length but stated finally, "The court has no preference for this view or another in matters of religion, since every Jew is a Jew, whether his view is not compatible with the view of others. Disputes between Jews and for the sake of heaven are known and there from time immemorial, whether it is between chassidim and misnagdim, and whether between hareidim and the religious-national sector or if it is a dispute about way of the Torah and Mitzvot. Ultimately, this dispute between worshippers in the synagogue when naturally improper things were said in a sacred place, one against the other. "

The claim was denied, and according to the decision each party shall bear the expenses.

"Finally," the judge wrote, "ideologies and differences between Jews are causing Sinas Chinam, for which the Temple was destroyed and died 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva died, and all sides must remember that the Third Temple will be built only by Ahavas Chinam."

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!