Posters in Tzfat: remove body of "Berg the cadaver" from grave

Two months after the burial of the Kabbalah disseminator Shraga Philip Berg, posters were distributed throughout the city of Tzfat against his grave, which stated, inter alia: "Thieves came and desecrated with the burial of that 'impure cadaver' Philip Berg sr"y, who boldly and with impurity of heart used the Toras Hanistar of the Zohar and Kabbalah for needs of money, honor and lewd."

It also states: "That corpse spread his stench throughout the world to 'prutzim', to non Jews, and all of Gedolei Yisroel have come out against him in Israel and the Diaspora."

The distributors also called the residents: "Get the carcass of the man out from the holy place, to remove prosecution G-d forbid."

The 'pashkevil' did not diminish the share of the city's religious council, "who for greed collaborated with that impure sect. Money is more important in your eyes than the sanctity of the cemetery and the city of Tzfat."

In shulls in Tzfat there was a rumor that on this coming Friday, the solemn guards who were at the grave site – are meant to leave. Consequently apparently the posters were distributed to make the residents demand to take Berg out of his grave.

"We are looking through intelligence into who distributed the posters," says the Tzfat police commander Chief Superintendent Ofer Kantarowitz to Behadrey Haredim. "And alongside, cemetery tours in the area of the grave have been reinforced for fear that in fact try they would try to get him out of his grave."

Chairman of the Religious Council, Benny Lagziel, declined to comment at the slander against religious council.

The start of the story is about two and a half years ago, when anonymous purchased a burial plot in the ancient cemetery in Tzfat for "A righteous Rebbe from America". Later those vandals built a burial cave structure over the plot, at an estimated cost of 180 thousand dollars.

The city residents, who are not used to the building of new burial caves and at such a large investment – moreover the builder purchased dozens of plots of adjacent graves, tried to find out for whom the noise is, but the mystery was solved only on the eve of Sukkot.

Shraga Berg, 86 at death, a native of Brooklyn and a resident of Los Angeles, died on the eve of Sukkot, and the surprise of the haredi residents of the 'City of Mekubalim – Tzfat', they immediately began preparations for the burial in the cave.

Rabbi Berg was excommunicated over the years by rabbis, mainly due to the lack of separation of men and women as required by halacha, and more importantly - because of the studies of kabbalah to the public and even to gentiles.

Thousands attended the funeral, Jews and Gentiles, religious and secular, including the movie star Ashton Kutcher – a student of the rabbi who came especially and Environment Minister Amir Peretz.

Meilech Gerstel, photojournalist and resident of Tzfat, said two weeks after the funeral to Behadrey Haredim, since that Berg was buried, the burial cave area has become private property. He said the funeral participants were dressed in white and were holding the book of Zohar, but the women were almost all immodest despite the white cover. "The disdained the holy dwellers of dust, women alongside men sang 'Ani Ma'amin'. I heard from rabbis who wanted to make a big protest at the rabbinate, but officials were trying to silence them, and succeeded.

"If we thought that after the funeral routine would return, we were wrong," said Meilech in rage. "Two burly guards are at the tomb, and whoever approaches is warned by them to stay away. The grave of Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair is adjacent to the cave, and when I asked to surround the grave as customary, I had to beg the guards until they allowed me just one round. The Attias family of eight who were killed in an accident at the entrance to Tiberias, are also buried next to the burial cave, and all who come near, are cautioned and removed by security guards.

"They're going to make this a place of pilgrimage, in violation of modesty and dignity while trampling the dwellers of the cemetery. Probably next month, an initial protest will be organized by the residents."

Photo: Meilech Gerstel.

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!