By COLlive Staff
On Shabbos, six Torah scrolls were taken from the Tzemach Tzedek shul, a 160-year-old shul in the Old City of Tzfat.
Congregants who arrived at the Shul Shabbos morning to learn before davening discovered the theft.
One of the Sefer Torahs had been donated to the shul in the memory of the late Tzfas shliach Rabbi Leib Kaplan obm, while another sefer Torah did not actually belong to the shul.
The police sent a non-Jewish officer to the shul to write up the first report. Sunday, a team arrived to conduct a full investigation.
“When we saw that the aron kodesh had been broken into, we all burst into tears,” said Rabbi Gavriel Marzel, the Shul’s gabbai since 1979. “We were so shocked that we couldn’t believe what had happened. Then we calmed down, especially after a police officer promised that they would do everything in their power to catch the thieves.”
Every Shabbos, more than 100 Chabad Chassidim and other local residents daven at the shul.
“For now, we have borrowed a Sefer Torah from a nearby shul in the hope that they will soon find ours,” said Rabbi Marzel.
The thieves also broke into the private lockers of the shul’s congregants, COLlive has learned. They took out pairs of tefillin and put them into a pile, but for some unknown reason they decided to leave them inside the shul. Before they left, the thieves wrapped the Torahs in the shul’s Shabbos tablecloths.
Rabbi Marzel has asked fellow Lubavitchers, and espcially those who deal in sales of Sefer Torahs, to report anything suspicious they may find.
Tlday the sifreh torah where found in a cave nearby by joung children and returned to the shul without damage. Nes gadol po betsfat
i was in that shull last summer in tsfat for yeshiva kayits
#1—its not susupicious carrying SIX sifrei Torah???? Track records for these kind of crimes (in tzfas—like with the abuhav sefer torah) is ARABS as the criminals…
#2— When the Abuhav Sefer Torah was stolen (a number of times) the Arab that stole it brought it back because members of his family started dying. 6 Sifrei Torah should take care of a whole village! There’s the silver lining!
tzemach tzedek shul recently got another building as well as the old one
If they knew enough not to take tefillin on Shabbos, they are either professional non-Jewish crooks who know that having tefillin would arouse suspicion, or Jews who have fallen far enough to steal sifrei Torah but who still remember that you don’t wear tefillin on Shabbos.
This is the very dream of Herzl and Ben Gurion – a Jewish state where sifrei Torah can be stolen on a Shabbos in one of the arei hakoidesh – and even if Arabs or other non-Jews did the physical work, the rings that traffic in stolen tashmishei kedusha are known to be 100% Jewish.
is it not time to put security marks if its shayach al pi halocho on the sefer torah which when sold can be checked.
Second option is to scan all sifrei torah and have a central data base where the data is stored which merchants can access before buying or selling them.
I know this applies to computers whose serial numbers are stored with http://www.checkmend.com that dealers check if they are reported as stolen before purchasing them etc
i see they finally got windows, bH!! I wish them only the best and iyH the sifrei torah will be found very soon!
shluchim, if you have torahs get a safe! (Or at least survailence) This is not the first story and this doesnt only happen in israel. This has happened in the most isolated areas in the us as well as urban areas.
This is not the old Kollel Tzemach Tzedek shul
hashem should help HE MUST
this is dreadful!! six holy torahs!! may hashem help you find them and restore them to their rightful place