How Rabbi Ovadia Yosef Murder Plot Was Averted
Some will say it is providence, others will claim it is a simple coincidence: “I came to the Kotel to kill Rabbi Ovadia Yosef,” a mentally ill man admitted to police when he was arrested for questioning. Based on his previous history, it is reasonable to assume that he was serious.
The mentally ill man, Meir Baranes, 50, is known to the authorities. He lives in the north and was once a member of the messianic sect of the Chabad Hasidic group.
In 2000 he ran his car over then Safed Chief Rabbi Levi Bistritsky and left the rabbi severely injured. “The Rebbe commanded me to do it.” He said when interrogated by police.
After the incident he was sent to a closed psychiatric ward – which he was release from a few months ago. It was then that he decided to kill Rabbi Ovadia, setting the date for fast of the ninth day of the month of Av (Tisha b’Av).
Luckily, the rabbi cancelled his visit at the last minute because he was feeling unwell.
The disappointed man went home where he wrote a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bureau in which he announced that he had put a Pulsa Denura curse (a Kabbalistic death curse) on the PM, like the one taken out on former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin before he was murdered.
The man was located, sent to observation and in the psychiatric ward reiterated his intentions towards Rabbi Ovadia. He is now under arrest awaiting trial for attempted murder after he stabbed another patient who had ripped up a picture of the Lubavitch Rebbe.
‘I had to assassinate him’
During his interrogation, the man told police of his plans to kill Rabbi Ovadia: “On Tisha b’Av I equipped myself with a sharp shard of glass and went to the Kotel to assassinate Rabbi Ovadia.
”I knew he was supposed to visit there and planned on getting close to him by pretending I wanted a blessing from him and then tearing his throat. At the end, he never came.“
When asked about his reasons for seeking to kill the rabbi he said: ”Rabbi Ovadia spoke against the Lubavitch Rebbe, He humiliated him so I had to assassinate him.”
Close associates of Rabbi Ovadia were made aware of the threats and placed a metal detector at the entrance to his home.
Since the rabbi does not receive a bodyguard from the State, Shas party ministers who do receive State funded protection, decided they would accompany the rabbi when he left his home so that someone would be on hand to respond should he be attacked.
anonoymos
hashcach protes
ahavas yisroel
Let’s not attack Poor Baranes just because we have a different opinion about the meaning of lo tirtzach, we are all chassidim. That’s just his opinion about how to be a chosid at least he did something.
eli ezagui
no one lives forever
Milhouse
When did he get out? The previous report seemed to say he was still in the looney bin. Oh, wait, this is Ynet; any resemblance between a Ynet report and reality is purely coincidental. Why does anyone bother posting anything from that site, I wonder.
WHAT!
#2 since when ”planing to kill a jew never mind a talmid chacham ” is under the category of being a chosid. What kind of ahavat yisrael is that??
Moshe
It’s Meshichism in its most extrem form…
Milhouse
#5, I think that was an ironic comment on the “Chabad lite” topic.
To n-2
You need MAJOR help if u really think that way
#2 was a JOKE!!!!!!!!!
Comment number 2 was a poor attemp of making a sarcastic Joke.
What’s more humorous (and a sign of how stupid some readers are) is that some (#5 and #8) didn’t realised it was a Joke!
This should teach us a lesson, not to make such disgusting and negative Jokes!