The body of the late Rabbi Joshua Ben Paz z’l, father of two from the Givat Shaul neighborhood of Jerusalem and a student in Rabbi Shalom Ber Sorotzkin’s Kollel, was found on the night between Monday and Tuesday, after having drifted into a turbulence off the Dolphinarium beach in Tel Aviv.
The body was found and pulled out of the water with assistance from a police water motorcycle hours after divers had been summoned by friends of the deceased on Monday night.
Family members were contacted to identify the body.
Police issued a statement saying: “After extensive searches conducted overnight off the Dolphinarium beach in Tel Aviv, the Israel Police volunteer divers unit located the body of the 25-year-old young man from Jerusalem who entered the sea near midnight and contact with him had since been lost.”
Every summer, during the Bein Hazmanim (intermediary period) post-Tisha B’av vacation, yeshiva students and religious children in Israel are killed by drowning, falling off a cliff, and becoming dehydrated while hiking.
Prominent ultra-Orthodox rabbis have issued rulings this year on maintaining water safety and other, very specific instructions regarding safety while on vacation, in particular the prohibition on swimming at sea and pools without the presence of a lifeguard.
To remind you, the deceased entered the water at midnight.
The problem is that while it is important to make wise and responsible rulings, it is equally important to read them.
Rabbi Shalom Ber Sorotzkin is world-renowned for his war against Israeli carrier El Al over its inappropriate, even outright dishonest and calloused treatment of its Orthodox passengers on flights that take off before Shabbat.