Israeli soldiers arrested a group of around 20 Hassidic men who illegally crossed the Israeli security border with Lebanon to reach the tomb of a prominent Talmudic rabbi that straddles the border, the Israeli Police said on Sunday.
According to the police, the Israel Defense Forces arrested the Haredim after they crossed the border. They were trying to reach the grave of Rav Ashi, a key figure in the compilation and writing of the Babylonian Talmud.
Rav Ashi, who died around 427 CE, headed the Sura Academy in Babylonia, in what is now southern Iraq. He is credited with beginning the process of editing and organizing the discussions of previous generations of sages, which ultimately became the Babylonian Talmud. His work, continued after his death by later scholars laid the foundation for Jewish law as it is known today.
Rav Ashi was laid to rest in the Upper Galilee near the present site of Kibbutz Manara, though some scholars believe his grave is in Iraq. A shrine marking the burial spot is located inside a compound located between IDF and UNIFIL positions, and is actually in Israeli territory, but on the other side of the security fence. Until the Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon in 2000, there was unrestricted access to the tomb.
The police stressed that illegally crossing the Lebanese border is punishable by up to four years in prison.
In November, 71-year-old Israeli civilian researcher Zeev Erlich was killed along with Sgt. Gur Kehati in a Hezbollah ambush after illegally entering Lebanon hoping to find the burial site of Simon the Zealot, a lesser-known disciple of Jesus. Erlich had entered Lebanon wearing an army uniform, though he was neither on active or reserve duty. Two other soldiers were injured in the ambush.
Under the terms of a two-month ceasefire that went into effect on November 27 and has since been extended, Hezbollah is supposed to withdraw its armed presence from areas of southern Lebanon south of the Litani River. Israeli forces have withdrawn from most of southern Lebanon. Dissatisfied with the Lebanese army’s deployment, Israel is keeping soldiers in five locations with US approval.
The “Blue Line” demarcating the 120 km-long Israeli-Lebanese border was created in 2000 by UN cartographers to verify Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon, which the UN Security Council later certified as complete. The border runs from Rosh HaNikra on the Mediterranean coast to Mount Dov, where the Israeli-Lebanese border converges with Syria.
