On Friday morning, something happened to Bnei Brak: For the first time in its history, a closure was imposed on the city. Most of the Lightning drivers who wanted to leave the city returned as they came. They did not meet the limited criteria for leaving the city.
On Friday, quite a few disruptions occurred due to the closure. Thus, for example, residents of some Barkat neighborhoods beyond the Jabotinsky line, such as Pardes Katz, whose residents wanted to travel to the city center, encountered barriers.
"I went through four such checkpoints. A short drive from home to the store became an hour and a half nightmare," said Yehuda Rappaport, a resident of Pardes Katz. "They weren't very efficient either. Once I got on Jabotinsky, I could already go to Tel Aviv."
The lesson was learned, and starting on Saturday night, Jabotinsky Street will be blocked from Gaha Road to Ben-Gurion Street to allow free passage between two parts of Bnei Brak. So, too, there is no restriction on foot traffic outside Barak and Elia. A resident who exits from one of the neighborhoods bordering Petah Tikva or Ramat Gan can move freely out of the city.
Due to the closure, the Bnei Brak Municipality has launched a shipping project to assist residents. Israel Heinemann, a project manager at the municipality, said: "This allowed the residents to do their shopping without leaving the house.
On Saturday itself, checkpoints and soldiers were hardly needed. Almost all residents of the city observe the Sabbath.
Some of the makeshift prayer quarters, through the balconies, stopped working because the rabbis disagreed about their operation. Rabbi Amram Fried, a halachic arbiter, argued that this option was "in the first place in retrospect," and advised to do so, without assembly. On the other hand, Rabbi Shimon Galai, another ruler, opposes these quorum, arguing that "it has no boundaries, it is really mind-control," with the intention that having such quorum may cause people to gather under the buildings to answer the cantor or hear the Torah reading.
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