Hundreds of thousands of Orthodox Jews attended Sunday, near the Israeli metropolis Tel Aviv, the funeral of the influential rabbi Chaïm Kanievsky, nicknamed the "Prince of the Torah", under high police surveillance.
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A key figure in Judaism, Chaïm Kanievsky died Friday at the age of 94, shortly before the weekly Shabbat break, and his funeral took place Sunday afternoon in Bnei Brak, an Orthodox city adjoining Tel Aviv, in the center from the country.
“This man was the Torah”
There, the streets were packed with worshipers dressed in black who crowded up the stairs and onto the roofs of buildings to attend the funeral, while police and emergency workers reported "
hundreds of thousands
" of participants in the funeral procession.
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"
I cried when I heard he was dead
," said Shlomo Lugassi, a 41-year-old worshiper who unsuccessfully tried to push through the crowd to gain access to the late rabbi's home in Bnei Brak.
“
As Jews, we know that what holds the (Jewish) people is the Torah, and this man was the Torah, by his knowledge
,” he added.
"
He knew the Torah better than anyone (...) He was a father for all of us, we had someone to rely on to make decisions, we are orphans now
", added Faygie Ben Shalom, 60 years old and director of a seminary, left Jerusalem early Sunday to attend the funeral with her students.
"Hundreds of thousands" of people attend the funeral of Chaïm Kanievsky, Sunday March 20, according to the police and the rescuers.
AMIR COHEN/REUTERS
3000 officers
The Israeli police deployed 3,000 officers, in addition to paramilitaries, for fear of overflows on the sidelines of the funeral, or even collapse of roofs where worshipers were massed.
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But at the end of the day, after the procession and the burial, the rescuers did not report any serious incident, but only minor injuries, such as people who lost consciousness.
Orthodox Jews carry the body of Chaïm Kanievsky, Sunday March 20.
AVSHALOM SASSONI / REUTERS
