No one could have written a better script for a meeting between one of the most well-known rabbis in the religious sector and Noa Kirel, Israel's biggest pop star.
A photo leaked from the family WhatsApp group of Rabbi Yosef Zvi Rimon, rabbi of the Gush Etzion Regional Council, apparently by his daughter, in which he tells how he encountered a young woman while on a plane, and asked her a simple question that went viral within a second.
Noa Kirel and the Rabbi, Photo: None
"I'm on the plane. On all the screens it says well done Noa. We are proud of you," Rabbi Rimon said of the amusing encounter. "I saw someone in the seat next to me. I asked her: Do you know who Noa is? And she said, 'It's me.'"
Rabbi Rimon, who did not watch Eurovision, further asked Noa Kirel why she received such a special blessing. "I said to her: So what did you do? Why are there signs in your honor? And she said: "I won third place at Eurovision." So I asked: "What's your last name?" and she was surprised I didn't recognize her: "Noa Kirl."
The singer, who was certainly not used to being unrecognized by an Israeli, apparently enjoyed the rare moment of anonymity. "She and her mother started telling me that her grandfather was a rabbi and a casual writer, and Noa said that at Eurovision in the morning she said blessings of dawn and that she didn't turn on her phone on Shabbat."
"She asked what I was doing. I told her I was the rabbi of Gush Etzion and if she ever had a question she could contact. So she was excited. Asked for my number. She took a selfie and sent me the picture," Rabbi Rimon concluded the meeting and attached the selfie.
The message and photo quickly went viral, flooding the internet. Many were moved by the fact that the rabbi did not know Noa Kirel, perhaps the most well-known personality in the State of Israel today, and shared the moment of innocence in the meeting between a rabbi and the anonymous young woman – Noa Kirel.
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