In tribute to Rav Moshe Yehuda Leib Landau ztz"l
I
t was Friday, the 12th of Tishrei this past year, a few hours before Shabbos. The lawyers representing the Bnei Brak municipality arrived at the Tel Aviv District Court for an urgent hearing regarding the demand of the Netivei Tachburah Ironit company to approve the continued digging of a tunnel on Shabbos for the Dan Region light rail. A day earlier, the court approved a municipality-issued injunction forbidding the work on Shabbos. But now, claimed the company’s representatives, “It’s pikuach nefesh.”
To the surprise of the municipal representatives, Rav Moshe Yehudah Leib Landau, the rav of Bnei Brak, also arrived at the court. His family related that despite being in a wheelchair and unable to walk, he insisted on participating in the hearing. And then he requested to speak. It’s possible that the machines would sustain some damage as a result of the work stopping, he told the court, but that was not pikuach nefesh. He added that the CEO of the company had even told him so, but now he was denying it. Rav Landau fixed him with a piercing gaze.
“You have no backbone,” the Rav told the CEO, and left the hearing, very upset.
Then he announced that he would participate in the next day’s mass tefillah rally — and he did, along the entire route, despite his limited mobility. It was one of Rav Landau’s final public appearances.
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