Rabbi Meir Mazuz, an important leader of the Israeli Sephardic ultra-Orthodox community, has claimed that the parking garage disaster in Tel Aviv's Ramat Hahayal—in which six people were killed and over 20 were injured—happened due to desecration of the Jewish laws regarding Shabbat. The rabbi said this during a lecture he gave Saturday evening (after Shabbat was over) in Bnei Brak. "What happened, the disaster this week—nothing like this ever happens. There are engineers, there are smart people, there are inspectors—and dozens of people are buried underground. It all comes because they disrespect Shabbat."

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Mere hours after the sixth and final victim's body was extracted from the ruins of the collapse site, Mazuz warned, "Running away from Shabbat is the largest mistake in the world… prime ministers need to understand that the Shabbat will not forgive… the Almighty gave us a good gift, the Shabbat… you must not harm the Shabbat."





Rabi Meir Mazuz. "You must not harm the Shabbat."

Following these statements, Mazuz's associates emphasized that the rabbi was speaking about Shabbat desecration that is state sponsored—such as renovations done by Israel Railways on Saturdays —and not making any reference to acts by private citizens.

Mazuz first became known among the general public when he harshly opposed the Oslo Accords and the 2005 Gaza disengagement, as well as his advocacy for IDF soldiers' refusal to follow hypothetical future orders for settlement eviction. He was previously associated with Shas, but moved to become the spiritual leader of the Yachad party (founded by former Shas leader Eli Yishai; the party failed to gain any seats in the March 2015 Knesset elections) in 2014.

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In his weekly sermon, Mazuz also claimed that the explosion of the Amos 6 satellite was also due to desecration of holy values. "Hundreds of millions of dollars were invested in it. They just started to launch it – (and it) exploded. Why? Because the other one (the Amos 2 satellite) was done while observing the Shabbat and this one (the Amos 6) was not."