Yesterday night, was the Chiloula of Rabbenu, Rebbe Nachman.

Last year, Shuvu put up their own tent, on their own piece of ground, legally owned by them.

And the Iriya sent the cops to rip it all down, destroy the site as totally as they could, and confiscate the tent.

This year, Shuvu had a much  more ‘muted’ celebration – the Succah was kind of built over the alley leading down to the main road, the seuda was held in the hall of the school off Ido HaNavi, the celebrations got started at 11pm, I think, and looked to be pretty basic and bare bones.

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We got there around 9.30 pm, and wandered around for a bit, before heading up to Rav Arush’s big Succah, where it was more happening.

More ‘happening’, but honestly, still kind of subdued and quiet.

Not miserable, like it was three years ago, ahead of that horrible Simchat Torah event, where the Rav just looked depressed and stricken with grief.

The whole of Meah Shearim, Breslov or no, just seemed more subdued, more empty than it usually is on Succot.

That’s when I figured out who was missing: the 18-30 something cohort, who the police have been chasing and imprisoning for like, two years, already for ‘draft evasion’.

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We went up to Rav Arush, my husband danced a bit inside the Succah, I stood outside and tried to dance a bit.

It wasn’t really happening.

Not a lot of people, not a proper mechitzah going on outside on the street for the women, it kind of all felt a little lukewarm.

My husband got some popcorn, we came home.

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It was a very small ‘celebration’ yesterday, by all accounts.

Today, I looked at the YWN, and I see this:

And this: police-clash-crowds-confront-officers-outside-harav-arushs-simchas-bais-hashoeva-in-yerushalayim.html

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You know, I was wondering if the police would be coming to spoil all the ‘fun’ yesterday, in Meah Shearim.

It fits the pattern, the ‘shita’ of gross persecution of the chareidi community that’s been going on here, for two years already.

(And if you are Shuvu, then you know that pattern, that ‘shita’, has been happening for more like 15 – 20 years… I still have the posts I wrote 10 years back, which began: ‘First they came for Rav Berland.’ Was I wrong?)

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Rabbenu will deal with this, at the right time.

But yesterday, there were no violent crowds of chareidim.

There were some dumb american bochurim – pretty much the only men of that age group on the streets, as they don’t have to worry about getting arrested for ‘draft evasion’ – who were playing chicken with the light rail, but that’s about it.

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But now, again, I understand why Shuvu were not making a big deal yesterday.

The police were looking for any excuse to come in and beat people up and fire tear gas at them.

And for once, Shuvu Banim wasn’t on the front lines.