The Rabbi who revealed a shocking confession: "He tried to press against me. It happened at age 10"
The Chief Rabbi of Safed reveals for the first time the personal trauma that shaped his life and his struggle, and tells of the frightening moment he was saved from an attempted assault by a stranger in his childhood.
An unprecedented and deeply personal revelation from Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu. The Chief Rabbi of Safed shared in an open interview on the podcast "Everything is Open," hosted by Avi Shushan, the childhood trauma that shaped his determination to fight the phenomenon of sexual abuse. The Rabbi revealed that when he was only about ten years old, he experienced an attempted assault by a stranger, an event that left a deep mark on him and became the engine for his public activity on behalf of victims.
In his words, the Rabbi recounted the shocking moments when a gardener who worked in his apartment building tried to press against him and harm him.
"The gardener came to press against me."
Rabbi Eliyahu described how he managed to break free and run straight to his home, where he told his mother what had happened. The mother's reaction was determined and unequivocal, and the Rabbi described her as a lioness who brought about the immediate removal of the person from the place that very day.
During the conversation, the Rabbi elaborated on his moral and Halachic perception regarding abuse, and compared the intensity of its destruction to an act of murder, relying on the biblical quote: "as when a man rises against his neighbor and murders him." Beyond that, he emphasized the critical importance of freeing victims from false feelings of guilt, a mechanism used by many abusers to silence their victims. The Rabbi even shared a conversation he had with a victim named Medad, in which he clarified to him in no uncertain terms that he is pure and clean of any blemish, and that the full responsibility lies solely with the abuser.
This revelation provides a glimpse behind the scenes of the Rabbi's public work on the subject. Today, he operates a team of ten judges (Dayanim), who handle dozens of inquiries and cases every month. In his words, he called to break the wall of silence in society, to increase parental vigilance, and to listen to children, while stating firmly that "it is impossible to build a Temple on injustice."
The shocking confession of Rabbi Eliyahu is not only a personal closure, but a firm wake-up call to the general public. By sharing his private story, the Rabbi seeks to shatter the walls around the silenced subject, and to clarify that standing by the victims and bringing the abusers to justice is a supreme moral duty that must not be compromised.
