Jerusalem, Israel - The Dog That Stirred Up Meah Shearim Neighborhood

Jerusalem, Israel - The 95-year-old Meah Shearim resident, Nahman David Dovinski passed away Shabbas and is said to have been “a righteous man, a worker of God, waiting every day, every minute, for redemption. He was really not of this world."

Upon returning from the funeral, which took place on Motzei Shabbas, Dovinski’s family found an unfamiliar dog sitting on their doorsteps, and all attempts to remove him failed.
Dovinski’s family took the dog out of the neighborhood, but it insisted and returned again to the same house. From the early hours of the morning, endless attempts were made to expel the dog, but the dog refused to leave the house.

During the attempts at convincing the dog to leave, a neighborhood rabbi arrived at the house and instructed that the dog be served a Shabbas meal, in hopes that this would convince the dog to leave. And only after the dog was told, “you are forgiven, you are forgiven, you are forgiven,” did it agree to taste the food it was served.
Residents and neighbors began wondering what the meaning of this strange event was, and turned to Rabbi Meir Brandsdorfer, who is considered one of the senior rabbis in the charedi congregation, for answers.
Rabbi Brandsdorfer recommended reciting Thiliem and Mishnas. The rabbi himself left the home of the deceased at around 5 a.m. Sunday and headed towards the Mount of Olives in order to say Kaddish on Dovinski’s grave.

Neighborhood residents and family members report that the dog willingly left the house during the Kaddish.
A crew from Jerusalem municipality’s veterinary services arrived at the scene and picked up the dog, as hundreds of residents from Meah Shearim and other neighborhoods watched and escorted the vehicle that evacuated the dog.