Just in Case: Don’t Leave ‘Too Much’ Savings in the Bank…

People are ‘robbing’ banks in Lebanon – to take their own money

Lebanon is suffering from a worsening economic crisis since 2019, plunging three-quarters of its population below poverty.

Published On 15 Sep 2022

Bank heists in Lebanon have become a growing trend – but these armed “robbers” storming into banks are not stealing anyone else’s money. They are just demanding access to their own savings.

And instead of being prosecuted, the perpetrators have largely been allowed to remain free and have become folk heroes.

The incidents have become increasingly common as Lebanon’s economic crisis continues. The local currency, the Lebanese pound, has depreciated by more than 90 percent against the United States dollar on the black market, while the government’s restrictions on how much money people can withdraw from their own bank accounts have also exacerbated the situation.

So what is behind these bank heists?

  • Lebanon has been reeling from a worsening economic meltdown since 2019, plunging 80 percent of its population – about three million people – below the poverty line, according to the United Nations.
  • Poverty and unemployment have soared, and savings-account values have evaporated, along with the country’s middle class.
  • Since 2019, Lebanese banks gradually imposed draconian controls on deposits, effectively locking millions of customers out of their foreign currency savings.
  • “Every time you want to withdraw money, it would be at a rate much lower than the market value,” said Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr. “For example, if you want to withdraw $700, they gave you $200. So that’s a de facto haircut.”
  • A haircut in economic terms means a reduction applied to the value of an asset. In this case, it refers to the banks’ absurdly unfavourable exchange rate in Lebanese pound when people try to withdraw cash.

How many ‘bank robberies’ have there been so far?

  • The first-known case of someone forcibly getting their funds back was reported in January when a man held dozens of people hostage in eastern Lebanon after he was told he could not withdraw his foreign currency savings.
  • Local media reported that the customer was eventually given some of his savings and surrendered to security forces.
  • In August, an armed man also held employees and customers hostage at a Beirut bank after he was told he could not withdraw $200,000 from his account for his sick father’s treatment. The man was cheered on by a crowd outside the bank.

Continue reading…

From English Al Jazeera, here.

A Reader Writes: ‘I Cannot Leave Eretz Yisrael to Go to Uman’

“… Like the Heart cannot go to the Spring in the Sippur Maseh of the Seven Beggars by Rabbi Nachman“:

And there is a Mountain, and on the Mountain stands a Stone, and from the Stone emerges a Spring. Now, every thing has a heart, and the entire world also has a heart, and the Heart of the World is a complete structure, with face, hands, feet etc. But the nail of the foot of the World’s Heart is heartier [Yid. hertziker] than the heart of anything else. And the Mountain with the Stone and the Spring stands at one end of the world, while this Heart of the World stands at another end of the world, and the Heart stands facing the Spring, desiring and hoping continuously, exceedingly, that it should come to the Spring, and the longing and desire of the Heart to come to the Spring is just extraordinary. It screams nonstop, the Heart, to come to the Spring, and the Spring longs for the Heart too.

Now, the Heart has two things that make it weak. One, because the sun pursues it exceedingly and scorches it (because it always yearns and desires to come to the Spring), and the second thing that tires the Heart is due to yearning and desiring, that the Heart constantly yearns and wishes; it keeps pouring out its soul for the Spring and screaming and so forth, as above, so as to come to the Spring, for the Heart is always standing facing the Spring, and screams “Na! Gevald!” [Yid. Please! Woe!], and keeps on yearning most exceedingly for the Spring, as mentioned.

However, when the Heart needs to rest a bit, so as to draw a little breath [Yid. oyf zoyfn] then comes a Big Bird and spreads its wings above it, shielding it from the sun; then the Heart gets a little rest. But even then while resting it also looks facing the Spring and still longs for it. But since it longs so much for the Spring, why does it not go to the Spring? Only, as soon as the Heart wants to go close to the Mountain upon which is the Spring then it no longer sees the peak; it cannot look at the Spring — and as soon as it would not look at the Spring it would expire, for the Heart’s entire vitality is only from the Spring, so when it stands facing the Mountain then it sees the Mountain peak where the Spring is, but immediately as soon as it wants to go to the Mountain, the peak no longer appears (for such indeed is the way with a tall mountain; standing from afar the peak is visible, but upon going nearer the peak is no longer visible). Then it can no longer look at the Spring and could — Mercy save us! — expire, and if this Heart — Mercy save us! — would expire the whole world would be destroyed, for the Heart is the very vitality of every thing, and how can the world endure without the Heart? Therefore the Heart cannot go to the Spring; it only stands facing the Spring, longing and screaming without cease to be able to come to it, as mentioned.

ויש הר, ועל ההר עומד אבן, ומן האבן יוצא מעין, וכל דבר יש לו לב, וגם העולם בכללו יש לו לב, וזה הלב של העולם הוא קומה שלמה עם פנים וידים ורגלים וכו’, אבל הצפרן של הרגל של אותו הלב של העולם הוא מלבב (בלשון אשכנז: “הארציקער”) יותר מלב של אחר. וזה ההר עם האבן והמעין הנ”ל עומד בקצה אחד של העולם וזה הלב של העולם עומד בקצה אחר של העולם, וזה הלב הנ”ל עומד כנגד המעין הנ”ל וכוסף ומשתוקק תמיד מאד מאד לבוא אל אותו המעין בהשתוקקות גדול מאד מאד, וצועק מאד לבוא אל אותו המעין, וגם זה המעין משתוקק אליו.

וזה הלב יש לו שתי חלישות: אחת, כי החמה רודפת אותו ושורפת אותו (מחמת שהוא משתוקק ורוצה לילך ולהתקרב אל המעין), וחלישות השניה יש לו להלב מן גדל ההשתוקקות והגעגועים שהוא מתגעגע וכוסף תמיד ומשתוקק מאד בכלות הנפש אל אותו המעין וצועק וכו’ כנ”ל, כי הוא עומד תמיד כנגד המעין הנ”ל וצועק: “נא גיוואלד” (ביטוי צעקה באידיש כמו “אהה”) ומשתוקק אליו מאד כנ”ל,

וכשצריך לנוח קצת שיהיה לו אריכת הרוח קצת (שקורין “אפ סאפין” נשימת רווחה), אזי בא צפור גדול ופורש כנפיו עליו ומגן עליו מן החמה, ואז יש לו ניחא קצת, וגם אז בשעת ניחא הוא מסתכל גם כן כנגד המעין ומתגעגע אליו. אך מאחר שהוא מתגעגע אליו כל כך מפני מה אינו הולך אל המעין. אך כשרוצה לילך ולהתקרב אל ההר, אזי אינו רואה השפוע ואינו יכול להסתכל על המעין, ואם לא יסתכל על המעין אזי תצא נפשו, כי עקר חיותו הוא מן המעין, וכשעומד כנגד ההר אזי הוא רואה ראש השפוע של ההר ששם עומד המעין, אבל תכף כשילך ויתקרב אל ההר, אזי נעלם מעיניו ראש השפוע (וזה מובן בחוש), ואזי אינו יכול לראות את המעין, ואזי תצא נפשו חס ושלום, וכשזה הלב היה מסתלק חס ושלום, אזי יתבטל כל העולם כלו, כי הלב הוא החיות של כל דבר, ובודאי אין קיום בלא לב, ועל כן אינו יכול לילך אל המעין, רק עומד כנגדו ומתגעגע וצועק כנ”ל.

…

[Bolding added.]