Some Color at the Kotel: Rosh Chodesh Tevet
December 21, 2009
Israel | Social Action
(1 comments)
Anat Hoffman is the Executive Director of the Israel Religious Action Center in Jerusalem. This post originally appeared as a message in IRAC's December 21, 2009 newsletter, The Pluralist. To sign up for updates from IRAC, visit www.irac.org.
Last Friday, Rosh Chodesh Tevet, 153 women found it in themselves to get up early on a wretched, rainy, and miserable morning and walk to the Kotel, for what could be - following Nofrat Frenkel's arrest one month prior - an unpredictable morning of prayer.
We were women of all ages and denominations, gathered together under a canopy of bright umbrellas that looked especially vibrant on a gray day. We stood at the back of the women's section to pray, and when it was time to read from the Torah we walked toward Robinson's Arch, singing as we went. We were joined by a couple dozen men who walked with us in solidarity, while others spit on us and threw potatoes and colorful insults.
The men who wanted to read from the Torah were given a safe and dry place to do so, but we were turned away by the director of the Robinson's Arch site. And while standing and waiting in the rain, part of our new Torah was ruined. That night, after laying it out to dry as best it could, I couldn't help but notice that the portion that had gotten wet, from parashat Pinhas, told the story of the daughters of Zelophehad, who stood in front of Moses and all the important men of the day to plead for the rightful inheritance of their father's name. They spoke up for themselves, and Moses listened. He brought their case before God, not before other men. Their plea was declared just. Inheritance was revolutionized.
Last Friday morning, the rabbi of the Wall, Shmuel Rabinovitch, looked up at the skies and said, "It's not for nothing that the rain raged at that time, because the heavens are crying over women who try to harm the Western Wall and the feelings of those who pray there."
I can tell you that when we finally read from the Torah (though we were unable to read from the actual scroll), we felt impervious to Rabinovitch's words. We were refreshed by our prayer, and by each other. We were ready for next Rosh Chodesh.
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Tell the truth--that you went to the Kotel to disrupt and make a political statement,not to pray. I pray at the Kotel frequently although I am not Orthodox. You would not know me from any other secular Israeli.NEVER have I witnessed any sort of curtailment for any woman to prayat the Kotel--and in fact, the women'ssection is alwasy chalf full of women davening, weeping and murmuring softly. May women stand side by side or sit and study or just be present in that lovley place. Only ONE group hasbrought disorder, and only one group has hurt the experiences of women praying at the Kotel--YOUR GROUP! I see you are now writing articles for Ynet attempting to gather support from US english speaking readers,and tat your words are delivered to strongly suggest that women are being arrested just for attempting to pray at the Kotel--and for readers unfamiliar with Israeland the Kotel your article taken at face value succeeds in alarming women in a call-to-arms fashion as if to makethem thimk you are serving as saviors of equal prayer rights.The fact is women pray daily very freely at the Kotel. What your group is doing is using the Kotel as a springboard for publicity. This is so offensiveand so norally conceited is disgusts me.As you can see from the talkbacks on Ynetnews.com, many of us have called bullshit on your lies. ANY woman can pray peacfully at the Kotel at any time. What you cannot do is use this place as a grandstand for your little reform movment American style shove it into your face protest over Reforms hellbent desire to gain some ground in the religious arena in Israel! Do you really believe people in Israel don't seethe connections?And even if it is just a matter of wanting to sing aloud at the Kotel--can you fathom that besides your group,99.99999% of the people there everyday do NOT want to be disturbed by your singing and loudness? Can you grasp that half of those people are women too? And further that many of us are not orthodox? I don't want to see you and be disturbed by you during my time there,can you get that? You demand that Orthodox men must hear you sing and can somehow "getover" their belief that it is a distraction to hear the female voice during davening,but if anyone dare to interfere with your singing,you are angry? Singing during prayer is not in the Torah. How does it override the Orthodox and the tradition? You interfere with prayer and many people see this as an offence. Why does that not matter?Why do you have to shove your version of religion down other people's troats and interfere with their prayers,especially just to sing and draw attention to your political movmeent? In fact the Torah says women are already pureand therefore are not commanded to pray (althougn the Lord loves it) but men are commanded to pray,and commanded to daven with heartfelt concentration. How could it be that your agenda is more important than a commandment from G-d? You see,this is why people are calling bullshit on your article and what you and Reform are doing in Israel. The American style of shoving things down with in your face protests, is not the way to go. I am joining together with other observant unaffiliated Jewish women to counter your actions and help bring peace to the Kotel,a place where WOMEN HAVE ALWAYS BEEN WELCOME TO PRAY! Stop telling lies.