Women Of The Wall

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The kotel, the western wall of the Second Temple, Judaism's most holy site. In the background, on the left, is the Dome of the Rock, a Muslim shrine, built on the former Temple Mount.

Women and men are separated at the kotel, as in a traditional synagogue, by a mechitza (highlighted).

Women of the Wall (WOW) is an organization in Israel, with members and supporters around the world, who have organized a series of Women's prayer groups at the Kotel each month on Rosh Hodesh. The groups have included women reading from the Torah and wearing tallit, tefillin, and kippah.

The Kotel or western wall is the last standing and accessible remnant of the Second Temple, the holiest site in Judiasm. The Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE.

The Kotel is currently in the control of Haredi religious authorities, and a substantial number of worshipers at the Kotel are Haredi as well. Based on a decision of the Israeli Government, security personnel have prevented the Women of the Wall from holding organized prayer groups in the women's section of the main public area of the Kotel plaza. In addition, members of the Women of the Wall have reported that their efforts to assemble in the women's section in the plaza in front of the Kotel have been met at various times with violent and abusive behavior from Haredi worshipers. ^[1]

Since its founding in 1989, Women of the Wall has fought a legal battle asserting a right to conduct organized prayer at the Kotel and challenging government and private intervention in its efforts, which ultimately led to two Israeli Supreme Court decisions and to a series of debates in the Knesset. In its first decision, on May 22, 2002, the Supreme Court authorized Women of the Wall to hold prayer groups in the women's section of the main Kotel plaza undisturbed. Four days later, Haredi political parties introduced several bills to overturn the decision, including a bill that would have made it a criminal offense for women to pray in non-traditional ways at the western wall, punishable by up to seven years in prison. ^[2] Although the bill did not pass, the Israeli Supreme Court reconsidered its earlier decision. On April 6, 2003, the Court reversed itself and upheld, 5-4, the Israeli government's ban prohibiting the organization from meeting at the main public area at the Wall, on the grounds that continued meetings represented a threat to public safety and order. ^[3] The Court required the government to provide an alternate site, Robinson's Arch. ^[4] The Robinson's Arch site was completed by October 2003. ^[5]

[edit] Women of the Wall Arguments

The Women of the Wall claim a right to worship at the Kotel in an organized fashion without regard to the rabbinate's organization of religious worship at the Kotel or the views of Haredi worshippers, and have presented their position in terms of women's rights and rights of religious liberty.

As Women of the Wall organizer Phyllis Chesler explained:

When a woman demands to be treated as a human being, even if she defines her humanity as (only) a "separate but equal" place at her Father's table, whether she's a "good" or a "bad" woman, she is viewed as a brazen revolutionary. We asked for our rights under civil and religious law. When we prayed, other worshippers, both men and women, verbally and physically assaulted us. We asked the Israeli state to protect us so that we could exercise our rights. The state claimed it could not contain the violence against us, and that we ourselves had provoked the violence by "disturbing/offending" the "sensibilities of Jews at worship." Women are not seen as "Jews" or as "worshippers" with "sensibilities."

What makes this line of reasoning difficult to swallow is that Israelis have continued to administer time-sharing access to the Cave of the Patriarchs at Hebron, a site holy to both Moslems and Jews, even after Baruch Goldstein shot 29 Moslems at prayer. Authorities could do as well on our behalf at the wall.

Many secular and otherwise enlightened people underestimate the psychological importance of organized religion. I am a liberation psychologist, engaged with the world's mental health. Therefore I know how important it is for both women and men, Jews and non-Jews, that women begin to claim sacred ground in spiritually autonomous and authoritative ways. ^[6]

[edit] Haredi Arguments

The thrust of Haredi opposition to Women of the Wall praying as a group is their belief that Women of the Wall is motivated by a desire to make a political statement against traditional Judaism rather than a sincere desire to pray. ^[7]. The influential Posek HaGaon Rabbi Moshe Feinstein ruled that women's prayer groups are permissable only when devotionally motivated. ^[8] Opposition has focused on claims that the group's motivations are political and propagandistic rather than devotional in nature. Accordingly, Haredi opponents have claimed that the group's assembly is not in accordance with Orthodox halakha. In addition, Haredi opposition has characterized the group's language and behavior as "belligerent" and "provocative". The group has also disobeyed the instructions of the Rabbi in charge of the Wall and of the Israeli Rabbinate. ^[9]

As Haredi Rabbi Avi Shafran explained:

The air of belligerence, too, that permeates the group’s directives to its followers bespeaks something considerably less rarified than spiritual yearning. "Remember why you are doing this," writes Jesse Bonn, an Israeli member of the group offering "inspirational words" – "[because] Jewish women's voices, whether in polemics or prayer, will not be silenced..."

Even the language employed by the group’s spokesman is the language of war: "The struggle still lies before us... Armed with this legal declaration of our rights, we will be able to continue the fight..." [emphases added by Shafran], write Danielle Bernstein, a self-described Orthodox Jew, and Phyllis Chesler, a director of the women’s group’s board of directors.

Clearly, something other than ahavas Hashem [love of G-d] is operative here.

In addition to opposition to group prayer, the Haredi community also opposes the women's singing in the presence of men, reading from the Torah, and donning tallit and tefillin, ritual garments and objects traditionally associated with men. ^[10] All of these practices are prohibited by Haredi authorities, although they are permitted according to some more lenient Modern Orthodox authorities.

[edit] Israeli Government Arguments

The Israeli Supreme Court upheld the ban on women praying as a group at or carrying ritual objects into the Kotel Plaza on the basis of safety. The restrictions involved are very similar to a ban the Israeli Government also enforces limiting Jewish prayer to the Kotel and prohibiting Jews from praying at or carrying ritual objects into the Temple Mount itself, which is under the control of the Moslem authorities just as the Kotel plaza is under the control of the Haredi-oriented Rabbinate. The Israeli government does not enforce these bans because it believes Jews or women are second-class citizens, or because it likes the situation, but because it believes that these types of restrictions are essential to avoiding riots that have occurred in the past, and that have the potential to damage or destroy the ancient religious structures, or lead to incidents that could trigger a war. Ever since the Second Intifada was ignited following riots purportedly triggered by Ariel Sharon's entry into the Temple Mount, the Israeli government's policy has been to try to separate highly vocal, highly self-righteous activists to attempt to prevent them from killing each other, regardless of who is right and who is wrong as a religious or moral matter.

[edit] See also

• Mechitza
• Role of women in Judaism
• Haredi Judaism
• Jewish feminism

[edit] References

1. ^ Phylis Chesler, Wailing at the Wall", On the Issues Magazine, Fall 1997
2. ^ Jewish Virtual Library Women of the Wall Article
3. ^ "The Israeli Supreme Court Denies Women The Right to Pray at the Western Wall", Findlaw. April 23, 2003
4. ^ Backers of women’s prayer at wall weighing options after court ruling, Jewish Telegraph Agency, April 6, 2003
5. ^ "Women of the Wall Wail Over New Prayer Site" Jerusalem Post, October 31, 2003
6. ^ Claiming Sacred Ground: Women's eight-year struggle to pray out loud at "the Wailing Wall", On the Issues Magazine, Summer 1996
7. ^ http://www.vtc.net/~cdgoldin/r'avi/trojanhorse.htm
8. ^ Frimer, Arye and Dov, Women's Prayer Services Theory and Practice Tradition, 1998
9. ^ Rabbi Avi Shafran, "Trojan Horse at the Western Wall" (opposition views)
10. ^ Stonewalled, Haaretz

[edit] Further reading

• Chesler, Phylis and Rivka Haut (editors). Women of the Wall: Claiming Sacred Ground at Judaism's Holy Site. Jewish Lights Publishing (December 2002). A collection of 35 essays.
• Lederman, Faye. "Women of the Wall". Documentary film. 31 Minutes. New Day Films.
• Szymkowicz, Sarah. Women Of The Wall. Jewish Virtual Library.

[edit] External links

• Women of the Wall (official website)
• "Women of the Wall" Virtual Jewish Library
• Cherney, Ben. "Kol Isha" JHCS 10, 57-75] (pdf) Orthodox debate on kol isha, women singing in the presence of men