Women of the Wall

Hey Everybody,

Last time I checked in was last Wednesday, and though a good amount of time has passed since then, very few exciting things have happened. The one exciting part of my weekend came Sunday night when I went to Rachel Heinstein's home for dinner.

The interesting stuff happened on Monday morning when I joined the Women of the Wall for services at the Kotel. Before I go on, I need to give a short disclaimer: IF YOU HAVE NEVER HEARD OF THE WOMEN OF THE WALL, PLEASE DO A BIT OF BACKGROUND READING BEFORE YOU CONTINUE ON READING THIS POST. You can choose not to, but the whole thing will make very little sense. Here are a few links to get you started.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_of_the_Wall
http://womenofthewall.org.il/
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/WOW.html

ANOTHER DISCLAIMER:

This post reflects my opinions on the situation that I witnessed as well as the facts as objectively as I know how to convey them from me to you. Don't take everything written here as the absolute truth as my opinion is only one opinion. Please email me (beccarosenthal@gmail.com) if you have any questions or comments.

I woke up on Monday morning and left home at 6:30 with a few friends in order to get to the Kotel at 7 for the start of the service. A total of seven Nativers went. We got there just as they were asking people to head into their respective sections of the Kotel plaza to begin davening. Though the group is about the women, quite a few men (husbands, supporters, Rabinical students, etc) came as well and stood next to us on the men's side of the wall. One of the big issues of controversy with the Women of the Wall (WOW) involves women wearing Talitot (prayer shawls). Because it has been determined illegal for women to wear them at the Kotel, women were wearing their talitot as though they were scarves. Here's a few pictures.

When we walked into the women's section, we put our things down in the very back, and I was shocked to see three armed police officers (including two men) in the women's section there to protect us. I asked someone why they were there, and it was explained to me that WOW asked for the police to come and protect them since so many flareups have occurred with the ultra orthodox people at the wall.

Services began, and it became very clear very fast that very few of the women in attendance actually knew the service. Everyone was holding a siddur and a few people were certainly davening, but most people were either standing silently or taking pictures of the group. It was right there, at the very beginning that I realized that the majority of women who were there were not in fact there to pray, but rather to make a statement against the ultra orthodox crowd and assert their view that women should be allowed to wear talitot and daven as they want at the Kotel.

Before we started and as we stood there davening, may people (both men and women) voiced their opinions of our service. We were called sluts, whores, pigs, dogs, non-Jews, Arabs and even Nazis. We were told that we were a provocation (as we were), and one woman even told us that G-d would not accept our prayers because of the way that we were davening. More about specific incidents later, but the general idea looked something like this: We were accused of disturbing the peace, but we were only praying; we were accused of desecrating the holy space, but one of our male security guards was not wearing a kippa and filming the entire event (to use as evidence against us,) one of our security guards legitimately had a phone conversation, and a large group of Chareidi (black hat) men literally walked up next to our men and started yelling (technically it was a prayer) at the top of their lungs in order to drown out the sound of our prayers. And yet, we were the distraction. Here are a few pictures.

One fun moment for me occurred when I heard some man yelling at us and I went to take a video. I stood up on a chair right next to the divide and filmed a very interesting scene. I spent a total of about 3 hours writing this post (over two different days and three different computers) and tried to upload that video. It didn't work. I'm really sorry, and if anyone knows a way to upload a video that won't take me forever, I'll do it. But just be aware: I tried.

Here's what happened. An orthodox women who was praying along the wall (a picture of her is below this paragraph) told me that I couldn't stand on the chair since the men would be able to see me. In Hebrew, I told her that I was well within my rights to be standing there and that if the men had a problem with my being there, they could tell me. Furthermore, I told her that I was on the chair so I could take a video of the scene and I couldn't see otherwise. She told me that there were cracks in the wall that I could look through to get my view. When I told her that the cracks weren't sufficient, she threatened to kick the chair out from under me. At that point, the cops who had been standing around watching stepped in and told her to back off. The rule for the cops was simple: people can say whatever they want, but as soon as a threat of violence is seen, they step in. She asked me again to get down, and I told her that I would do so when I was ready (I totally admit that I was egging her on at this point). She responded by taking her siddur and putting it in front of my camera. In hebrew, the cop then says "Excuse me, excuse me miss. Please. If you want to pray, please do." The two of them then get into some verbal altercation which you can't really hear and I only partially understood, but it ended with her going away and me thanking him. The sound is blocked by the Ultra Orthodox Men being loud. I'd ask them to apologize to you for the inconvenience, but that's not going to happen. While this scene was going on, I kept looking at the WOW crowd, and they were watching me with cameras up and big grins on their faces. We all found this super entertaining.

My new best friend. 

I'm going to state again that their problem with us was that WE were disturbing the peace and desecrating the holy space.

Yay for hipocracy. 

At many points during our hour at the wall, various women would walk up to the security guards and tell them that they need to make us leave as we were being so disrespectful and disgusting. The guards did nothing of the sort. Instead, they looked at the women, nodded their heads, and told them to walk away. It was awesome.

Also, many men chose to (loudly) voice their opinions to us. I have another two videos of orthodox men yelling their lungs out at us. I'm sure that they wouldn't have been yelling half as loudly if it weren't for my camera (and other cameras as well), but I was still happy to capture them. I will have one of our staff members help me translate them, and as soon as I get that translation, I'll let you know what they said. I was planning on posting the videos, but the internet is so slow that it has taken me literally an hour and a half to load all of the pictures and that one video onto this post, so I'm not going to wait to load another two. Sorry.

After we finished with Hallel, we walked out of the women's section to go to Robinson's Arch, a section of the wall not considered to be a holy place, to have a Torah service. Much of the controversy of WOW includes the fact that women aren't supposed to be anywhere near a Torah according to Ultra-Orthodox Tradition. Furthermore, a few months ago, a women was arrested for carrying a Torah by the Kotel. Therefor, the Torah service takes place at Robinson's Arch, a section of the wall not considered to be a holy place. For those of you who don't know Robinson's Arch, I'll just explain that the Kotel is remnant of the outer wall of the 2nd Temple, and it is considered holy because it is the part closest to the former site of the Holy of Holy's. Yes, the Kotel is just a big old wall.

When the service moved, the whole vibe changed. Men and women were together, women put on their Talitot properly and many even chose to wrap tfillin, people were much more inclined to be chatty (obviously I wasn't included in the chatty bunch...), and many people left since the exciting part was over. At this point, 5 of us made the decision that we would be late to school (and when I say school, I mean Hebrew class) in order to be at the Torah service and two people left to be on time. The service itself wasn't that interesting, but I talked to a lot of interesting people.

I met a Rabbi from a Shul in Seattle who is thinking about applying for the Rabbi opening at Temple Sinai in Oakland (he asked me questions about the Jewish community in Oakland ane I was proud to be able to answer them). I met a women who is with a tour group from a synagogue that came to Israel for 12 days primarily to go to WOW. I met a Rabinical student hoping to work in Berkeley (if anyone from Netivot Shalom is reading this, just know that you may have some people applying for a currently non-existent assistant Rabbi job soon). I met a man who was with WOW in the late 1980s and actually ripped a Torah out of the hands of a Chareidi man trying to take it from the group at a Simchat Torah Service. I ran into a group of kids from Young Judea Year Course (another gap year program) that I had seen around. And many more.

I still don't know exactly how I feel about the women of the wall. I believe fully that women should have the right to daven the way that they want to at the Kotel, as the location is supposed to be a place for all Jews, not just all Ultra Orthodox Jews, to worship freely. However, I also think that in a lot of ways, the Women of the Wall are more about the statement than about the actual act of praying at the wall, and that contradicts their very purpose. Having said that, I'm glad I went, and I plan on going again in December.

Thank all of you who made it this far in the post for reading, and I want to say again that I am more than willing to speak to you in depth about my experiences at WOW. Give me a call (011 050 407-6783) or send me an email (beccarosenthal@gmail.com) and I'll be more than happy to talk to you.

Until next time have a great rest of the week,
Becca