Standing in
Solidarity with Women of the Wall
Last week, a call went out Israel,
the USA, and Europe, to make yesterday, Rosh Chodesh, Tevet, a day of
solidarity at venues around the world in support of the right of women to pray
at the Western Wall in "dignity, in safety and in shared
community." Why did such a call go
out, and what was the response?
First, a little history, courtesy of Phyllis Chesler, an
American, Jewish feminist: 21 years ago
for the first time in history, 70 Jewish women prayed together out loud as a
group at the Western Wall (or "Kotel") in Jerusalem. Women have always prayed at the
Kotel, often silently, and alone. What made this service radically different,
certainly transcendent, was that we not only prayed aloud but we also chanted
from the Torah. The group consisted of
women of every Jewish denomination, but many of the founding leaders were
Orthodox women – educated Orthodox women, and the group’s way of praying,
including their Torah reading among a group of women only, was then, and has
remained, entirely within the remit of halachah – Jewish law.
Phyllis Chesler, describing that first time, tells us: Some of us donned tallesim (prayer shawls) and head
coverings, many of us did not. We were radiant, overwhelmed, humbled, united. However, once the
ultra-orthodox men and women understood that Jewish women were chanting from a
Torah, they began hurling unholy and terrifying curses at us which fouled the
very air. Threats of physical violence quickly followed. We made it out safely:
this time, the first time.
As the group
continued to meet, early morning, once a month, every month, at Rosh Chodesh,
the response of the ultra-orthodox who have claimed the Wall as their own,
personal synagogue, became increasingly violent. Metal chairs were thrown over the mechitza at
the women, curses were shouted out.
Women of the Wall, as they called themselves, decided to go to the
Israeli Supreme Court, asking for permission to conduct their women-only
service, on the women’s side of the mechitza, and read from the Torah, for 11
hours a year – one hour, once a month, on Rosh Chodesh. Women around the world rallied in
support. Artists created tallitot to
help raise money for the cause (and tonight I wear the Women of the Wall
Tallit), tambourines for Women’s Seders, and much more.
Phyllis
Chesler tells us: The Israeli Supreme Court would ultimately render three
decisions. The first decision, in 1994, sent us to the Knesset where, I kid you
not, the guys tried to banish our prayer group to rubble-strewn Arab areas of Jerusalem. We returned to
court and, in 2000, rejoiced over a unanimous three judge decision in our
favor. The state immediately appealed this decision. We then faced nine judges.
In 2002, four judges were in our favor, four opposed us--and the fifth and
decisive vote against us was cast by none other than the great liberal and
humanitarian, Chief Justice Aharon Barak, a man who has been able to find
justice for Palestinian Arabs, both Christians and Jews but not for Jewish
women. This 2002 decision ordered the government to build a
prayer site for us at Robinson's Arch, which is mainly an archeological and
tourist site.
I
have attended a Rosh Chodesh service at the wall – about 5 years ago, when I
was in Israel
for a summer program. Even before we
left for Robinson’s Arch for a beautiful Torah service where a young woman had
her batmitzvah (and her grandmother came up for an aliyah for the very first
time in her life), as 70 women began to quietly sing the Hallel prayers at the
Kotel, I witnessed a bearded man stand on a chair and start hurling abuse at us
– ‘You are worse than the Christians!’
‘You are prostitutes!’ he hollered in Hebrew. Two soldiers came over to our group and told
us we had to lower our voices.
Things
have been pretty quiet for the Women of the Wall in recent months. So quiet that, last month, they wondered if
perhaps the ultra-Orthodox at the Wall had stopped paying attention. And so, when they’d reached the end of the
morning prayers without hearing any abuse, they thought they’d take out the
Torah and see if they could continue without moving to Robinson’s Arch. It became evident in moments that they could
not. As they packed up and started to
walk away from the Kotel to continue, as usual, at Robinson’s Arch, Nofrat
Frankel, an Israeli medical student and Masorti/Conservative Jew, holding the
Torah, was surrounded and taken to the on-site police station, apparently for
wearing a tallit which, they claimed, was forbidden (incidentally, halachah
states that women are not obliged to wear a tallit but absolutely does not
state that it is forbidden). She was
told that a criminal file was being opened on her, and that she was banned from
the Kotel for two weeks.
And so, once again,
women of every Jewish denomination, as well as men, are rallying to stand in
support of Women of the Wall. Last
night, we dedicated B’nai Israel’s Rosh Hodesh group program to Women of the
Wall. After studying the history, and
the recent events, each of us wrote a personal reflection that related to the
issues at hand. Tonight I want to share
just the topics. But each piece was
powerful and moving, and needs and deserves to be seen and read in its
entirety. And so, beginning Saturday
night, for 8 days, in echo of the 8 days of Chanukah that we complete tonight –
our festival that celebrates and remembers our reclaiming of our Religious
Freedoms – one of these pieces will be posted on our congregational blog, shma
koleinu (which, if you still haven’t found yet, can be easily accessed via
the link on the front page of our temple website).
There is a beautiful
piece on the experience of praying with a tallit. It begins:
Wrapped in the ‘arms’ of God, Embraced in love and
intimacy… Easing into the secure comfort, I am free to pray with all my heart…
Another woman writes of a moving experience at the Kotel on a quiet evening, on the way to break fast at the end of Yom Kippur.
Marjorie Freeman
writes of her experience, growing up in a Reform temple, with new-found
appreciation for a sense of inclusivity she felt from childhood.
Barbara Levine
reflected on her experience of an adult batmitzvah, and the powerful ritual of
mikvah that she chose to have before that special day. Highlighting the beauty of existing in a
pluralist Jewish community, she tells of the day that she met an Orthodox woman
who had been so deeply moved by the article she wrote about her mikvah
experience. So much spirituality from a
willingness for all of us to open up to the God-moments that we can find in
each others’ expressions of Judaism.
Beth Lazar writes
about visiting synagogues of different denominations in the USA, and the
bond of connecting to the Torah rituals in each one, praying that all women
everywhere will one day be able to feel that connection.
Heidi Gassel shared
some deeply moving parts of her biography, and some of the life-changing
moments of inclusion of exclusion experienced by her and members of her family
in the context of Jewish community.
Becca writes a
powerful prayer, celebrating the fullness of being Jewish and a woman, calling
on God’s presence, and singing praises to a God that embraces and loves all of
us.
And I wrote about
my first Tallit, how I came to wear one, and how it transformed my prayer and,
subsequently, transformed my life.
Nofrat Frankel, and
all the Women of the Wall, we stand with you, we rededicate ourselves to
support the cause of Women of the Wall, and we rededicate ourselves as Jewish
men and women to embrace and celebrate a pluralist Jewish community, committed
to being mindful of when we are guilty of erecting unnecessary barriers
of exclusion, wanting to see the day when all of us, every part of Klal
Yisrael, is able to explore and express our Jewish spirituality without fear.
