Jerusalem – The Women of the Wall prayer rights group managed to bring an extremely small Torah scroll into the women’s section of the Western Wall plaza Friday morning defying official regulations prohibiting the entry of private Torah scrolls to the site.
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The group initially tried to bring in a regular, full size Torah scroll but were prevented from doing so by security officials and a representative of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation which administers the site.
The Torah that WoW managed to smuggle into the women’s section was extremely small, just 28cm high including the handles, and was placed into a prayer-shawl bag and brought into the site.
WoW said that it conforms with all requirements of Jewish law to be used in formal prayer services.
It was used on Friday morning for the Bat-Mitzva ceremony of Sasha Lutt, the daughter of Irina Lutt, a Russian immigrant to Israel. The group said the event was an historic first at the Western Wall.
Sasha and others read from the Sefer Torah with the use of a magnifying glass due to the small size of the text, and the women participating in the service danced and sang with the Torah after the service in celebration of the Bat Mitzva and their successful attempt to read from a Torah in the women’s section of the main Western Wall plaza.
A landmark ruling in April 2013 by the Jerusalem District Court removed any legal basis for preventing women from praying at the site with prayer-shaw’s and tefillin, and arresting them for such activity.
However Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, the Supervisor of the Western Wall and the Holy Sites of Israel and the Chairman of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation has refused requests by WoW to use one of the Torah scrolls made available in the men’s section.
In addition, a regulation drafted by Rabinowitz in 2010 and approved by the Ministry of Justice, prohibits anyone from bringing a private Torah scroll into the Western Wall plaza.
The Torah used on Friday morning was loaned to WoW by Jon and Noeleen Cohen, supporters of the group from the UK.
According to WoW, it is over 200 years old and was taken from Lithuania to South Africa by Cohen’s great grandfather in 1880.
A spokeswoman for WoW, said that the group had not broken the law since the April 2013 court decision stated that the women were allowed to pray according to their traditions.
“Our tradition always included reading from the Torah and if there is a Torah in the Women’s section we are within our rights to read it,” she said.
“Unfortunately we’re not the first Jews in history who have to get creative in order to have a full prayer service,” she added.
Rabinowitz said in response to WoW’s actions that he had decided “not to intensify the event,” and requested that the group’s failure to abide by the regulations at the Western Wall be ignored, “out of a concern for harming the sanctity of a Sefer Torah.”
He said that efforts would be made in the future to prevent a Torah scroll from being brought into the site.
Rabinowitz also accused WoW of seeking to prevent any compromise at the Western Wall. The group is currently in negotiations with cabinet secretary Avihai Mandelblit, who is holding parallel talks with Rabinowitz, in order to come to an agreement over the establishment of a new prayer area just south of the main plaza.
Content is provided courtesy of the Jerusalem Post
Mazal Tov !
Drunk eyes. Gowns of shame. Another day of illicit banter.
If only they would be as medakdek in halacha as they are with using a magnifying glass to read from the sefer torah.
Poor sefer Torah, it must really be hurting after all it has been through…
Good for them
One way to silence these kooks, check their tefilins, which are obviously not going to be kosher, then leak the report to the press that the wow use unkosher tefilin. That scandal will force them to buy kosher tefilin (at $1000 a pop). I bet 99% drop out once it hits them in the purse
I bet it was pasul.
No one would even know that these well intentioned but misguided people exist if it were not for all the noise we’ve made about them.
Reply to 9. Just a hunch. $500? Ok I stand corrected, but my plan still holds
These misguided Off the Wall women should be ignored, not given the publicity that they crave. If this sefer Torah couldn’t be read without a magnifying glass, what are the chances that it’s kosher? Before they take on what the shouldn’t, why don’t they comply with halacha in the areas of tnius, dress etc?
This should be the biggest problem the Jewish community faces.
they look like a bunch of follish clowns
If only these women had mothers or friends good enough to teach them that women of their, to be polite, limited physical appeal should try to compensate for it with personalities…, they could still have happy and fulfilled lives. Instead, they chose this…, and some of them, it appears, pass on their ugly behavior to their unfortunate daughters. There is still a chance this girl will grow up normal, even if a small one.
Gut shabbos.
Making rules you are unable to enforce simply makes you look foolish.