Jerusalem – Shmuel Rabinowitz, the rabbi of the Western Wall, said rabbis must weigh whether to oppose a compromise proposal over egalitarian prayer at Judaism’s holiest site.
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In a statement, Rabinowitz vowed to fight against “the slightest deviation” from customary practice at the Western Wall. However, he left unclear whether the compromise forged by Jewish Agency for Israel Chairman Natan Sharansky, which would create a permanent site for egalitarian prayer at a section of the Western Wall called Robinson’s Arch, constituted such a deviation.
“I want the Western Wall to continue to unite the nation as in the past, according to the customs of the site and without veering away from Jewish halachah,” or law, Rabinowitz said. “That said we must, along with the Chief Rabbinate and other great rabbis, examine if we should oppose the proposal referring to Robinson’s Arch, which is not part of the Western Wall synagogue, if this would be a solution acceptable to everyone and will distance dispute from the Western Wall Plaza and prevent the continued provocations and ‘baseless hatred.'”
Earlier this month, Rabinowitz said he “can live with” the Sharanksy compromise. “This re-division of the plaza does not match my worldview, as I believe that there should be one site of prayer according to the place’s customs, but we can live with this solution,” Rabinowitz said.
But Rabinowitz’s tone appears to have hardened following meetings with Orthodox rabbis in North America — whom Rabinowitz said oppose Sharansky’s proposal — and in the wake of a court ruling this week that women’s prayer in the existing women’s section of the Western Wall Plaza should not be abridged.
“I will fight wholeheartedly against any harm to the holiness of the Western Wall, and I will not allow the slightest deviation from what is and has been customary at the site for decades,” the statement said. Any change “will face strong opposition and bring about a civil war.”
Content is provided courtesy of the Jerusalem Post
Women doing hagbah !! What’s next ?
Undo the retzuis before hagba.
Civil war but no idf. The more they hunker down about the draft, secular education, the less people will listen to them regarding these issues
This picture really tells the whole story. These women want to be allowed to daven in the varbeshe section of the kosel in the manner which to them brings them closer to the Ebeshter. It may not be what you wish for your wife or daughter but it is not your right or Rabinovit’s right to dictate to them. Would you want these women setting the rules as to who could have a minyan in the main section of the kosel plaza, whether they could daven nusach ashkenaz or sephard, whether it was permitted to have a shtender for chashuve rabbonim close to the kosel, etc? Obviously not, so why tell these women how they may be daven?
“Conservative Judaism:” is Yiddishkeit without scholarship, without standards of observance, and without consisent theology – it is a sociological feel-good phenomenon masquerading as a religion. I know…I was there in my youth.
Off the wall. Who sells them these tefillin? They should be checked just like mezuzos are checked. When something is gaga in a dwelling, it is usually reflected in the the mezuzos that become posul. Wouldn’t surprise me if these women’s aberrant behavior damages the parshios in their tefillin (if they were kosher tefillin to begin with). That would be a sure sign of sacrilege.
not sure how they are gonna make shalom bayis..but shalom they must make before it gets out of hand. .
Also interesting that the position was hardened after speaking with “American Orthodox Rabbis” anyone else see anything wrong with that??
It sounds as if they’ve been made an offer that they shouldn’t refuse. No compromise now can only mean worse later.
These women-of-the-wall-nuts are just a bunch of troublemakers. They think that their reformulated Judaism = Reform interpretations are real; that they mean something to someone besides themselves. One day they will wake up to find that there is no such thing as Reform or Conservative or Reconstruction or Feminism….They’re all a fantasy. These deviant forms of practice are not Jewish and have nothing to do with Judaism.
This is a tough call. If you leave them alone they might go away or they might just demand more attention by pushing for more.
The gedolim need to weigh in. What does Reb Chaim recommend?
The holy Bostoner Rebbe of Har Nof is a very wise and sensible man who reaches out to everyone. I have seen many pictures of him speaking to mixed groups and even single girls. Surely he can work out some compromise that everyone will accept. He is a special part of the Haredi world, a member of the Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah for many years and a noted teacher. We need someone like him to lead us through the dark.