Jerusalem – OpEd: Unholy Hypocrisy At The Western Wall

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    FILE - An Israeli Jewish woman lays down a Torah scroll (C) during a prayer session near the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem, Israel, 12 March 2013. The prayers, attended by hundreds of women, marked the beginning of the Hebrew month of Nisan.  EPA/ABIR SULTANJerusalem – Last Friday, the Western Wall underwent an unwelcome transformation from sacred site to media circus as the group known as the Women of the Wall sought to hold a decidedly non-traditional prayer service.

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    Not content with the idea that their worship would be seen by our Father in Heaven, the women went one step further and made sure that plenty of writers, journalists and cameramen from Israel and abroad were there to film their disregard for time-honored Jewish practice.

    Waiting there to greet them were thousands of young religious women who had heeded the calls of leading rabbis to demonstrate support for maintaining the status quo at the site.

    Not surprisingly, it didn’t take long for things to get out of hand, and hundreds of policemen were needed to prevent an outbreak of violence.

    What a disgrace.

    As Jerusalem Police Commander Yossi Parienti said, “It pains me to see the Western Wall become a battlefield.”

    But that, sadly, is exactly what occurred.

    Whatever one may think of the Women of the Wall and their cause, there is no getting around the fact that they bear the lion’s share of the blame for this sorry situation.

    For all their talk of fairness and spirituality, the Women of the Wall have demonstrated an astonishing amount of unholy hypocrisy in how they seek to achieve their objectives.

    Take, for example, the issue of adhering to the rule of law.

    Over the years, as they lost battle after battle in the courts, the Women of the Wall felt little compunction about upholding the law. They repeatedly defied police instructions, occasionally getting arrested in the process.

    And yet now, after finally finding an agreeable judge last month who permitted them to don prayer shawls and phylacteries at the Wall, they solemnly speak of the need to uphold decisions made by the court. In other words, as long as the court agrees with them, they will be happy to respect its rulings.

    Interestingly, these same would-be heroines of human rights have remained remarkably silent about the discrimination faced by all Jews – men and women alike – who ascend the Temple Mount.

    Recently, I asked a long-time adviser to the group the following question: if the Women of the Wall truly believe in freedom of religious practice, why don’t they also protest the restrictions imposed on Jews who wish to pray on the Temple Mount?

    The answer I received was as revealing as it was shocking: they don’t believe Jews should be allowed to pray on the Mount, she said.

    Clearly, then, this is a group with an agenda, and not one that is overly concerned with pesky matters such as principle or intellectual consistency.

    Sure, they believe in freedom of religion, but only when it suits their politically liberal worldview.

    Indeed, a revealing glimpse behind the group’s thinking was provided by one of its leaders, Anat Hoffman, in an appearance last month on the BBC. After the interviewer said to her, “I want to understand – are you just trying to change the setup at the Western Wall or is your point a broader one about Judaism?” Hoffman did not hesitate to show her cards.

    “I think when you change the holiest site of the Jewish people you are actually asking why not about a variety of other life choices dictated to Israelis by the Orthodox monopoly,” she said.

    “I am also questioning why are the Orthodox the only ones in charge of marriage and divorce in Israel?… Some of us wish to get buried not by Orthodox custom but by Reform, Conservative or secular custom,” Hoffman added.

    So even by their own admission, the Women of the Wall aren’t really focused on the Wall – their aim is to exploit this symbol and use it as a bridgehead in order to tear down Orthodoxy in the Jewish state.

    Moreover, Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky recently proposed a compromise under which Israel would construct a separate section for so-called egalitarian prayer services in order to defuse the tensions. This would have given the Women of the Wall a place to congregate and pray without causing strife and confrontation.

    But rather than embracing this and working to find a solution, the Women of the Wall instead came looking for a provocation. Clearly, their activity isn’t about the saintly exercise of devotion. It is a cynical act of manipulation, one with strident political overtones that reek of impiety.

    Unfortunately, the rabbis and religious Jews who sought to confront the Women of the Wall have unwittingly played right into their hands. Publicity is the oxygen that has kept the movement in the spotlight and enabled it to garner the attention it needs to keep going.

    The Women of the Wall, after all, is a miniscule group – numerically insignificant. But precisely because of their baiting, and the responses they elicited, they have received column inches far in excess of their membership rolls.

    At this stage, decisive action is necessary to prevent further squabbles from breaking out.

    In the wake of the court ruling, it behooves Israel’s Religious Affairs Ministry to issue new regulations governing acceptable practice at the Western Wall in order to forestall future altercations.

    Whatever loopholes exist in the current guidelines need to be addressed so that the traditional practice at the Wall is maintained and Jewish law is respected.

    And then the Women of the Wall need to be given a clear choice regarding the Sharansky proposal: take it or leave it.

    The clashes they have sparked at the Western Wall aren’t good for Israel or Jewish unity. We cannot allow them to drag us into internecine conflict or senseless hatred.

    Yes, the Western Wall belongs to the entire Jewish people. But those who exploit this holy site for their own ulterior motives must finally be exposed for what they are: anything but holy.

    Michael Freund served as Deputy Communications Director in the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office under Binyamin Netanyahu during his first term. He is the Founder and Chairman of Shavei Israel (www.shavei.org), a Jerusalem-based group that reaches out and assists “lost Jews” seeking to return to the Jewish people.

    This OpEd was originally posted at The Jewish Press


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    40 Comments
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    chaimme
    chaimme
    10 years ago

    well written

    Liepa
    Liepa
    10 years ago

    It’s sad to see Jews fighting and protesting etc. Yet, I understand these women.
    Jews are deparate for Moshiach and as such, might/will do desparate deeds in order to speed up the process, this being one of them!
    In their minds this is one way of getting closer to the ONE ABOVE.
    I certainly wont fault them for that!

    10 years ago

    Women of the wall better to read women off the wall

    proud-mo-israeli
    proud-mo-israeli
    10 years ago

    Chutzpan! The Kotel does not belong to the hareidim & nor does the State. The People have had enough of having their lives controlled & dictated to by them when they lack the Derech Eretz to respect other Jews & their ways of life. They even refuse to take part in the basic duties of defending Israel in Tzahal by expecting other Jews to risk their lives instead of them & most of them do not work & pay taxes to State whilst they are quite happy to take government stipends, pensions & child support.
    When they are prepared to act as part of the People of Israel, only then will their views be taken into account. Until then it is best that they be quiet.

    alterknaker
    alterknaker
    10 years ago

    Blablabla. Again a soinei Yiaroel accusing the chareidim. Whatever the chareidi man will do he’ll always be bashed. I want live my own traditional life by asking in a polite way that woman entering owr neighbourhood would please go according to our tradition but no way. We want our own bus transportation to and from beit shemesh so that no one will accuse us in segregation and not asking money from the government to subsidise it. But no way. What ever the chareidi will do is no good. All thanks to the media and LAPID on top of it. Im desperate to find work but no one will accept me since im a chareidi. Then im being shouted at blood suckers. Etc.

    10 years ago

    Remove comment 5 immediately!! Apikorses!!

    10 years ago

    ” The People have had enough of having their lives controlled & dictated to by them when they lack the Derech Eretz to respect other Jews & their ways of life”.

    May I ask you then where is the WOW woman’s respect for others? They don’t respect the status quo that was there for over 50 years that woman don’t make there own minyon or read from the Torah publicly which THEY KNEW would anger and upset most people who go to the Kotel ?! Where is their respect? hm

    ayoyo
    ayoyo
    10 years ago

    You all are full of baloney when the temple stood all types of Jews went there not just the Perushim and It was the Chilonim that fought for the old city ,not the charidim .

    bewhiskered
    bewhiskered
    10 years ago

    “according to halocho the reform movement have no connection to Judaism PERIOD! they are non Jews! “

    How can someone who refers to himself as ‘rebbe’ say such a thing? If their mothers are Jewish, they are just as much Jewish as you or me! Referring to the issue of a Jewish woman as a non Jew, regardless of how anti תורה they may be, is להלכה
    going כנגד כל התורה כולה.

    my4amos
    my4amos
    10 years ago

    And not one attractive woman in a bunch! Tells you all you need to know about the origins of such “nontraditional” movements.

    SandmanNY
    SandmanNY
    10 years ago

    I dare these WOW to take a stroll through the Muslim Quarter.

    1ROYTOVOLAM
    1ROYTOVOLAM
    10 years ago

    “a miniscule groupe” Well let us all be reminded a little leaven Leavens the whole Lump! Shalom.

    10 years ago

    I’m not sure I get the argument being made here: because they haven’t also taken up the issue of ascending the temple mount they are therefore inconsistent?

    10 years ago

    “Whatever one may think of the Women of the Wall and their cause, there is no getting around the fact that they bear the lion’s share of the blame for this sorry situation.”

    You haven’t shown how the Women of the Wall bear the lion’s share of the blame, you’ve attempted to show that they are inconsistent in their views, that they’ve made a media circus, but surely you haven’t proven that they are to blame for the kosel plaza becoming a “battlefield”, as you put it.

    hashomer
    hashomer
    10 years ago

    The “status quo” at the Wall? There are numerous pre-1940 photos of women davening at the Wall, with no mechitzah, davening openly w men. WOW should be allowed to daven, and resist those who denigrate anyone not like the frum forces of compliance.

    eliezer318
    eliezer318
    10 years ago

    What do the husbands of these WOW-ers have to say about their wives’ untznius behaviour?

    10 years ago

    When the charedim fight back to “protect” the Kosel, it always results in fighting, which is why we have only the Kosel to begin with!!!! If the Charedim would have just ignored these loony ladies, they would have not grabbed half the attention they have now. But of course, like any political situation in Israel, you protest and make a fool of yourself.

    10 years ago

    They probably make matzo ball soup with razer blades. Chas V’Shalom. Never Again.

    qwe123
    qwe123
    10 years ago

    I know, from a girl who was there, that the women wore four-cornered garments withOUT tzitzis.
    So what do they have in the tfilin boxes?
    (Well, it would’t be so bad if they had inside them human excrement, but to have talleisim without tzitzis, is much worse than that).

    bewhiskered
    bewhiskered
    10 years ago

    “The problem is that there is a 50% chance that their mothers are NOT Jewish!”

    And, where is the proof for this 50% statement? Do you think that because you say something, it must be true? Yes, my מקורות from חז”ל really upset you, don’t they? But, you fail to comprehend my original statement, which is that those with legitimate Jewish mothers על פי דין, are Jewish regardless of what you or others of similar mind say!

    “What is your agenda here?”

    My agenda here Mr. belzabub, is to make certain that people of your ilk refrain from misrepresenting the תורה, which is a greater עבירה than what these misguided WOW women are doing!