Women For the Wall

I’ve never hidden my disdain for the “Women of the Wall,” and with Anat Hoffman’s new “compromise” proposal to rip down the Mechitzah on a daily basis, that’s not about to change any time soon.

A woman I’ve known for several years is now heading up a new group called Women For the Wall, for “preserving the sanctity of the Wall.” It’s not just a counter-movement, it’s a group of traditional Jewish women celebrating who they are.

Please check them out, and support the right of the majority to pray undisturbed!

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11 Responses

  1. etana hecht says:

    I support the right of ppl to pray undisturbed. Including those who want to wear a Tallis when they pray.

  2. dr. bill says:

    i am not a proponent of blind retribution, but as the shoe moves to the other foot, it is striking how uncomfortable people find the imposition of the view of others. derokheho darkhei noam, must be a central theme even when asserting what you feel is correct.

  3. Yaakov Menken says:

    Mrs. Hecht, it is quite naive to imagine that these women simply want to wear a Tallis. Individuals come to the Kotel doing all sorts of strange and/or Halachically-improper things, and there are no complaints. It is only when people act as a group to try to change the nature of the place for all the other women there, that they provoke a reaction.

    Anat Hoffman has a clear agenda to use the Women of the Wall to change the Kotel from permanent place of prayer to a “national monument,” and from there to change how conversion, marriage and divorce are conducted in the Jewish state. Do you support this agenda?

  4. Benjamin E. says:

    What do you mean by “try[ing] to change the nature of the place for all the other women there?” Surely they’re not trying to rope quietly praying women into their davening? As for her agenda to change it *from* a place of prayer, is their primary activity currently not a prayer service?

    Even if one does not support her agenda for conversion or divorce, surely we can distinguish between allowing people to pray at a prayer site and any separate court cases on marriage law?

  5. Yerachmiel Lopin says:

    hoffman is not interested in tearing down the mechitzah. She is interested in all women’s prayer groups. She indicated she can live with Sharansky’s Robinson’s Arch proposal but that is not her agenda.

  6. lacosta says:

    so r menken, if there was a women’s prayer group —- of a US O shul — that on their trip to israel wish to convene at the kotel like they would in their O shul’s beis medrash — you would have no problem with that?

  7. Yaakov Menken says:

    If you support any “prayer service” at the Wall… well, how about women praying in the men’s section? Or removing the mechitzah? Or Christian prayer with crosses and musical instruments? How about a mixed gospel choir, complete with organ? Where do you draw the line?

    Whether or not you can dial-a-heter and find a Rabbi who permits X, Y, or Z, there is a common denominator, and that is traditional prayer as we have done it for thousands of years. There is a large space for men and women to pray separately in that fashion, because there really is a need for all that space. But the Supreme Court has also allocated another space for small groups that want to pray in non-traditional fashion, which is large enough to accommodate all of the groups I mentioned, and the Women of the Wall. And all the other groups — Masorti/Conservative, etc. — take advantage of that.

    Except the Women of the Wall. Because if there isn’t media coverage and a crowd of offended charedim, it isn’t … what? What’s missing? Certainly not prayer… it must be they are missing… something else.

    Yerachmiel, you are, in a word, wrong. In fact, she explicitly described a space where any observant man (or woman, of course) would feel unwelcome. “‘Let’s share time,’ she suggested. For six hours a day the Wall will be a national monument, open to others but not to Orthodox men, she said.”

    She is waging a war against Torah, and you are saying “it’s not really so bad, they do this in left-wing O shuls”? Really?

  8. cvmay says:

    What a great idea to start a counter group, Women for the Wall!!
    Jews need to bring activism into their lives and make a public difference.
    Can we get thousands of seminary girls, marrieds and singles to join for Tefilah on Rosh Chodesh Sivan at the kosel?
    Wish I could be there, with success, cvmay

  9. Raymond says:

    Jews need to bring Judaism into their lives and thereby make a metaphysical difference. Leave the activism for those Leftists who stir up trouble as a way of running away from their spiritually empty lives.

  10. Whoa nelly says:

    Cvmay,

    Apparently the Israeli government felt that a couple of WoW and their publicity campaign are more important.

    Thousands of high school and seminary girls and young mothers were turned away by the משטרה this morning when they came to daven at the kosel for ראש חודש סיון.

    Is that not horrible? Does that not show the true intentions of these “Women” and what they really think of the “wall”.

  11. Observer says:

    Nelly, the reason the women were turned away was because SO MANY W4W had showed up that there was simply no more place. In this particular case, it turns out to have been a good thing, as WoW tried to claim that they were being turned away. It’s kind of hard to make that argument when 0 times as many non-WoW were also turned away.

    There are far more significant thing that happened there, such as accusing one of the organizers of lying about her initiative, since a woman obviously is not capable of pulling something like this off. Makes you wonder who is REALLY behind WoW. Lying (unfortunately with the help of some secular media) about the composition of the attendance is another thing that should make any one say “wait a minute!”

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