Wishing everyone a Chodesh Tov (good new month) with the beginning of Heshvan .
I introduced the girls to spiritual activism this morning with women of the wall (wow). This morning rather than trying to sneak in a torah scroll to the kotel (which has become near impossible as the guards individually frisked each of us and checked our bags), wow tried to walk in carrying five torah scrolls. (A background note, the kotel falls under the jurisdiction of the rabbi of the kotel who can create whatever rules he wants and has ruled its illegal to bring torah scrolls into the kotel area and the 300 on the men’s side are not shared with the women). No surprise, but we didn’t get in with the Torah’s. We did have nice davening and the usual share of heckling by women upset at women davening out loud together and wearing tallit and tefillin.
wow started meeting in 1988 monthly at the kotel and I’ve davened with them many times in the 90s and three years ago. In some ways, not much has changed though the numbers are bigger and more organized on both sides (supporters and opponents). And more Orthodox Israeli women are part of it. And the rabbi of the kotel has added different rules and practices to make it harder on the women. For instance, they now have a man lead tefilot through a speaker system once a month exactly when wow meet to drown out their voices. And there are many more guards trying to both keep wow safe from the hecklers and watch they don’t do anything they consider unsafe.
Very special to be there with Alexandra and Naomi and daven with them. (You can see them in three pics on wow Facebook page). Also, nice to be with two beth shalom members, old friends, fellow Pardes students and 200 others. And thanks to Robin for setting up a special lunch for us and Women of the wall leadership.
Women of the Wall Rosh Chodesh Heshvan