Tel-Chai Nation

The Windsor Star/AP Wire says that the Women of the Wall's prayer service this month has gone by much more peacefully this time.

Even so, rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz has continued his victimology game, whining 25 years too late:

Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz protested an egalitarian provocation by the Women of the Wall at the Kotel on Sunday morning, pointing to police protection of a women's group creating a provocation at the holy site, in the face of protests by observant worshipers.

Gee, why couldn't he protest any violent reactions from Haredis in past years to the group? Or is he saying police shouldn't come to the defense of someone who gets physically assaulted over something that doesn't result in physical injury? What thin skin, tsk tsk.

Thousands of hareidi-religious men had been urged to respond to a call published in Jewish newspapers for mass prayer at the Western Wall at 6:30 a.m. on Sunday morning. The date falls on the first day of the Hebrew month of Tamuz, and the same time the female secularist worshipers hold their monthly Rosh Chodesh (head of the month) prayer at the holy site. The letter published by a wide range of hareidi-religious groups warned, however, that rabbinic leaders had ruled only married men would be allowed to participate in the rally. No young yeshiva students were to be permitted to attend, in an effort to avoid violence and other provocations.

Nevertheless, Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz expressed his own dismay that the women’s group was maintaining its insistence on their right to pray with men's garments, such as talleisim (prayer shawls), tefillin (phylacteries) and yarmulkas (men's head coverings). The group has continued to insist on carrying out these practices and others that are, according to Jewish tradition, performed by men and thus not permitted to women at the holy site.

“Why should police have to prevent observant worshipers from entering the Kotel Plaza?” he asked. “How are barricaded restrooms and ritualistic deviations from tradition contributing to the sanctity of this holy site?”

How does vulgarity and violence contribute to this holy site? How does failure to condemn perpetrators of said violence contribute either? He seems incapable of explaining that.

Not as many Haredi men or women came out this time, but according to the notes in this article, something very odd happened:

7:28 A.M. A small cluster of elderly Haredi women right on the other side of the barrier, praying very loudly, trying to drown out the Women of the Wall's prayer service. One woman, Miriam Schreiber, who showed up to the last two prayer servicse and is known by police to be a provocateur, is praying extremely loudly, donning a shirt with the message: "This is a desecration of God's name."

Even if that wasn't song per se, there's something rather jaw-dropping about the news that Haredi women, from the very community that's got a problem with this, are doing almost the very thing they say is anathema to their beliefs.

In time, I suppose the Haredi moonbats will learn to put up or shut up. If they must do something, why don't they just laugh at the WotW? Yes, seriously, because if they're dressing like clowns, so why not take a more strategic approach?

One more item of note:

While the women were able to complete their service unhindered, they were not allowed to read from a Torah scroll. The group hadn’t brought a scroll to the wall for years, but planned to resume the practice following the court ruling. On Thursday, however, police informed them that a regulation forbade bringing a scroll to the women’s section.

The group plans to challenge the regulation in court.

I'd say it'd be best to allow them to bring a Torah scroll to the Kotel as well, regardless of whether the WotW are being altruistic or not. And the Haredis, if they really honor the Torah, won't go berserk and potentially harm the scroll they bring along. All that would do is desecrate Judaism in the end.

Update: The Forward noticed the irony of other women praying loudly too:

The female demonstrators who gathered to object to WOW — to say that their insistence on holding communal prayers at the Wall is inappropriate, and that it’s an infringement on the rights of Orthodox men who believe that hearing female voices in prayer is against Jewish law — tried to outshout WOW with their own recital of Psalms. So much for these women’s claim that they object to WOW because they don’t follow their own demure, modest standards at the Wall, and their supposed opposition to women’s voices being heard at the Wall.

But this is worse than ironic. In case it has escaped anybody’s attention, Hallel is simply a compilation of Psalms, and the Haredi women were, in their ostentatiously loud manner, reciting… Psalms. Two groups of Jewish women reciting Psalms, but needing hundreds of police to keep them apart. It’s enough to make King David, the psalmist, spin in his grave. What a tragedy.

I suppose so. I think the best thing even here to do is just let it all go and not provide WotW with any more of the attention they may be seeking for publicity's sake. That's pretty much how it was 25 years ago when they began, and if so, it can be that way today too, no matter how farcical they're being.

Labels: haredi corruption, Israel, Jerusalem, Judaism, misogyny, Moonbattery