Kotel rabbi protests Conservative movement prayers
As if one group of fanatics at the Kotel isn’t enough–we’ve got two!
No, seriously, all respect due to the orthodoxy like which I wish I had the same discipline to all 613+ mitzvot, the Kotel authority has tried their damndest to push out women as well as lesser strict streams. But typically the Kotel authority is respectful enough to leave alone Reform and Conservative bnai mitzvot along Robinson’s park.
Kotel rabbi protests Conservative movement prayers
The Chief Rabbi of the Western Wall, Shmuel Rabinowitz, said on Monday that those who conduct services not in line with Orthodox customs should not pray anywhere along the length of the Jewish holy site.
Rabinowitz was referring particularly to Conservative and Reform customs where men and women have equal roles and pray together.
The movement has free access to the southern tip of the southern wall, which is known as Robinson’s Arch, for morning, Sabbath and holiday prayers. Non-Orthodox prayer sessions have been held for the past seven years at Robinson’s Arch, inside an archeological park at the southern tip of the wall.
“Whoever wants to celebrate a Bar Mitzvah, but does not want to do it according to Jewish custom, should go elsewhere,” said Rabinowitz. “It makes me sad that there are people who do not want to respect the Kotel (Western Wall) as a place of unity and togetherness for the entire Jewish people.”
The Conservative movement has slight liturgical changes in their prayers, but the main area of concern is its lack of gender separation.
“The Fund for the Traditions of the Kotel provides guides who can help families celebrate a Bar Mitzvah in accordance with tradition or put on tefillin (phylacteries) or read a Torah scroll,” said Rabinowitz. “Many Reform and Conservative families use our services.”
“Unity and togetherness.” Whatever.
Original story here.
[Late breaking update, 1:49 pm] Compromise reached on wall — “Mixed groups will be allowed to offer prayers daily until 10:30 a.m. on Friday evenings and holidays.” But this article raises another sticky matter — should you have to pay to pray?
Two years ago, an entrance fee of about $7 per person was charged by the Archaeological Gardens to those who came to pray after 8 a.m.
The rabbi has a point. Reform started a chain reaction that has seen ashkenazi jews creating new denominations every two days.
Before the conservatives compromised and decided to hold their prayers at robinson’s arch they tried to impose their mixed gender services on the western wall thereby violating both the men and the women’s right to pray in the manner of their tradition.
The fact that they even attempted this shows the conservative leadership(and I suspect the reform as well) feels itself entitled to impose their views on an unwilling jewish public.
Before Robinson’s Arch any egalitarian service happened in the back of the plaza behind the mechitza. And even if the kotel was split into 3 sections, how would that effect anyone else’s ability to pray the way they choose. It’s Rabbi Rabinowitz who is trying to impose his view on an unwilling Jewish public.
Am I missing something? What is the news here?
they tried to impose their mixed gender services on the western wall thereby violating both the men and the women’s right to pray in the manner of their tradition.
Since when has the conservative movement ever tried to do that? That’s just loshon hora, and evil to boot. Also – since there was no mechitza at the kotel until 1967, minhag hamaqom is to have mixed gender services. The innovators are the orthodox.
as an aside – I think davenning at the kotel is quite immoral. People lost their *homes* for the plaza, for no good reason.
Amit, there was a good reason. The plaza was needed in order to make the wall a tourist hot-spot, one of many in Israel. A significant portion of the Zionist entity’s cash inflow comes from the tourism industry.
WE ARE ONE – unless you insist on mixing genders during prayers because G’d knows, G’d is deeply offended by his creation MIXING together … or is it those devout men who cannot seem to get their minds off of sex long enough to focus on worship?
There is a reason why many refer to that section of wall as “the DisKotel”…
That’s not an update. The Rabbi is responding to the compromise which was announced earlier.
There is a reason why many refer to that section of wall as “the DisKotelâ€â€¦
The coiner of the DisKotel is, of course, Prof. Leibowitz, zt”l, who wrote – in 1968 – that the kotel plaza should be set up as the largest discotheque in Israel, and called “The shekhina diskotheque”. THat way everyone will be happy – the secularists for it being a discotheque, and the religious for it being named after god.
The former residents of the neighborhood in front of the wall now live in the refugee camp called Shuafat.
When they were expelled, the israeli press ran reports of looting, which supposedly made the action less honorable than otherwise….
formermuslim writes:
The rabbi has a point. Reform started a chain reaction that has seen ashkenazi jews creating new denominations every two days.
And if non-Orthodox services are banned from the Kotel, then all those denominations will vanish in a puff of smoke and the Torah-true Jews will realize it was all just a bad dream!
It would be lovely if I could go a week without reading about some rabbi behaving like a petulent child because he’s not getting his way.
i thought Rabbi means petulent child in hebrew… But really not only is this not news, nothing will come of it. The Israeli Religious Action Center will say something, the Orthoxcrats will say something, there will be a rally of black hats and then in a month nothing will have changed.
Ach.
The Kotel is part of the ancient and contemporary middle east. Out of our desire for peace with Muslims we should remain Orientals who worship seperatly (as the Jews have done for the last 2000 years); and shake off the westernisation that has influenced us only recently. If Jews want to pray mixed in America then they can, but why introduce it to Middle Eastern Israel?
as someone who is both not orthodox and who endeavors to have the “discipline” to do all 613+ (whatever), i disgusted and ashamed by what rabbi rabinowitz has to say.
i am also especially and increasingly frustrated by orthodox rhetoriticians who release spin statements to the press which attempt to turn the values of the less fundamentalist movements back on them. before, during the gay pride rally debacle, orthodox demogogues berated nonorthodox jews for not being pluralistic because they refuse to acknowledge the orthodox’s right to refuse to allow them in jerusalem. BZ is quite right. pluralism does not mean excluding a group or narrative, but that burden falls on the orthodox! you cannot be inclusive of an exclusive viewpoint and be included yourself.
and now this rabbi. notice his use of the phrase “unity and togetherness.” it is the fault of the non-orthodox for not submitting to their (supposedly) dominant discourse in Israel. This is the way of the classic hegemony. they seek to make derivative all viewpoints counter to their own, which they strictly control and hold to be normative. it sickens me that he thinks “unity” means no one disagreeing with his interpretation of judaism. well guess what, pal. many jews think you’re full of it. they don’t get to be part of the unity. he wants all jews to either practice/believe his way or get out.
digusting.
What a shmuck of a rabbi. Way to be offended by the existence of people not like you!
As if having non-Orthodox prayer services somehow makes it impossible for Charedim to continue davenning in their own way. Just look at your siddur for once instead of looking at your neighbor for things to beat him/her with. The Torah isn’t your spade, and it isn’t your gold star, and it isn’t your bludgeoning device either.
This Jew from the Orthodox world knows that prayer services she-lo kehalacha, conducted by folks who aren’t gonna be following Ortho halacha anyway, help people fulfill a lot of mitsvot than running around like an arrogant moron trying to beat Jews away from Hashem.
yeah, it’s a problem that the place they’ve designated for non-ortho tfilla is a park with an admission fee. bad combo.
I’m guessig their logic is that they don’t people to carry a siddur in order to get in for free.
I’m also guessing that there is a lot of apathy/ not getting it among the powers that be.
“If Jews want to pray mixed in America then they can, but why introduce it to Middle Eastern Israel?”
It’s a smimilar inyan to having the gay parade in Jerusalem: as a statemtn of “this is really ok” “v lo navosh l’olam voed” and, even more so, “it’s wrong to make people feel like this should not be allowed to go on.”
Alternately, maybe it’s in the hopes of making the change in the heart of the world, as opposed to some religious experiment going on at the fringes.
Why have mixed davenings at the Kotel? So moshiach can come!
There is no evidence to suggest that ancient synagogues had mechitzot or women’s sections, there is no evidence that churches were separate, and the ancient pagan rites in caanan certainly were anything but single-sexed. THe middle east doesn’t *do* separation – only Islam.
Amit, you are simply a fool. Among other places, Masada has a separation, as many archaelogists/historians would interpret it. Also, you make the ridiculous assertion that Minhag Hamakom at the western wall was without a mechitza- forgetting that the wall was never the organized shul it was until 1967. Spout your ignorance elsewhere… or at least acknowledge your secularist ignorance.
BearsforIsrael– did you read the statement by RJS at the bottom of the comment form? Ya know, the one about disagreeing RESPECTFULLY?
also, Masada, at least, has never been normative Jewish practice.
other than in size and mass, I’m not sure how the Kotel is different as a makom than before 67. Back in the day I’m guessing it had lots of tfillah b’yachid, but also minyanim sometimes…. and what do you know, it still does.
also, I know Amit, and he’s neither secular nor ignorant. In fact, he’s rather the opposite.
To quote the late great Rabbi Hertzberg, z”l, “We are not the decendents of those who died at Masada.”
Just a thought.
Another thought: we do lots of things that aren’t in a tradition of the Middle East. That argument only holds if we’re going to give up all western influences. We’re not.
The minhag hamakom thing seems slightly off to me. It’s my understanding that you don’t need a mechitza in a place that doesn’t have a REGULAR prayer service (like a house of mourning). So if there were sporadic services at the Kotel, nobody could really argue that you need a mechitza from a strictly halachic standpoint. So I don’t think that there really is a minhag hamakom.
DT- I think youre talking about the halachic term of “makom tfillah”. That is, if a place is not an established makom tfillah, a mechitza is not necessary.
The kotel is an anomaly in terms of what type of space it is. It’s unlike any other shul in that is is simply an open space where lots of people, for lots of reasons, like to daven. A lot. It has no single minyan, no established times of prayer. Unlike most shuls, the women’s section is almost completely cut off from any sort of tfillah b’tzibur experience.
Yes, the kotel is different now from 67 and before. And I can understand why some would consider it now to be an official makom tfillah needing a mechitza (although I could argue both ways myself). However, I can think of no compelling reason why those who do insist on Mechitza should impose this on anyone else.
And really, that’s really the point of dispute.
Ideally, there would be multiple prayer spaces, were men could be alone, women could be alone, egal, etc.
(note: this is about internal halachot of mechitza, I’m not going into arguments about whether you ever need a mechitza, cause that’s a whole other big debate)
Rabbi Ez al-Hikma writes:
Out of our desire for peace with Muslims we should remain Orientals who worship seperatly
So true – if there’s anyone getting in the way of peace with Muslims, it’s those liberal Jews who want egalitarian davening!
If Jews want to pray mixed in America then they can, but why introduce it to Middle Eastern Israel?
If Jews want to wear black hats in Lithuania then they can, but why introduce it to Middle Eastern Israel?
I found a hebrew text book produced before 1948 and it had pictures of Israel. One of those pictures was of the Kotel and i’ll be if there weren’t men and women praying without a mechitza….
BZ’s comment was so perfect it is unfair to the Rabbi…Burninated.
Oy, it makes me sad that there are people who do not want to respect the Kotel (Western Wall) as a place of unity and togetherness for the entire Jewish people. If only we could all trust Hashem enough to respect the ways we talk to Hashem and celebrate our holy days the way Hashem inspires us.
shalom v’ahava,
Menachem
And why this constant rhetoric of who is a “real” Jew?
“Whoever wants to celebrate a Bar Mitzvah, but does not want to do it according to Jewish custom, should go elsewhere,†said Rabinowitz. “It makes me sad that there are people who do not want to respect the Kotel (Western Wall) as a place of unity and togetherness for the entire Jewish people.â€
He has a very interesting definiteion of the “entire Jewish people,” given that he really doesn’t want to be davening in unity and togetherness with anyone except other Jews who think exactly like him.
It makes me sad that people like Rabbi Rabinowitz do not want to respect the Kotel as a place of unity and togetherness for the entire Jewish people and insist on picking needless fights from people who are not bothering them.
I’ll echo Elon. I have an antique “Magic Lantern” glass slide that’s from some time between 1880 and 1920. It’s a picture of the Wall and there are men and women praying mere feet from each other. It’s only one picture, so I guess it’s possible that the next frame would have shown everyone having convulsions or being struck by lightning or something.
I see a similar Lantern slide just sold on eBay- search Google for “Wailing Wall” and “antique. It’s dated 1896 and shows women praying- are there men too? There’s at least one dude in a fez sweeping…
http://cgi.ebay.com/c1896-RPSV-JEWS-WAILING-WALL-JERUSALEM-PALESTINE_W0QQitemZ130078118087QQihZ003QQcategoryZ15907QQcmdZViewItem
Thank you rebecca