Provocations

UPDATED

Eagle-eyed Rahel spotted this in the current Yated

The group of women who create a provocation every Rosh Hodesh at the Western Wall Plaza continues to offend the sanctity of the Western Wall and the sensibilities of worshippers despite the High Court of Justice ruling that their activity should not take place at the Western Wall. It has been learned that the group of women intends to arrive on Rosh Hodesh Tammuz, Thursday and Friday of this week, to offend the sanctity of the Western Wall by holding a ceremony that goes against the holiness of the site.

This group, which calls itself the Women of the Wall, seeks to hold a ceremony every Rosh Hodesh while wearing prayer shawls and reading from a Torah scroll. On Rosh Hodesh Sivan several of them succeeded in creating a provocation while causing grave offense to the sanctity of the site and disturbing men and women worshippers in the Western Wall Plaza.

Many worshippers expressed disgust and amazement over the fact that the police and the justice system are not enforcing the law and are allowing them to hold their ceremony despite the High Court ruling.

The rabbi of the Western Wall [sic], Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovich, contacted the police, the State Attorney's Office and recently even the attorney general to warn them about this grave phenomenon that insults the sanctity of the Western Wall and shows that the women's intention is to create a provocation and offend the sensibilities of worshippers.

"In light of the High Court ruling, the Government of Israel built this group of provocative women a substitute site at a cost of NIS 200 million, unnecessarily, and we claim that their whole intention to provoke has proven itself. The legal authorities have an obligation to prevent their entry into the Western Wall Plaza in order to offend the sanctity of the site," Rabbi Rabinovich said yesterday.

Rahel's two cents: "Well. Can you say "tendentious"? "Incitement"? How about "agenda"? How many times can you use the word "provocation" in a five-paragraph article, or substitute "ceremony" for "prayer service"? Can you imagine anything worse than women wearing tallitot and reading from a Torah scroll?"

My two cents: Is it osur for a woman to wear a talis and read from a scroll? Because that's the issue here. If it's osur, the woman should go elsewhere. If it isn't the men should back off. And maybe join a shiur in remedial shulchan orech.

If is turns out to be mutar (as I suspect it must be) and the men refuse to go gently to their lobotomies, it would be a kindness for the women to compromise by going to the Southern Wall instead. The thug who wrote this Yated article, meanwhile, bares some responsibility if things ever get messy. "Fire," in a crowded theatre and all.

Alan Scott's two cents: Do all the men comprise a single minyan, use the same nusach, or daven at the same time? Every woman at the kotel isn't even davenning with a minyan! There's no reason a WTG towards the rear side of the women's portion of the Kotel should get in the way of anyone else. In fact, it doesn't get in the way of anyone else. Other people get in the way of these women. In fact, the Yated editorial looks a lot like incitement to violence to me.