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| Torah being raised by Reform leader, MK Gilad Kariv in support of WOW (JP) |
Their argument has always been (and still is) that they have every right to pray at the Kotel – same as Orthodox Jews do. And that no one has the right to deny any Jew from praying there.
But that mission a false flag operation. No one… not even the Eida Hacharedis would ever dream of denying any Jew regardless of gender or level of observance from pouring their heart out in prayer at the Kotel.
What WOW really wants is not the right to pray there. Every member of that group already has that right. What they want is to do it their own non traditional way. Which upsets those of us that pray there in traditional ways.
Just because something - might - technically not be in strict violation of Halacha does not mean it should be done. There ought to be some sensitivity for the men and women that have prayed there in traditional ways for decades and find WOW's monthly prayer service distracting and disturbing.
WOW may believe they are serving God best by doing it their way. But who gave them the right to make that determination? They should consider that centuries of Jewish tradition might suggest that their novel and untraditional way is not the best way. Being devout means not only concentrating on matters between man and God. It also means concentrating on matters between man and man.
That they insert themselves every Rosh Chodesh into the Kotel Plaza demonstrates an indifference to the traditionalists who are disturbed by an aberrative practice such as theirs in their midst. WOW does not seem to care what traditionalists think - believing their own agenda trumps theirs. This in my view is an exercise in selfish behavior.
There are those who will defend WOW by saying that a group of women praying quietly in ways men traditionally do should not bother anyone. But that is clearly not the case. When something like this happens near those that are trying to concentrate on their own prayers, it is indeed distracting and disturbing. This is why virtually all but the most left wing Orthodox rabbis have opposed WOW.
Two Charedi leaders have decided to ask seminary students to get involved. From the Jewish Press:
Hundreds of members of the Reform and Conservative movements from Israel and the United States arrived on Friday morning at the Kotel plaza for the Rosh Chodesh Adar B prayer. They were met with enormous resistance from mostly Haredi Jews, including an estimated ten thousand seminary women who followed the instructions of two leaders of the Haredi Lithuanian public, Rabbis Chaim Kanievsky and Gershon Edelstein, to protest the Reform and Conservative presence. Large police forces separated the two parties of obviously God-loving Jews.
At the urging of those two Charedi leaders - those ‘hundreds’ were met by10,000 Orthodox seminary women. They filled the Kotel Plaza this morning sending the message that they will not sit idly by and allow a feminist agenda to subvert tradition Judaism.
There are those who will argue that feminism not their motive. But that is exactly the agenda articulated by WOW’s Reform leader, Anat Hoffman.
That some women of WOW actually feel that their nontraditional form of prayer is more meaningful to them, does not necessarily make it more meaningful to God.
Now that heterodox rabbis have become more directly involved, these protests have risen to a new level of concern. The fight is no longer in opposition to WOW's claimed right to choose how to pray at the Kotel. It becomes a battle against Heterodoxy’s desire to establish and legitimize their non Halachic version of Judaism. That is an entirely different battle.
The support for WOW by heterodox rabbis like Reform Rabbi Rick Jacobs has reached a new level of intensity:
Hundreds of members of the Reform and Conservative movements from Israel and the United States arrived on Friday morning at the Kotel plaza for the Rosh Chodesh Adar B prayer.But they were met by 10,000 Orthodox young seminary women who showed up to counter those efforts. There is no a doubt in my mind that the few those that want to impose their feminist agenda will always be outnumbered by far by the many who don’t.
The support by the vast majority of Conservative and Reform Jews in America should not carry that much weight. Since that same majority will never set foot in the state of Israel, much less pray at the Kotel.
To the extent that they support WOW is to the extent that they support the current feminist agenda of egalitarianism in all matters – regardless of whether it contradicts Halacha. Halacha doesn’t enter the minds of the Conservative and Reform masses. But it is definitely on the minds Orthodox women who reject the idea of injecting egalitarian values where they do not belong.
When an egalitarian value contradicts Halacha, Halacha wins. Period. Torah comes first, last. and always. This is why so many young Orthodox women showed up at the Kotel this morning -outnumbering by orders of magnitude the hundreds of Conservative and Reform Jews that showed there.
This is a battle for the soul of Israel. Will the rights of Orthodox Jews be trampled by an egalitarianism that is anti Halachic? Because by definition egalitarianism would abolish the Halchic requirement of the Mechitza. So that the current non traditional activity by WOW which – may- technically fall within the parameters of Halacha can easily slide into an activity that is not. Especially when heterdox rabbis get involved.
I know that my Jewishly liberal friends in Orthodoxy will disagree with me. And I respect their right to do so. But as always I will continue to stand for what I believe is Emes. If in this instance that makes me sound Charedi, that’s OK. I will wear it as a badge of honor.