Voices of WRJ: Acharei Mot II

by Doris Schyman On May 14, 1948, Israel declared its independence from Britain. The next day began the War of Independence. In the end, Jerusalem was divided and the old walled city lay entirely in Jordanian hands. But in 1967, in six days, I.D.F. forces and paratroopers from the 55^th Brigade captured East Jerusalem and the entire West Bank. Jews returned to pray at the place where our people prayed for more than 2,000 years. The Declaration on the Establishment of the State of Israel, written in 1948 and read by David Ben-Gurion, includes the phrase: “the state will uphold the full social and political equality of all its citizens, without distinction of race, creed, or sex; will guarantee full freedom of religion, conscience, education, and culture; will safeguard the sanctity and inviolability of the Holy Places of all religions.” It says in the Torah, Leviticus 19, to love your neighbor as yourself. I believe this means treating others as you wish to be treated. And, in my opinion, that begins with respect. What is going on in Jerusalem today is basically a difference of opinion. One need not understand nor agree with the way others pray. But respect is a must. On December 1, 1988, Rosh Chodesh Kislev, 70 women gathered with a Torah scroll to conduct a Halachic women’s prayer service. They were harassed, but allowed to finish the service. Since then the protests have escalated. The Kotel is not the only place where women have been harassed. A few years ago a woman was accosted, shoved and knocked to her feet by an Orthodox man at the Be’er Sheva bus station when he saw the striped imprints on her arm where she had earlier wrapped the leather straps of tefillin. This was something she did in the privacy of her own home or synagogue. In 1994, the Israeli Supreme Court recommended that the government set up a commission to resolve the matter. In October 2014, Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan, after Women of the Wall’s Torah was banned at the entrance to the public holy site, an alternate, tiny, 200-year-old Torah was brought in under the radar of the authorities. This Torah was a gift by the family who owns it because they believed there is “no better place for the scroll to be on Rosh Chodesh Chesvan than at the Kotel, in the women’s section, being read by women who want and have every right, to read Torah.” The Ministry of Religion has the authority to regulate holy places, under which the Ministry created a position called the Rabbi of the Wall. The rabbi does not create laws but can issue regulations. In the 1980s, the Rabbi of the Wall issued a vague regulation prohibiting any prayer that is not in keeping with Jewish custom (minhag hamakom). Since then, the men who have held the positon of Rabbi of the Wall have interpreted minhag hamakom according to customs of the most extreme ultra-Orthodox groups. We are not looking to change the laws or the minhag hamakom to the way we practice. We just want people to have the ability, the freedom, to practice as they wish. January 2016, the Israeli Cabinet approved a plan acknowledging women’s full equality and autonomy at the Kotel and the imperative of freedom of choice in Judaism in Israel. If and when the plan is fully implemented and the third section has been constructed as a prayer space in accordance with this agreement, Women of the Wall will relocate monthly Rosh Chodesh prayers to the new space. The plan is to have three sections at the wall. While they will not be equal in size, they will have the same visibility and access. There will be one for men, one for women, and third egalitarian. So if a man and woman wish to go together, they may. If a woman wishes to wear a kippah, a tallis, or tefillin, she may. If and when this transition is complete, the new section will make way for great change: women will pray at the Kotel as equals, as active participants and leaders in rituals, ceremonies and, of course, in reading from the Torah. Let me be clear: this is not just a women’s issue. It is about respect and what is right. Women of the Wall’s original purpose was very simple: to enable Jewish women to pray together as a group. It is just so difficult for me to process the fact that the police force of the Jewish State has come to arresting women at Israel’s holiest site for praying. We as Jews are always working, always striving to make this a better world. A world of kindness, love, and light. As we celebrate Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day, this week, let us all remember those who fought so hard, those who made the ultimate sacrifice and those still fighting for respect and the privilege to pray in their own spiritual way. “Im tirtsu, ain zo chalom, If you will it, it is no dream.” —Theodore Herzl Doris Schyman and her husband Joe are long time members of B'nai Jehoshua Beth Elohim in Deerfield, IL where she is on the temple and sisterhood boards.