Israel

Women pray at Western Wall (Photo: ©Dudi Vaaknin)

You probably read our Rabbi’s column in the latest Shofar issue about the Women of the Wall incidents that have been reported in the press recently.

Those incidents – arresting a woman for wearing a tallit, having the leader of a peaceful movement fingerprinted in a democratic state can stir a lot of debates, because they show very powerful divides and touch core passions. The claim of the women is equality and freedom, two values that are dear to a Jewish heart, and it feels so strange that the issue would arise within the Jewish State, between Jewish women and Jewish men.

I have never donned a tallit myself. I was not raised in a family where women would put on tallitot nor tefilin. As a matter of fact, in my immediate family, men wouldn’t either, but still, the idea of a tallit goes with a man’s garnment in my mind, and obviously it goes with a religious Jew. I had never thought of how I would have pictured a religious Jewish woman in my mind before, although I know it makes little sense to claim that a prayer shawl should absolutely be a man’s clothing, and therefore when I saw women in tallitot for the first time – this was when I came to the United States as a matter of fact – I thought of it as a powerful image of claiming equality, the same way I had seen women in the seventies being powerful in claiming the same rights in the working place for instance.

Apparently, this is what seems definitely at stake in the brawl opposing Haredim – ultra orthodox religious Jews – to peaceful religious Jewish women who want to pray in a very traditionnally Jewish way (and nothing seems to prevent them to do so in Halakha - the Jewish law- if I am not mistaking); it is as if the men felt threatened in their status, instead of feeling honored that they have emulated an attitude (praying wrapped within something bearing lots of spiritual reminders). And this is why there would be no rationality in their opposing so violently to the Women of the Wall for so long, accusing them of being the ones to pose a political statement (so that they can deny them the sincerity of their intentions, a typically perverse technique to dismiss rights to someone you want to discriminate against).

Of course, all this is only my personal reaction to the story. I wonder what you would think? Would you feel threatened? Disempowered? Why is a garnment at stake? Your thoughts are welcome in the comments section!

You can support Women of the Wall either by joining their Facebook page, or following them on Twitter. You can buy a beautiful Tallit to support their cause and movement.

Praying in her own Voice – Trailer of the film directed by Yael Katzir and produced by Dan Katzir and Ravit Markus documenting the Women of the Wall struggle.