The Women of the Wall organization may not have succeeded in holding their monthly Rosh Chodesh event at the Kosel on Rosh Chodesh Menachem Av 5773, barred by police, but the organization has scored a victory regarding its ongoing activities. Jerusalem District Court Justice Moshe Sobel ruled the women may congregate and pray in the women’s section of the Kosel and they are not compelled to congregate in the Robinson’s Arch area away from the Wall itself.
Now the organization is working to obtain permission to bring a Sefer Torah with them, for they claim without the Torah their service is lacking, incomplete. Officials from the organization explain that it is somewhat absurd – that they are permitted to read from a Sefer Torah but one cannot be handed to them from the men’s section and they may not bring their own. They hope to change this reality in the ongoing struggle, seeking permission to bring a Sefer Torah with them.
Kosel Rav Shmuel Rabinowitz explains that the policy prohibiting them from bringing a Torah or passing one from the men is not discriminatory, stating the policy exists to monitor the status of the Sifrei Torah and to prevent the theft of a Sefer Torah from the Kosel.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
17 Responses
whats going to be written in the sefer torah?
are they going to change everywhere where it says hu to he?
Its comical watching this story unfold. Reform jews who many don’t even believe in g-d want to pray at the site of our bais hamikdosh which they don’t want to return to & read from a Torah about the daily korbonos as well as those brought on shabbos & rosh chodesh a concept extremely foreign & even abhorant to those of the reform “faith” from the same torah that calls alternative lifestyles an abomination and commands not to eat pig. They don’t believe at all in torah sh’baal peh yet they wear tfillin which can only be derived from torah she’baal peh. I’m curious if this sefer torah going to be written properly which begs the same question where do they derive these halachos from if not torah she’baal peh. One more question, does the torah they read from on rosh chodesh say “tzav es bnei yisroel” or tzav es bnos yisroel”???
great and we will write special mitzvos just for them the 1st will lo selech acharei chukos hagoyim (nags come to mind anybody)its like the chilonim who try to manipulate chareidim to listen to their parents because of kibud av when the parents couldn’t care less about mitzvos
They should write their own Sefer Torah and change all male occurrences to female; like instead of Moshe Rabbenu they should change it to his wife Tzipporah; instead of Adam as the first human they should change it to Chava; instead of Bilaam they should change it to his wife Chamor.
How many Sifrei Torah have been stolen so far by being snuck out by way of the Ezrat Nashim?
Halevai it should only be torah she be’al peh that they dont believe in. Actually its also torah she bichtav also – how else would you explain not keeping shabbos etc. This whole thing is of course about an agenda
Let them write their own! How much is a cheap knockoff photocopy anyway? The kosel should NOT give them one to use. We need to argue pure & simple HALOCHA here even if they and the courts are against every bit of halocha.
There can’t even be a discussion because then it is open to interpretation by these tipshim in wow (they are NOT wow) or in the sheygitz Israel courts.
Do they know how to read?!
Good luck with that, they won’t even be getting into the women’s section for their monthly photo shoot. Not that they care.
They’ll just do like they did on Rosh Chodesh Av and stand facing the cameras shouting and screaming their “prayers”. Funny, all of klal Yisrael prays facing Har Habayis/east, yet these women elected to face north and the media instead. Wonder why?
Women have already written possul sifrei Torah. A “soferet”, Jen Taylor Friedman wrote an article defending the practice from a halachic perspective in Meorot, the online journal of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, an open modern Orthodox rabbinical school in New York City.
As far as I know these women write a complete sefer Torah, just choose to ignore parts as not keeping up with comtemporary times and morals. I would assume that the sifre Torah in the reform and conservative temples contain the posukin of Achrai Mos, despite their movements reversing the prohibitions contained in it. What do they lain Mincha on Yom Kipper since the laining is the antithesis of their religion?
For decades these women were a non-issue. They came once a month to daven, no one paid them any attention and the world continued to revolve on its axis.
What happened? After decades of sitting in the government the charedi parties found themselves banished to the benches of the opposition (how could this happen in a democracy?). As a result, the charedi power structure in E”Y started lashing out at everything that moved and, lo and behold, someone noticed this little band of women and started screaming ‘Gevald’. Eyes were rolled, hands were rung, pashkevillim were printed, inflammatory articles inflamed, mouths cursed, diapers were flung, every midah raah pranced into the public forum dressed in the finery of self-righteousness, the whole sad and predictable script was played out.
And as a result? The hitherto anonymous women gained fame, recognition, protection and support – even from those who wholeheartedly disagree with them. Case in point: the magistrates judge who keeps ruling in their favor is not only orthodox but an alumnus of Yeshivat Hevron.
Where will it end? – Sof Maaseh BeMachashavah Techillah.
they should bring one that will be ok they are are blank
Commentators, you are all missing the point. It is not about women reading from the Torah, wearing talis or wearing Tefillin. That’s between them and G-d to work out. All it is about is pushing their own agenda of “liberalizing” the kotel. And that is what we need to protest. They dont value tefillah — they use tefillah as a weapon. By “they” I refer to the leadership of wow.
#13. You are exacly right. If these women cared so much about the Kotel and Bais Hamikdash, why weren’t they there on T’ B’Av mourning? Just fakers looking for trouble and so is the hooligans throwing garbage in the Kotel Plaza. They are fakers too. Even worse, they make a hugh Chillul Hashem. These women know nothing and don’t want to know, the nuts among us should know better.
Why can’t they bring their own? Someone could give them a posul one and they’d never know. “Their” “tefillin” probably aren’t kosher, what do they care if they have a posul Torah?
You can buy a stuffed animal version at most US seforim stores albeit they might have to wait until simchas Torah for it to be back in stock. Would come in handy in case it falls down during a scuffle or some such.
Didnt anybody notice that there were several men standing together with the WOW group and it was so ludicrous: these ladies [?], decked out in tefillin and colorful “talesim” screaming and waving “prayer” books so the media could see, were accompanied by men praying WITHOUT tefillin. Cuckoo. Also, the tensions accelerated only when the political climate got heated up with Jew-baiting, and they were part of the campaign, not the result. eg Eggged has been providing free bus service Motzei Shabbos for years, never bothered to advertise to make clear that they expected to be reimbursed during the week. About half or more of the people I asked were not aware that they were expected to pay afterwards. Eged never bothered to publicize it! Now bec of the horrific hate-the-charedim-&-blame-the-for-everything atmosphere, all of a sudden Egged rememebers to come out with a whole SERIES of ads admonishing us to stop STEALING….They didnt even 1st try even 1 explanatory ad to see if that would work. So please dont blame the charedim for WOW. This group used to come & go, doing their Rosh Chodesh sing fests –until Anat Hoffman joined up with them. She is a POLITICIAN and has political motives. Doubt that she ever opened a siddur of any kind in the years before she decided to utilize this as a springboard for her agendas….