[VIDEO IN EXTENDED ARTICLE]
Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett visited the Kosel and the new Ezrat Yisrael section in his capacity as minister of religious services. The new section was announced by Bennett earlier in the week, working with the Prime Minister’s Office and the Jewish Agency for Israel to establish the area intended to accommodate 450 people wishing to take part in tefilos in which men and women are not separated, a “third Kosel area” as he puts it.
To Bennett’s dismay, the Women of the Wall organization was quick to reject the new Ezrat Yisrael area, announcing a 24-hour Kosel sit-in to highlight their disapproval of the concept. Nevertheless, Bennett is not backing down for he explains this give WoW and others wishing such a service an option by the Kosel without challenging the gender separated areas that have existed at the Kosel over the years.
In his video message, Bennett attempts to highlight the historical significance of the area selected in an apparent effort to persuade Women of the Wall to accept the compromise solution.
Click HERE to watch this video on a mobile device.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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15 Responses
how can someone who doesn’t act religious, be the Minister of Religion ?
The real ezras yisroel has a mechitza running through it.
wow, so according to Bennet, the kosel does not welcome all Jews, only the non separated part.
And this guy is the ‘religious minster’
אשר יגורתי – בא. Instead of continuing to ignore the WoW, charedi hotheads started protesting and disturbing the peace – and the result is a mixed section at the Kotel. A handful of anonymous women have just achieved a victory that they could never have dreamed of until recently – all thanks to charedi violence and shortsighted self-righteousness. What a fiasco.
The minister of religious services who lives with a secular wife is to decide which part of a religious site is to be given to a handful of reform women. Only in Israel… LOL!
I would be very hesitant to discourage any woman from coming to the Kosel.
Imagine if Chana, the mother of Shmuel, would have turned around and go home, when she realized that Eily Hakohen was not pleased by what she was doing.
Its already Kolu Kol Haketzim, 2000 Years, and there is absolutely no sign, that our efforts and Maasim, are accomplishing anything to finally bring the Ge’ulah Shleimo.
It’s an empty offer that Bennet is making. Nobody wants to pray in a place that is empty and lonely. You have to realize that this egalitarian area is going to be empty most of the time, and poorly attended at the best of times. There won’t be any spiritual component. They need people around, and, life being the way it is, the only people that are at the Kosel rain or shine, hot or cold, are people that want nothing to do with them. Ironically, they want to parasitize our tefillos.
#5***** And don’t forget Shlomo Hamelech with hundreds of secular wives was nevertheless the builder of the Bet Hamikdash.
If ur brazen enough to compare to shlomo hamelech then. Copy everything he did. What atravesrty
I’m brazen? Why, because it’s the truth? You obviously don’t allow the truth even if it’s from the Torah.
Travesty or not, it’s my rebuttal to the guy ahead of me who’s obsessing over Bennett’s wife.
Do u equate the actions of aking who wad an eved hashem to that of a rasha is that your version of “torah truth”?
Which sefer did benett write that chazal called kodesh kodshim how idiotic can u b ?
Solomon was a different story. He needed to marry Bas Paroh So that Mitzryim should protect the Yidden. But they both overslept and nobody could get into the Bais Hamikdosh. She was always busy with her Avoida Zoros. It was a very sad situation.
Chana did nothing wrong.
Eli HaKohen mistakenly thought that Chana was drunk.
When she explained to him that she was not drunk and for what she was praying,
he blessed her that G-d should give her what she’s asking for; and B”H she became the mother of Shmuel HaNavi.
Chana prayed quietly. She was the epitome of Tznius, modesty, and she did not sing in public in front of men and did not put on Talis and Tefilin in public for secular feminism, to be “equal with men.”
Give the guy a break. He is trying to solve an issue which has created a Chillul Hashem, with too many instances of bad behavior.
Other issues with Bennett should not have a bearing on this specific issue.