Kosel Rav Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz Shlita responded to the Women of the Wall (WoW), who arrived at the Kosel on Sunday morning, the first day of Chol Hamoed Pesach 5776.
The women could not do the Birchas Kohanos as they planned, for Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit prohibited it. They did however recite the pesukim without placing tallitot over their heads or raising their arms as kohanim do. They were also blocked from the ezras noshim, compelled to hold their provocative service in a cordoned off area outside the ezras noshim.
Rabbi Rabinowitz stated “Pesach is the yomtov marking the great victory of Jewish tradition and the fact that we have maintained the minhagim of our fathers by connecting to our roots. It is painful to see how this small group which is trying to forge a new path for itself prefers over and over again to attack this achdus and our heritage and its symbols…”
Rabbi Rabinowitz attended the meeting with Mandelblit, during which he explained for the women, it is not a religious ceremony but a political one, adding there is no premise in halacha for Birchas Kohanim.
Rabbi Rabinowitz expressed his appreciation for the attorney general’s decision to prohibit the event and expressed sorrow that WoW preferred to break their promise and not adhere to the agreement.
Rav Rabinowitz calls on Am Yisrael to join in the main Birchas Kohanim which is scheduled to take place on 2 Chol Hamoed Pesach on Monday, 17 Nissan at 9:15AM and 10:15AM. Shachris begins at 8:45AM and Musaf at 10:15PM.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
A strange practice for an organization which professes equality. Don’t the leviot and yisraeliot feel left out?
Did they change the pasuk to yishmiraich?
What about the bracha, are they admitting to the kedusha of Aharon? Perhaps they should focus more on Elisheva?
these anti-Israel, anti-religious Hellenists should be permanently banned from holding their media circus at the Kotel!
Let us not be fooled by these women.
They are not there to promote awareness of God, nor to promote Jewish mitzvah observance rather they are there to tear down Judaism and replace it with Western secularism.