Chodesh tov to all! So this morning the Women of the Wall met to conduct services at the Wall. Sarah and I, and my sister-in-law, were among them. It was fascinating and wonderful.
To begin with I was shocked when we arrived at about 6:45 (services began at 7 AM) to see the entire men's side of the plaza in front of the wall completely filled! Given that this is Rosh Chodesh Elul which, of course, marks the beginning of the month in which the High Holy Days fall, perhaps I shouldn't have been so surprised. But I had never seen it like that.
At a few minutes before 7 many other members of the group arrived. We were situated at the very back of the women's section of the plaza in front of the Wall. There were two police officers (one male, one female) there and it turned out that they were there to PROTECT us. There were also about a dozen soldiers lined up on the men's side of the mechitza facing the men. It was not clear to me whether this was the norm or whether it had anything to do with our presence.
All in all, it was a remarkably -- and pleasantly so -- peaceful gathering. Unfortunately, the founder of the Women of the Wall, and head of the IRAC (Israel Religious Action Center) -- Anat Hoffman -- was not in attendance. Apparently she is speaking in Australia. However there were about 20 "regulars" and another 10 or so folks like us. The service was very traditional which was a bit of a challenge for me. We were asked to bring our own siddurim and I brought the rather newly published Koren Siddur, written by the Chief Rabbi of the UK. I expected that it would be a traditional service and this siddur follows that pattern -- but also has English translation. Frankly, I surprised myself that I was able to follow at all given the absence of page number announcements, etc. Although I did get lost several times, others were more than happy to help me find my place.
When it was time for the Torah service we walked -- and sang -- together with the Torah (which had been held outside of the area during the first part of the service) to Robinson's Arch. You may remember that it was carrying the Torah (closed) to the service at the Wall that got Anat arrested about a year ago and that led to the picture-taking effort in which so many of you participated. One young girl was celebrating her Bat Mitzvah and there was great joy, candy throwing, singing and dancing. One of the regulars noted that she was not wearing a tallit as she approached the Torah and offered hers. The young girl accepted and seemed to be beaming. Turns out that, pretty much, a Torah service is a Torah service is a Torah service -- so that was easier to follow as were the closing prayers (Aleinu, etc.). Then followed the kiddush which included -- much to Sarah's delight as she has become a fan of this -- Bomba!! Bomba is the Israeli junk food. It looks rather like cheese doodles but tastes like peanut butter. We will bring some home, although someone told Sarah that you can buy it at Wegmans. Nu?!!
In any case, many of you know how much I was looking forward to this experience and it did not disappoint. My sister-in-law wore a tallit for the first time in her life (she is exactly my age). She also engaged the police officer in conversation, thanking him for his assistance. He told her that, of course, what we were doing was in opposition to the ruling of the Supreme Court. Israel may be the only place in the world where it seems that people regularly IGNORE the rulings of the Supreme Court -- and policemen protect them while they do it!!! I understand that the degree of protection and or harassment offered varies with who the police officer(s) happen to be, but it was pretty clear that these folks saw their job as letting us do our "thing" with a minimum of disturbance.
We really didn't seem to attract too much attention until we began to sing. At that point we started to receive very disapproving looks from some of the very traditional (apparent from their dress) women. A few shouted at us saying things (in Hebrew, of course) like, sheket (quiet), or just sha. But we also heard "Shame on you," and similar things. The regulars either didn't respond or simply responded with a smile and a "Chodesh tov." Only two women approached the group and screamed in the face of the leader. The leader just kept going and shortly the male police officer got in front of the shouting woman and told her that we heard what she had to say and it was time to move on. Right before the conclusion of the part of the service that we conducted at the Wall (the Torah service was held around the corner at Robinson's Arch) a woman approached who was really screaming, "You are all garbage," "You should go pray in the mosque," etc. Interestingly, two young women -- also Orthodox from their dress -- approached her, put their arms around her and quieted her down and led her away! We heard nothing from the men's side. It did seem to me that when we began to sing, their singing got louder on the other side but that might have been a coincidence. Certainly they did not shout at us or throw chairs or anything else as has happened in the past.
On the positive side, there were quite a few women -- also clearly Orthodox -- who seemed interested in what we were doing. Again, everything was said in Hebrew but I did hear one exclaim to the other -- in a positive tone -- something about the "chazzanit" (female chazzan = cantor). A few stopped to listen to us and several smiled and wished us a Chodesh tov. I may have been imagining it but it seemed to me that I saw some wistfulness in the eyes of some of the younger women, almost like they were thinking, "Wow, I wish I could join you." BTW, many of the Women of the Wall (WOW) would freely identify themselves as Orthodox Jews. There were also about half a dozen men who had gathered right behind us and behind the screen which marks the division of the plaza considered to be a holy space and the much larger plaza behind it. These men joined us in prayer and accompanied us when we went to read Torah. Two of the men were rabbis -- one on sabbatical in Israel. I read an interesting reflection on the WOW website written by a Orthodox Rabbi who was endorsing the right of women to pray freely at the Wall. He had also attended one of the WOW services and stood behind the screen. He commented about how it made him reflect on what it must be like to be a woman in the women's section of an Orthodox synagogue needing to bob and weave in order to just catch sight of what is going on at the bima!!
Now for a bit about dinner last night. This will be of particular interest to those of you who were in Sharon Shafrir's Hebrew 101 class at MCC a couple of years ago. We went to Beit Ticho for dinner. This is a museum and a lovely restaurant (mostly outdoors) in what was the home of a Dr. Ticho who was an ophthalmologist and is credited with having saved the sight of countless Arabs by offering free treatment in his clinic. His wife, Anna, was a watercolor artist and the house is now a museum containing many of her creations. There is also a lovely outdoor restaurant. My sister-in-law had eaten there before but she wondered why I was so insistent that we have a meal there. It turns out that Beit Ticho was the subject of a fairly complex Hebrew exercise that we completed in the class mentioned above. I was not going to miss the chance to visit the place live!
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