Jerusalem, 4 November, 2021 (TPS) — The Women of the Wall group intends to hold prayer services at the Western Wall Plaza on Friday in honor of the Jewish “Rosh Chodesh” holiday. Former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the orthodox Jewish leadership stand opposed to them. And, as usual, the police are gearing up to deal with possible violent reactions.
Rosh Chodesh is the first of a new Hebrew month and the group has traditionally held a separate prayer service at the Wall on this day.
Friday is the first day of the Hebrew month Kislev. The Women of the Wall is an egalitarian group that holds mixed prayer services where there is no partition of any kind separating the men from the women. The group also allows women to take part in the prayer services.
On Rosh Chodesh there is a special reading from the Tora. In Orthodox Jewish law, only men are allowed to read from the Tora scroll during religious services or to be called to the Tora to make a blessing over the reading. And only men are allowed to lead a prayer service.
The Women of the Wall allow women to do all of this at their service. They also include many women who wear both phylacteries and the prayer shawl, a Tallit that only men wear in the Orthodox world.
They have been fighting for years to win the right to hold their own services at the Wall. But the Orthodox Rabbinate has authority there and does not allow for mixed services. It also prohibits women from even holding a Tora scroll.
In recent years they have called the police to stop women from entering the Plaza area with a Tora scroll. There have also been many acts of violence committed against the women.
The current coalition government of Israel is led by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s Yamina Party. This party was originally formed when right-wing and religious parties, including the old National Religious Party, merged to form the Jewish Home party in 2008. The more conservative factions left and the party became part of Yamina in 2019.
Its members are not expected to support drastic changes to Israel’s status quo, such as the establishment of secular marriage or the end of the official national rabbinate. But Yamina has already agreed to the passage to reforms of Israel’s system of kashrut supervision.
As for mixed prayers at the Wall, it is not clear, as of yet, if such reforms will become an issue for the government. It’s more left-wing members such as the Meretz and Labor parties have gone on record as supporting such changes and ending orthodox control of Jewish religious practice in Israel, at least to some degree.
The Likud Party, and its leader Benjamin Netanyahu, however, have relied on the support of the Haredi (ultra-orthodox) political parties in forming coalition governments. These parties stood squarely behind Netanyahu through the past four elections, including this past one where they refused any offer to join a government without him.
Now, the Likud is concerned that with the successful passage of a new state budget, the first in more than three years, the Haredi parties might be swayed into supporting the coalition. These parties are already concerned with the loss of funding to their institutions that can be stopped should they join the government.
So it comes as no surprise to political observers that Netanyahu has taken the side of the Haredi community on the issue.
A few hours ago Netanyahu retweeted comments made by the Haredi Shas Party leader Aryeh Deri calling on people to join him in protest tomorrow against the Women of the Wall.
“Tomorrow, Friday, Rosh Chodesh Kislev, at 7 a.m., I and dozens of Knesset members will arrive to pray at the Western Wall Remnant of our Temple,” read the Tweet.
Deri went on to call on “everyone for whom the sanctity of the Western Wall is important to come and pray with us so that God forbid the holy place will not be desecrated.”
The current opposition includes the newly formed Religious Zionist Party that succeeded in gaining election to the Knesset for the first time in the elections last June. This party holds a conservative line on religious issues more in keeping with the old National Religious Party. It also opposes changes to the status quo at the Western Wall.
Several opposition MKS, including members of Netanyahu’s Likud party, have said that they will be there tomorrow in support of the opponents of the Women of the Wall.
Gilad Kariv is a member of the Knesset from the coalition’s Labor party. He is also a Reform rabbi and the Reform supports women’s equality in religious practice, ordains women as rabbis and its organization supports allowing for egalitarian Jewish services at the Wall.
MK Kariv has already had a number of confrontations with his fellow Knesset members from the Haredi parties. He tweeted earlier tonight a response to Aryeh Deri.
“Is it time to mention that Aryeh Deri agreed to the outline of the Western Wall,” he asked sarcastically, “that his brother signed a coalition agreement on behalf of the Shas movement in the national institutions that include the Reform and Conservatives, and that his son serves in the leadership of the Zionist movement Nablus to Nablus with the leaders of the Reform movement and the Conservative movement?”
“Or is it better to wait after Rosh Chodesh?” added Kariv.
He also called Netanyahu a hypocrite for repeating Aryeh Deri’s call for help at the Western Wall on Friday and threatened to reveal things that Netanyahu aid about the Haredim behind closed doors.
“Immediately after (Ra’am party leader) Mansour Abbas finishes telling about all of Netanyahu’s promises to the Ra’am,” said Kariv, “I will begin to talk about everything that Netanyahu told us [his party] about the conduct of the ultra-Orthodox establishment at the Western Wall and in general.”
