Israeli court: Women can wear prayer shawls while worshiping at the Western Wall

[AsheDina]

Israeli court: Women can wear prayer shawls while worshiping at the Western Wall


http://www.salon.com/2013/04/26/israeli_court_women_can_wear_prayer_shawls_while_worshipping_at_the_western_wall/

[Spiraling Leopard]

Can they not wear burkas instead?

[Dr. Dan]

Wait, they were "arrested for wearing prayer shawls."? 

I don't think so. They were arrested for disrupting men and women who wanted to pray.  Prayer shawls have nothing to do with it..

[muman613]

Wait, they were "arrested for wearing prayer shawls."? 

I don't think so. They were arrested for disrupting men and women who wanted to pray.  Prayer shawls have nothing to do with it..

Actually it does have to do with prayer shawls, called Tallit... Jewish law requires men to wear a tallit, a garment with four fringes on the corners. It is a commandment for men only, and women are forbidden from wearing them due to the commandment prohibiting men from wear womens, and women from wearing mens clothing...

Here is a better explanation from IsraelNationalNews...

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/167484#.UXrotEBDtok
Court Sides with Provocation-Causing Women of Wall
Women who read Bible scroll with tallit not violating court ruling, says judge. MK Lavie agrees.

A District Court judge ruled Thursday that the Women of the Wall are not violating a High Court ruling when they pray with tallit prayer shawls and read from Torah scrolls in the women's section of the Kotel Plaza.

Halakhically, the ruling depends on the specific question. There are rabbis who permit women to use prayer accessories that are traditionally worn by men and to read from the Torah, but it is against halakha for women to recite a blessing before or after the Torah reading and women cannot make up a quorum for reciting Kaddish and Kedusha responsively.

However, Jerusalem District Court Judge Moshe Sobel said that the State is interpreting the High Court ruling in the wrong way, and that the policy of arresting the women is unwarranted.

MK Aliza Lavie (Yesh Atid), who heads the Knesset's Committee for Advancement of Women's Status, reacted to the ruling and said, "All along the way, I said that the court's rulings must be obeyed. The ruling handed down today means that there has been unwarranted cruelty toward the Kotel Women as they prayed, for years."

"Let me make clear – this is not a halakhic issue at all but a legal one, and in view of the new ruling, the Israel Police must refrain from arrests," she claimed.

Lavie asked the Attorney General to give a clear opinion on the matter. "We will not allow the creation of unnecessary confusion, whose ramifications will increase the discord and confrontation," she said.

The women, who come one day a month, offend the regular daily worshipers at the Wall, where the rules have always been - since the Wall was returned to Jewish hands in 1967 - that prayers are held in traditional fashion, with some of the liturgy and melodies varying, depending on the origin of those praying. Hundreds of thousands of Jews who came from all over the world, Yemenites, Moroccans, Iraqi, Indian,Ethiopian and others, pray with different melodies and order of prayers, but identify and adhere to the rules without question.

At the head of the Women of the Wall is Anat Hoffman, a Reform Jew, who therefore does not adhere to the Oral halakha as set down in the Talmud and Shulkhan Arukh (Code of Jewish Law). Some of the women who accompany her are observant Jews, but feminist in their attitude to prayer customs.

Ms. Hoffman told the BBC recently that the issue of prayer at the Wall is the first step in a plan to have Conservative and Reform movements obtain official rights in Israel to perform marriages, grant divorces and conversion according to their customs. These will not be recognized by observant Jews, no matter what the government rules.

[Lewinsky Stinks, Dr. Brennan Rocks]

I'd like these feminazis to go and see how openly they can pray at the Kaaba rock. Let's see how the authorities there tolerate these shenanigans.

[muman613]

This phenomenon 'women of the wall' is a very troubling one. Jewish women are an invaluable asset to the Jewish people. Unlike other religions which seek to demean and lower the status of women in society, Judaism holds the women in high esteem and grants her many opportunities to improve herself and the world. I would not, like WFTMPTC, compare our treatment of women to the abominable practices of the muslims. Rather I would like to point out how foolish these women are for their attempt to bend Jewish laws and customs to their misplaced desires.

I can understand due to my experiences with women in my life that they sometimes feel the world is 'misogynistic' or biased against the woman. To some women the world seems like a place they must suffer and have little hope for advancement. And many cultures impose this suffering upon them. So too I have heard it said that Judaism is 'patriarchal' or a system where the father is the master, relegating the mother to a subservient role. I have heard this said from my very mother when she learned I was making Teshuva, and becoming more observant.

So let me say I commiserate with these women who hold such feelings. It must be terrible to feel like a second class citizen who's desire to perform mitzvot are limited. I have worn tzit-tzits under my shirt for almost seven years now, and it is a mitzvah which I cherish. If I was a woman I don't know how I would feel if I could not perform it. But then I would be bound to a different set of mitzvot. And if I was a woman I would have to cherish the mitzvot I was given.

It is my approach, and I hope others can adopt it, that we should try to stand firm in the customs and laws of our fathers. I will not daven in a minyan which mixes men and women, always with a mehitzah between us. I do not approve of women wearing the prayer garments of men, neither tallit or yarmulke or of women reading Torah before men. I associate with a shul which does those things, but I do not daven there.

I hope that we can bring these women to understand the folly in their attempting to act and daven like a man. It is not misogyny but rather it is an appreciation that we are different. Women must daven, and they should have the same kevanah (intention) as men do when they daven. Some mystical sources say women are on a higher spiritual plane than men are, and their prayers and tears go straight to heaven. But they should also give space to the men, to be with the men so they can daven without distraction. This is called harmony, and we should work together to achieve it.

[Spiraling Leopard]

I wouldn't call these ugly trolls 'women'.

[Kahane-Was-Right BT]

Evil decision