Armed with a strong need to redeem myself after my "Future Cantor Gets Kicked Off Bima" episode from Budapest, I was grateful to have the opportunity to join up with the Women of the Wall (WOW) early last Wednesday morning. This controversial feminist group meets at the Western Wall at the beginning of each Hebrew month to commemorate "Rosh Chodesh," which literally means "new month" in Hebrew. I was not so grateful that I had to leave my apartment at 6:30am in order to make it to the service on time, especially given the fact that I was still waaaaay behind on sleep thanks to my overnight flight from Budapest. However, I was not going to miss a chance to sing with an empowered group of women at the holiest of holy Jewish sites -- especially since we heard Anat Hoffman (the founder of WOW) give a dynamic and inspiring speech at HUC just a few weeks ago.
Anat's lecture about the group's success in the face of adversity reminded me of the egalitarian Havdalah ceremony that some of my former JTS classmates held on the Kotel Plaza last semester. I remember being surprised that nobody tried to stop us from singing together as a mixed congregation. When I asked Anat if our experience was an anomaly, her answer was that it's all about the timing -- a Saturday night in early fall is apparently not a busy time at the Kotel. However, an early Rosh Chodesh morning service tends to draw a large crowd that oftentimes is especially religious.
Indeed, that is exactly what we faced on that sunny Wednesday morning. The good news, however, is that the crowd of WOW women nearly outnumbered the men on the other side of the mechitza. This was mainly because a large contingent of American Reform Rabbis were in town for a conference. In fact, there were so many women for this month's WOW service that we attracted quite a bit of media coverage. Check out the following:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3677558,00.html
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1067028.html
Ironically enough, the people we offended the most were women! I think that the women guarding the "sanctity" of the Kotel were trying to "protect" the men that abide by Kol Isha, which means that they won't listen to a woman sing. But the more people yelled at us, the louder we sang. The service turned into a cacaphony of shouting and screaming, and I loved every minute of it.
I honestly don't understand why people were making such a fuss -- the service was carefully structured so that none of what was going on at the wall interfered with halacha (ie, Jewish Law). As somewhat of a compromise, WOW agrees not to read Torah at the wall -- instead, that part of the service takes place at Robinson's Arch, located just a short walk away at the southern wall excavations. They brought in a Torah carefully carried in a duffel bag (see below), and conducted the full Torah service for Rosh Chodesh. Groups of people were called to the Torah for aliyot; the first aliyah was given to Rabbis, the second to Rabbinical and cantorial students (yay!), the third was given to all of the original founders of WOW, and the fourth was given to the lovely woman who led the service back at the Kotel. If there had been a fifth, it might have very well been given to the men who came to show their support for our cause. We actually had quite a few of them, between the Reform Rabbis at the conference, the significant others of some of the women in attendance, and several other supporters.
Note the matching tallitot that some of the women are wearing in the pictures -- it's the official WOW tallit, specially made for the group to help them gain funding (the matching Torah cover was a recent gift to the group, and this marked the first occasion in which it was used!) I should mention that the fact that many women were wearing tallit and tefillin was one of the points of contention we faced back at the Kotel. The guards kept telling us that it was "forbidden" for women to don such ritual objects. However, if there's one thing I learned at JTS last semester, there is actually nothing that explicitly prevents women from doing as such. Yes, tallit and tefillin traditionally lie in the male domain, but prominent historical women such Saul's daughter Michal were thought to have used them as well. Here's an interesting article from United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism on the subject, as well as an excerpt:
Rabbinic discussion of women wearing tefillin begins with a passage from the Mekhilta, an early midrash on Exodus: “All are obligated in tefillin except for women and slaves. Michal daughter of Saul wore tefillin, the wife of Yonah went up to Jerusalem for festivals, and Tabi, the slave of R. Gamaliel, wore tefillin.” There is a contradiction: Women and slaves are not obligated to wear tefillin but Michal and Tabi did wear them. We are told neither why nor what we are to learn. Are we to conclude that women and slaves may wear tefillin? Were these two permitted to do something that normally would have been forbidden?
The Palestinian Talmud adds the words “and the sages did not protest,” suggesting that women are indeed permitted to wear tefillin. Then it raises an objection – if the mitzvah does not apply to women then it should be forbidden to them! Rabbi Abahu emends the text to read “and the sages did protest.” The Babylonian Talmud, though, sees no such contradiction. It ends the story of Michal with “the sages did not protest.”
My thought is that if "the sages did not protest," why must modern society protest? I have my own reasons for not being comfortable wearing Tefillin, but I've learned to wear my beautiful new Tallit with pride. And while the Reform and Conservative movements have embraced the concept of women wearing tallitot for a long time, I've noticed an increasing number of Orthodox women doing the same. Shakespeare wrote "methinks the lady doth protest too much," but I think it applies just as much to the gentlemen!
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3677558,00.html
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1067028.html
Ironically enough, the people we offended the most were women! I think that the women guarding the "sanctity" of the Kotel were trying to "protect" the men that abide by Kol Isha, which means that they won't listen to a woman sing. But the more people yelled at us, the louder we sang. The service turned into a cacaphony of shouting and screaming, and I loved every minute of it.
I honestly don't understand why people were making such a fuss -- the service was carefully structured so that none of what was going on at the wall interfered with halacha (ie, Jewish Law). As somewhat of a compromise, WOW agrees not to read Torah at the wall -- instead, that part of the service takes place at Robinson's Arch, located just a short walk away at the southern wall excavations. They brought in a Torah carefully carried in a duffel bag (see below), and conducted the full Torah service for Rosh Chodesh. Groups of people were called to the Torah for aliyot; the first aliyah was given to Rabbis, the second to Rabbinical and cantorial students (yay!), the third was given to all of the original founders of WOW, and the fourth was given to the lovely woman who led the service back at the Kotel. If there had been a fifth, it might have very well been given to the men who came to show their support for our cause. We actually had quite a few of them, between the Reform Rabbis at the conference, the significant others of some of the women in attendance, and several other supporters.
Note the matching tallitot that some of the women are wearing in the pictures -- it's the official WOW tallit, specially made for the group to help them gain funding (the matching Torah cover was a recent gift to the group, and this marked the first occasion in which it was used!) I should mention that the fact that many women were wearing tallit and tefillin was one of the points of contention we faced back at the Kotel. The guards kept telling us that it was "forbidden" for women to don such ritual objects. However, if there's one thing I learned at JTS last semester, there is actually nothing that explicitly prevents women from doing as such. Yes, tallit and tefillin traditionally lie in the male domain, but prominent historical women such Saul's daughter Michal were thought to have used them as well. Here's an interesting article from United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism on the subject, as well as an excerpt:
Rabbinic discussion of women wearing tefillin begins with a passage from the Mekhilta, an early midrash on Exodus: “All are obligated in tefillin except for women and slaves. Michal daughter of Saul wore tefillin, the wife of Yonah went up to Jerusalem for festivals, and Tabi, the slave of R. Gamaliel, wore tefillin.” There is a contradiction: Women and slaves are not obligated to wear tefillin but Michal and Tabi did wear them. We are told neither why nor what we are to learn. Are we to conclude that women and slaves may wear tefillin? Were these two permitted to do something that normally would have been forbidden?
The Palestinian Talmud adds the words “and the sages did not protest,” suggesting that women are indeed permitted to wear tefillin. Then it raises an objection – if the mitzvah does not apply to women then it should be forbidden to them! Rabbi Abahu emends the text to read “and the sages did protest.” The Babylonian Talmud, though, sees no such contradiction. It ends the story of Michal with “the sages did not protest.”
My thought is that if "the sages did not protest," why must modern society protest? I have my own reasons for not being comfortable wearing Tefillin, but I've learned to wear my beautiful new Tallit with pride. And while the Reform and Conservative movements have embraced the concept of women wearing tallitot for a long time, I've noticed an increasing number of Orthodox women doing the same. Shakespeare wrote "methinks the lady doth protest too much," but I think it applies just as much to the gentlemen!
At the end, we all broke into a racous chorus of a song called "Mishenichas Adar," a song meant to welcome the Hebrew month of Adar. Adar is considered to be such a joyful month because it is marked by the festive celebration of Purim. I have since heard the song many, many more times over the course of the past month. My own Purim celebration was marked by parades, parties, feasts, costumes, and more. I'll post pictures soon, I promise!!
2 comments:
Sounds like a wonderful and meaningful event! It makes me wonder why some men are guarding those traditional garments? Why would they feel threatened by women wearing them? I didn't know about WOW. Great photos too.
Wow for WOW!! This sounds like such an amazing experience!
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