The words corruption and violence are certainly
not foreign to us as we listen to the news every day. The Boy Scouts of America just came out
publicly about the abuse that had been perpetrated by scout leaders on young
boys over several decades. An online search for the phrase “accused
of corruption” raises many examples of public officials who have ignored laws
for their personal gain.
Through a successful sting operation, the Federal Bureau
of Investigation caught a man from Bangladesh in his attempt to blow up the
Federal Reserve Bank of New York. This thwarted act of violence coincided
with the arrest of three people who set a Denver bar on fire, murdering five
people in the process. The motive
for setting the fire was covering up their robbery of the establishment. These are isolated incidents, but they
reflect aspects of human life
noted in Genesis Chapter 6 that
are still very much with us.
In Jerusalem, a woman who had been arrested
Tuesday night was strip-searched and detained overnight. She had not perpetrated corruption or
violence. She had not tried to
murder anyone. She did not attempt
a robbery. Anat Hoffman is a leader of Women of the Wall and Executive Director
of the Reform movement’s Israel Religious Action Center. Members of Women of the Wall were joined
by participants in the Hadassah Centennial convention for a Rosh Chodesh
service in the women’s section of the KOTEL, the Western Wall on Tuesday night.
The Women of the Wall know that Israeli law clearly states: “No religious ceremony shall be held in the women’s
section of the Western Wall. That includes holding or reading a Torah, blowing
the shofar (ram’s horn) or wearing tallitot (prayer shawls).”
Still, the Women of the Wall respond to this law with
a dedication to their mission, which is “to achieve the social and legal
recognition of our right, as women, to wear prayer shawls, pray, and read from
the Torah collectively and out loud at the Western Wall.”
This struggle has been going on
for years and seems to have no resolution. There have been arrests in previous Rosh Chodesh
services. In this case, the police
arrested Anat Hoffman for singing the Shema aloud. Uttering Judaism’s central prayer was the reason she was
taken. The arrest itself and the violent treatment in the police station
that followed for Anat Hoffman represent an unfortunate extreme to which the police have been building since they began detaining members of Women of the Wall.
There are many issues underlying this
conflict, but Tuesday’s incident demonstrates how a liberated Western Wall is
only free for some. Women who
want to pray together near the Western Wall should have a place where they can,
if they so desire, sing at the top of their lungs. With regards to the tallit, the Torah itself does not say
that only men should wear fringes or tassels on the corners of their clothing
to remember God’s commandments. Women
seem to be implicitly included. Even within rabbinic law, women can choose to
wear a tallit. Orthodox authorities
who have ruled that a woman should not wear a tallit “like a man” were stating
what I believe to be culturally-based opinions intended to preserve their
preferred status quo.
It is likely that this conflict
will continue for months or years to come. What may be needed is a flood of new thought, a fresh
perspective that will expand the rights of women and men on the Western side of
the Temple mount.
No matter how this is
resolved, there is one point on
which many people could likely agree – no one, man or woman, reciting the Shema
should be subjected to arrest or CHAMAS, violence. If we truly believe in being TZADIK, righteous, there
has to be a better way. May Jews
around the world come together to find a path that will lead to justice,
understanding and even unity.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment