not a Haredi attempt at control

YNet reported an incident in which:

Rivkah Luvitch filed the appeal following the death of her father, Israel Prize
Laureate Charles Liebman, a renowned sociologist. Luvitch sought to deliver her
father's eulogy but when she started to approach the microphone in the funeral
home a representative from the burial society blocked her path and told her that
"in Petah Tikva women do not eulogize." The guidelines were referred to as 'the
Jerusalem practice.'

The case was brought to the Supreme Court who ruled that such a separation of sexes and not allowing women to eulogize is religious coercion and discrimination and therefore illegal. If a woman wishes to eulogize, the burial society must allow her to do so.

I am not going to discuss the actual ruling of allowing women to eulogize. I, personally, see nothing wrong with it. The gemara discusses the situation of the times then that women were professional wailers and lamenters at funerals (they would get paid to do so when necessary), so the issues of tznius do not bother me in this situation. There are other gemaras that say that a woman in her time of sorrow or distress is not enticing, specifically I remember the gemara regarding sotah that the woman would have her hair uncovered and her shirt torn in the middle of the Beis HaMikdash. the gemara discusses how that could be as it is immodest, and the gemara says that a woman in such a situation would not cause improper thoughts among the people, as she is in distress and sorrow.

It also does not bother me to not allow women to eulogize. That is the custom and has been so for hundreds of years, and in Petach Tikva it has been so since its inception in 1878.

Whichever way they go with this will be fine with me.

I do want to mention that a number of blogs, including FailedMessiah, have taken this as another opportunity to bash the Haredim as trying to change the system and ban women from eulogizing. They, supposedly, have found this as another method of controlling society to act according to their own whims.

I protest such blatant anti-religious/anti-Haredi claims. His criticism is based on false assumptions, and I so commented on Fialed Messiah's post .

There are many unusual customs associated with "Minhagei Yerushalayim" - the customs of Jerusalem. They include nto allowing children of the deceased to the cemetary at a funeral, light shabbos candles 40 minutes prior to sunset on Friday, not saying v'shamru in the Friday night prayers, saying Sim Shalom in the Saturday afternoon prayers instead of Shalom Rav, along with many other customs. Another such custom was to not allow women to eulogize.

I do not know how these customs came about. They are generally, though not always, associated with the Vilna Gaon customs, as his students came to the Holy Land in the mid-1800's and established their customs as primary customs for the land, well before the establishment of the State.

Why these customs took root, I do not know. Specifically regarding the custom of women not eulogizing, I have no idea how it began. Maybe 200 years ago it was a form of suppresion, as women were generally suppresed back then. I do not know. Maybe it has halachic sources aside from social ones. I do not know.

I do want to say though that Petah Tikva was founded in 1878 by expatriates of Jerusalem. When they founded Petah Tikva, they established the town with the customs of Jerusalem, including all the minhagei Yerushalayim.

They light candles 40 minutes before sunset on friday, they skip "v'shamru" and all the rest of the minhagim. Petah Tikva is the city with the closest association to Yerushalayim of any other in the sense of its minhagim.

The Rabbonim leading the burial society who stopped Ms. Luvitch from eulogizing her father were not attempting to wrest control of society into Haredi hands. They were adhering to customs that have been in effect for 150 years or maybe even more. They were keeping the status quo and it was Ms. Luvitch who was, probably without her knowledge, trying to change the system.

Many of these customs are in the process of change, as modern society sees things differently than when the customs were established. I have been to many funerals where the children attended even at the cemetary, for example. The burial societies are more sensitive to the people's needs and do not always enforce the customs.

This specific custom in question is clearly on the chopping block and will be naturally phased out, speeded up with the aid of the current Supreme Court decision.

Again, the specific custom does not bother me. Either it will hold up or it will go the way of other customs that have fallen. I protest the grab of every opportunity to bash the Haredim, especially when it is baseless.