The Women fo the Wall should feel fairly safe now when they go to daven at the Kotel. That is, as long as they go in the middle of the day - not early morning and not during the night.
Why is that?
The Yated Neeman ran a notice for the Rabbinic Committee for Transportation with an update on the proper way to travel to the Kotel. The notice says that the #1 bus line from the Central Bus Station is full of prutzot, so that is out. Even the #2 bus line that runs through the haredi neighborhoods is a problem, as it is not mehadrin and women are only allowed to get on at the front, causing tzniyus problems.
The only mehadrin solution is the #3 bus line, but that only operates in the haredi northern neighborhoods of Jerusalem. if you are going from any of those neighborhoods, you should use that line.
The notice then goes on to call upon the public to treat the #2 bus as much as possible like a mehadrin line and have then sit in front and women in back, and create facts on the ground as much as possible.
Organizations, yeshivas, and schools should only travel to the Kotel via private transport and not use the public system [because of the problems noted above].
The notice concludes with a warning regarding the Kotel Plaza, stating that because the plaza area is busy at all times of the day with people of all types from all around the country, making it difficult to control the tzniyus situation in the plaza area, and it is practically impossible to pass through the plaza area without transgressing a prohibition (Lo Sasuru), all God-fearing people should be careful and try to only go to the Kotel during the early morning hours or the late evening hours.
Is that an acceptable solution? Divide the Kotel. They take the Kotel during early morning and late evening, and everyone else gets it for the bulk of the day.. It might solve the problem of the fightng with the Women of the Wall. They just need to go to the Kotel a little bit later and there should be nobody around to fight with them. that is, if anybody listens to this committee.
Ki Baisi Bais Tfilla Yikarey LÇhol HAmim
ReplyDeleteAm I missing something? Wasn't the average public just as not-tzanua 10 years ago? And hasn't the number 2 bus been an ordinary regular bus for over 20 years?
ReplyDeleteAAAAAAAH!
I don't think I'm saying this because I'm Charedi myself, but the WotW have no right to pray in an unconventional fashion ie wearing a tallis. If they can be permitted to with no basis in Judaism other than their desire to be equal, then I'm as if not more justified in my desire to resume ritual slaughter at the Kosel, which does actually have a grounding in Judaism.
ReplyDeleteSince ritual slaughter is not the done thing, it isn't allowed. I understand that, so I don't insist on serving Hashem in my preferred way.
(This is fictitious, but you see what I'm getting at)
I did not mention WoW because I support them. I do not. I think they are being provocative and they are wrong, along with breaking the court decision/compromise that allocated space to them in the southern area so they would not be a provocation.
ReplyDeleteI was just using them because they were recently in the news, so I was being humorous at their expense.
I think it's time to find a new place for the most fanatic of our brethren. Increasingly they showing us that they do not want to live among the rest of humanity. Uganda anyone?
ReplyDeleteMenachem - Women of the Wall, or the people who put out the notice?
ReplyDeleteMay I venture to say that this type of thinking could be why chas v'sholom once again the Kotel will fall under foreign regulation (as it presently stands, Jordan once again may be the occupy force for much of the eastern part of Jerusalem!
ReplyDelete