Banning Shofar Blowing Reminiscent Of The British Mandate

In an interesting lawsuit the court in Jerusalem ruled that the police had the right to stop people from blowing the shofar on Rosh Hashana at the Kotel HaKotton.

The Kotel HaKotton, the "Little Kotel", is a stretch of wall further down in the Muslim Quarter that is an extension of the Kotel. The Kotel HaKotton is actually located much closer to the area of the Holy of Holies, the Kodesh Kodashim, and is a popular albeit fairly neglected, place of prayer for those "daring enough" to walk through the Muslim Quarter to get there.

This past Rosh Hashana during prayer services at the Kotel HaKotton, a fellow blew the shofar. A policeman who was in the area told him to stop. When he did not, the shofar was confiscated and the fellow was detained for a few hours and then slapped with a restraining order keeping him away from the area for 5 days.

This fellow then sued the police for damages resulted from wrongful arrest, theft of the shofar and other reasons.

The court ruled against the fellow and in favor of the police. You can read the entire 9 page court decision at the court website (like all Israeli government websites it only works in Internet Explorer). To be brief, it all boils down to the point that the area is a sensitive one and the police have to weigh freedom of religious expression versus public safety. Considering that the blowing of the shofar in that area could upset the Muslims and create a dangerous situation, the police have the right to limit the religious expression.

This decision is very similar to the decision used by the police to limit prayer, to ban prayer actually, on Har HaBayit. The courts defended the rights of Jews to pray on Har HaBayit as aright of religious expression, while at the same time giving the police the power to choose to overrule that and limit prayer based on issues of public safety.

It is a shame that the police use such outdated methods instead of controlling the potential violence. We should be sensitive to the history of the place, that being that the British banned the blowing of the shofar for those very same reasons, while we have turned those who blew the shofar despite the ban into heroes, not just religious heroes but national heroes as well for standing up to the British. And for our own authorities to now be enforcing a similar ban due to similar concerns is perhaps an expression of the once expressed dream to be a nation like any other.


Our authorities should allow such activities, while working to maintain control and keep the peace. Without getting into legal arguments, as the courts made the legal decisions, it seems from a more national perspective it is in our interests to not limit Jewish expression the way other governments in history tried to.