Fresh off their recent success at attaining the Kotel deal, they are pressing on and not just sitting pat.
In a Facebook post on the Women of the Wall Facebook page, they put out an invitation for women to join them for the ceremony and all women from kohein families to participate.
Interestingly, they claim support from Leonard and Susan Nimoy for this. Leonard Nimoy is dead, so I am not sure how he can be giving his support for it, and he died well before this first-time-ever event will have happened (though perhaps he would have if he had been alive - I don't know).
The Birkat Kohanot is going to take place in the women's section of the Kotel (unless it gets stopped) rather than in the egalitarian section of the Kotel designated specially for them.
Also interestingly - I checked the calendar and discovered that the date of the Birkat Kohanot is going to be April 24, Sunday, the first day of Chol Hamoed Pesach. The regular Birkat Kohanim event is always on the first day of chol hamoed for "bnei chutz laaretz" - meaning on the second day of chol hamoed.
Thinking about that for a moment I came up with two thoughts:
1. they would probably have an even better event, from the perspective of drawing attention and creating a spectacle, and even from the perspective of equality I think if they would join the regular birkat kohanim event and have their kohanot join in and give the blessings to the plaza full of people rather than to the small number of people who will come just for their own event. I wonder why they are making a separate event.
2. The regular birkat kohanim does it on the second day of chol hamoed so bnei chutz laaretz can participate. For the Women of the Wall, there is probably no such thing as second day yom tov, as Reform Jews only keep one day of yom tov, even in chutz laaretz (most Reform Jews even keep just one day of Rosh Hashana). So they too are doing their event in a way that their bnei chutz laaretz can participate. This is another indication that the agenda of the WoW is being set by the Reform, despite the claims that they are not Reform but have Reform supporters and Reform people in the group.
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Mr. Spock has come back from the dead before....
ReplyDeletehttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088170/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
-LFD
Don't confuse issues. Mr. Spock would have declared these women illogical for dismissing the basic tenets of the faith while declaring themselves dedicated to it. Nimoy, on the other hand, enjoyed taking pictures of naked women wearing tefillin.
DeleteRestricting participation to women from families of Kohanim makes no sense. Everyone, except converts, have some ancestor who is a Kohen - and if we can "be kohanim" whether we are male or female, then they should also allow men and women to bestow the kehuna onto the next generation. So everyone is a Kohen.
ReplyDeleteHow can they time it to match the men's side? There's always a dozen different minyanim at different places in the davening.
ReplyDeletethere is a central birkat kohanim at specific times where all the men do it together. that is the main event, separate from what any specifi cminyan does. If I were a member of this group, I would tell the kohano tin my group that we to would put on the tallitot and turn around and bless the nation along with the men kohanim in the same ceremony
DeleteHow many times does it have to be publicized and stated that these women are part of an orchestrated agenda. This is the battle against Torah Judaism. That they are allowing this to continue shows how those in charge don't care or are part of it.
ReplyDelete