The Women of the Wall held their monthly Rosh Chodesh services at the Kotel today. By now this should pass almost unnoticed and should definitely not be noteworthy in any way. However, they altered their service, somewhat.

As part of their Rosh Chodesh davening the Women of the Well performed a Birkat Kohanot ceremony - the same one they were legally prevented from performing during their Pesach Chol Hamoed services.

The women were cordoned off and protected during their services, and opponents were kept away by the police. People describe the event as being hurtful and the level of degradation suffered being indescribably painful.

The women's argument in response is a bit strange. They claim a difference between Chol Hamoed services with Birkat Kohanot and Rosh Chodesh services. They said "the letter from the Ministry of Religious Services related to the Birkat Kohanot ceremony on Chol Hamoed Pesach. It is not at all similar to the Birkat Kohanot that takes place during the Rosh Chodesh davening. The Rosh Chodesh prayers are prayers that are not under dispute in any way.

Do they mean their holding Rosh Chodesh services are not under dispute, while Pesach services are? Meaning, because the opponents have lost on that point, the dispute no longer exists?

Or, does it mean the existence of the Birkat Kohanot ceremony during Rosh Chodesh services is not under dispute but during Pesach services it is? Why would that be? Where do we ever see a ceremony of Birkat Kahanot, anywhere, ever, that they could make such a statement with a straight face? Are they really trying to claim that everyone agrees and is fine with with the Birkat Kohanot ceremony on Rosh Chodesh? Maybe it was never disputed because it was not announced in advance so nobody had time to dispute it.

It is a bit of a crazy and senseless response.

One thing that is clear is that had they not announced the Birkat Kohanot event of Pesach in advance, they most likely would have gotten away with it. Sometimes it is best to keep quiet, unless the real goal is to make noise and not necessarily hold the event.

source: Kikar

The Attorney General of Israel, Avihai Mandelblit, has put an end to what was surely going to become both a spectacle, a ridiculous event, a provocation and fight. Mandelblit said that the Biirkat Kohanot event is not one recognized as a religious event because it is unknown and has never happened before and therefore has also never happened before at the Kotel.

So, in accordance with the laws and directives protecting the Jewish holy sites, this cannot be deemed a religious event and cannot take place at the Kotel.
source: Behadrei

whew. a fight over a stupid made-up event is the last thing we need.

I wonder if they will relocate it to a local synagogue or to the egalitarian platform, and then try in future years to get it approved, as by then it will have already happened and they might be able to claim it then as a religious event.

The show must go on!

The Women of the Wall reently announced an event that will take place during Pesach and called upon all women to join. They will be havnig a "birkat khanot" event, in an attempt to copy the mass birkat kohanim event that takes place at the Kotel every Chol Hamoed. The birkat kohanot will have female kohanot bless the crowds.

This event is entirely made up and based on nothing. Unlike the issues of davening, wearing tallis and tefillin, reading from the Torah, where these are mitzvos and one can debate whether women shoyuld or should not perform them even if not commanded to, this is absolutely nothing and has no basis in the Torah.

An appeal was filed by the organization "Btzedek" with the Supreme Court to put a halt to this event, calling it nothing but a provocation.

Today the Supreme Court rejected the petition and decided that the show must go on. The reason for the rejection of the appeal is a bit surprising - because it was filed at the last minute.
source: Kikar

So what? As long as it was filed in time, so what? How could they file it before the last minute, considering the event was only just recently announced?

While I would not have expected the Court to approve the petition and block the women from having this event, I would have expected a different reason as the basis - discrimination, equality, etc.

They will only have a small number of women anyway, so they should be easily ignored. They are not really doing anything wrong, except at most a bracha levatala, so I suggest not making a big deal about this.

I do wonder that if the Women of the Wall continue to find ways to be provocative and make trouble despite the fact that they have come to an agreement already, will this somehow put the  agreement in jeopardy? At a certain point people , even those who supported the original agreement, might say "tafasta meruba lo tafasta" - we tried to help, we made agreements, but you still keep making trouble, so forget it and everything goes back to the way it was. They very well may lose everything. Of course then it might go to the Supreme Court (which is supposedly what the agreement was meant to avoid) and then anythign can happen - they might win anyway and get their way, but they also might lose.

The Women of the Wall are looking to make history this Pesach, with the first ever "Birkat Kohanot" ceremony...

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.