Women Of The Wall

[Mike S]

My wife and I travel fairly extensively and have visited Israel several times. We love visiting the Christian sites in the Old City and in the Galilee, and feel very welcomed there. There are times, however, when we have to accomodate ourselves to different customs. When those times involve different gender roles that put women in what I consider to be a position of inferiority, I resent it and we leave the situation to find other things to do. For instance, on certain bus routes, Orthodox Jewish men insist that women ride in the back of the bus, and insult women and force them off the bus if the woman isn't covered up to their conservative standards. We don't ride those bus routes.

There are also places and times when men and women are to be separated, and women not permitted behavior religiously reserved for men only. Such a place and time is the Western Wall at prayer time. The women have their own separate, and much smaller, place where they can approach the Wall. But they are not permitted to wear prayer shawls in the manner of men, nor to read from the Torah. This doesn't effect me or my wife, as we stay respectfully back from the Wall to pray, but it does bother many Jewish women, who see it as religious discrimination. Some have formed a group called "Women of the Wall" http://womenofthewall.org.il/ to challenge the restrictions.

I don't presume to insert myself into this dynamic, but my sympathies are with these women and hope they can effect a change.

 

[VirginShallConceive]

My wife and I travel fairly extensively and have visited Israel several times. We love visiting the Christian sites in the Old City and in the Galilee, and feel very welcomed there. There are times, however, when we have to accomodate ourselves to different customs. When those times involve different gender roles that put women in what I consider to be a position of inferiority, I resent it and we leave the situation to find other things to do. For instance, on certain bus routes, Orthodox Jewish men insist that women ride in the back of the bus, and insult women and force them off the bus if the woman isn't covered up to their conservative standards. We don't ride those bus routes.

There are also places and times when men and women are to be separated, and women not permitted behavior religiously reserved for men only. Such a place and time is the Western Wall at prayer time. The women have their own separate, and much smaller, place where they can approach the Wall. But they are not permitted to wear prayer shawls in the manner of men, nor to read from the Torah. This doesn't effect me or my wife, as we stay respectfully back from the Wall to pray, but it does bother many Jewish women, who see it as religious discrimination. Some have formed a group called "Women of the Wall" http://womenofthewall.org.il/ to challenge the restrictions.

I don't presume to insert myself into this dynamic, but my sympathies are with these women and hope they can effect a change.

This doesn't suprise me. Just look at this verse:

"Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's." -Exodus 20:17

The wife isn't listed first, nor is she listed last. She is just lumped right in there with the rest of a man's property.