Thursday, October 25, 2012

Arrested for Wearing A Tallit While Female,round _?

Is Anat Hoffman a victim of religious persecution at the Western Wall?  Orthodox Rabbi Eliyahu Fink says "yes."

You can read about an earlier round here.

5 Comments:

Anonymous AnDat said...

Ha'aretz has a surprising take on this, if you haven't seen it. I don't think you'll agree with it, but you might find it interesting. (saw it on LifeInIsrael)

Fri Oct 26, 06:28:00 AM 2012  
Blogger Shira Salamone said...

Thanks for the link, AnDat. So David Landau is of the opinion that Orthodox Judaism is the official state religious of Medinat Yisrael/the State of Israel, and we should all deal with that alleged fact. That's a pretty interesting theory, given that Medinat Yisrael was founded by secular Jews, as a commenter pointed out.

In my opinion, Landau is missing a major point, which is that the women are gathering for *prayer.* He seems to think that the Women of the Wall are all about politics and nothing else.

Fri Oct 26, 10:15:00 AM 2012  
Blogger Shira Salamone said...

There's also this minor detail, contribution by R. Fink in the link post:

"They honestly believe that a woman who blows a shofar, or wears a prayer shawl, or reads from the Torah is an affront to God and the Holiness of the Western Wall. My question for them is why?

There is no prohibition against a woman doing any of these mitzvos. In fact, R’ Moshe Feinstein writes that women are welcome to do these mitzvahs. There is nothing wrong with a woman reading from a Torah scroll for other women. Nothing at all. To be clear, the law is prohibiting actions that are permissible according to halacha."

So who's being political, here? I think that one might argue that the Orthodox rabbinate in charge of the Wall is trying to keep its right wing happy, rather than ruling on halachah/Jewish religious law, and that the Knesset members who passed the law(s) enabling the rabbinate of the Wall to freeze out women praying in accordance with a more left-wing halachic perspective are trying to keep right-wing Orthodox voters happy.

Fri Oct 26, 10:35:00 AM 2012  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Umm, Israeli Tax dollars are directed to the Israeli Rabbanut, which is part of Orthodox Judaism. How is that NOT an established religion?

I know that Israel plays games to claim no establishment (small funding for Muslim and Christian courts), etc., but from my (American) perspective, Israel protects the freedom of religious practice, but has an established religion.

Even if you claim there is no established religion (i.e. Judaism) because of Christian/Muslims Courts, the fact that ALL public funding (with one or two court ordered exceptions) is reserved for Orthodox Rabbis under the jurisdiction of Orthodox Religious Courts, I think it is fair to say that at a minimum, Orthodoxy is the state established Synagogue of Judaism, even if Judaism isn't the official religion.

Which is a joke, Israel was founded as the Jewish State, and one of the conditions negotiating with the PA was the PLO recognizing Israel AS A JEWISH STATE.

Fri Oct 26, 11:34:00 AM 2012  
Blogger Shira Salamone said...

"Umm, Israeli Tax dollars are directed to the Israeli Rabbanut, which is part of Orthodox Judaism. How is that NOT an established religion?"

Good point, Miami Al. Too bad that, in the Jewish state, even Orthodox Jews who are more left-wing than the official rabbanut are left out in the cold, never mind us non-Orthos.

Fri Oct 26, 12:16:00 PM 2012  

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