Video: Women of the Wall Hold Minyan at Kosel, Confrontation Ensues, Chairs Fly

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kosel-women-of-the-wall[Video below.] Two were arrested at the Kosel today on suspicion of throwing chairs at a group of praying women from the “Woman of the Wall” organization. The men were taken for questioning, and the women continued their prayers to mark Rosh Chodesh Nissan.The incident occurred just before 7 a.m. when the first women of the regular “minyan: had already arrived but not yet laid tefillin, r”l, or begun praying. They waited on the upper area of the enclosure for the others to arrive and a group of men gathered in front of them on the other side of the mechitzah.

“Suddenly there was tension and something like 10 chairs came flying towards us, and two even got broken,” Women of the Wall Chairwoman Anat Hoffman claimed. She said that the timing of the protest, when they were just standing and waiting for prayers to begin, shows that it was carried out by a group who had come especially to provoke.

40 police officers arrived.

In the end the women succeeded in holding a prayer session with about 70 participants.

Click below for a video of chairs flying over the mechitzah:

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{Yair Alpert-Matzav.com Israel}


19 COMMENTS

  1. Look, we may not agree with these people. We may not hold of women’s minyanim, and we may not believe women should wear tefillin.

    But are they doing anything to harm us? It’s not like they’re forcing their beliefs down our throats. It’s not like they’re doing anything that affects anyone else.

    There’s no need for violence. Instead of proving a point, it just makes you look foolish.

    Live and let live. They want to do this? Whatever. Who really cares?

  2. Is it OK that these men are looking into the womens section and what is going on there? Shouldn´t those concentrate on their own davening?

  3. is there some more lashon haro to say ?
    women are pattur min hamitzwot sheysh sman grama , but that doesnt mean that they aren`t allowed to put on teffilin since even a goy who puts on tefillin gets a reward but not like the reward a jehudi gets.
    the daughter of Rashì used to put on teffilin , i was told.
    and the thing with the minyan that`s something different thats min hashamaym.

  4. >>>>>> But are they doing anything to harm us?

    Yes, they are harming us-by declaring war on Kedusha, not to mention their loud singing and disturbances which bother everybody around them, including other women who are trying to say Tehillim or daven shachris.

  5. This has nothing to do with the “wanting to be part of this great mitzvah of Tifillin” this is simply an attempt by people to dismantle Judaism as we know it. To create something that’s more modern and with the times, that promotes all these western ideas of equal rights (which is a great thing) but doesn’t have a place at the Kosel. And that is exactly the reason why they do it in public, it’s to make a statement, not to be able to where Tifilin.

    Second, in all of the previous generations when there where people that found a new way to serve Hashem i.e. Chasidus, these things where not done in public they were done quietly with a lot of misiras nefesh. Not in public places to attract a lot of attention (unless ofcorse that was the point.

  6. both sides are rediculous. nebach.
    the women look like they don’t know what their role really is. women are so important, they want to dress up like their tatties? how misplaced they are. those who throw the chairs make themselves out to be zealots who have no control over their emotions and don’t know what else to do about it

  7. some rishonim allowed women to wear tefillin. see RAL review in jewish action. RAL is opposed to it, but adding r”l is completely inapropriate and is r”l a sign of ignornace of halakha. not sure if throwing chairs or refering to a shittah of a rishon with r”l is worse!

  8. People who make comments like yours consider yourself “frum?”
    Wasn’t it Moshe Rabaynu who said “Rasha, Lamah Sahke Reyecha?”

    If you ignore them they may go away. If you throw chairs you only embolden them and risk getting arrested. I don’t see any positives in being violent. Frankly I’m ashamed.

  9. At http://matzav.com/a-letter-to-mrs-park, in Comment #107, I wrote the following and will repeat it here.

    Our Gedolay Torah of the last several generations have countless times explained that during this “modern era” — which probably starts from somewhere in the mid-1800’s — almost all Jews who do not keep the Torah have the status of “Tinokos Shenishb’u” – “children who were captured.”

    For example, there is a group of Jewish children who were captured by an invading army and taken to a far off place and resettled in an area where there are no other Jewish people, and whom were thus raised by the local non-Jewish people and were thus taught to follow the religion and practices of those particular non-Jewish people. Those Jewish (now) adults who are not observing any of our Torah, and who are instead doing the practices of another religion, are obviously not “bad” people who “defected” from Judaism, for starting with that wicked invading army who captured them, they were forced into the whole thing!!

    Now during the “modern era,” except for during the two world wars and the actions of the Communist countries, there was generally not a problem of invading PHYSICAL armies. However, there was a very big problem of invading SPIRITUAL “armies” — of the Yeitzer Hara!! This spiritual “army” is the whole philosophy and concept of the modern world that has been expressed in the propaganda: “These are new times now!! This is a modern age now!! This is the ‘wave’ of the future!! The old religious ways are no longer applicable in this new world!!”

    So a Jewish person — even a person who was raised in a fine Torah observant home and was given a fine Torah education — when he “breathes” what is in the very “air” of modern life, and when he sees that the IN place “where the action is” is NOT at the little old Torahdike Beis HaMedrosh but rather at the big new beautifully built Reform Temple, when he thus (tragically) discards the Torah life, he cannot be blamed and called a “bad” guy at all!!

    And certainly, his children and his children’s children and his children’s children’s children, who were raised up in and taught the ways and philosophy of this new “UN-religion,” and know almost nothing of the real Torah ways, cannot be blamed and called “bad” guys at all!!

    Instead, our Gedolay Torah have repeatedly exhorted us to try, to the best of our abilities, to teach and show our Jewish brethren the true beautiful ways of the real Torah. And, if they challenge us with these lines of “it is a new world now,” etc., which they were taught, we have to be prepared to properly answer them. We will need to inform them that such lines are just empty cliches that are nothing “new”; since the beginning of ancient human history, every new wicked culture promoted this worthless propaganda that it was going to be the “wave of the future”! And it should go without saying that silly fleeting fads have no value when placed against the Eternal Wisdom of G-D.

  10. (continuation of above comment #16)

    Now, regarding the issue of today with the “Women at the Wall.” Boruch HaShem, we who have been privileged to study our Torah and live in communities where the people make a sincere effort to follow our Torah, know a little bit about what is the correct way to do things. Very unfortunately though, these women did not have these privileges that we did. Instead, very sharply instead, any “Torah” that they were taught was by teachers, who themselves were taught by teachers, who themselves were taught by teachers, who had long ago been captivated by the “These Are New Times” propaganda.

    So the bits and pieces of Torah that these teachers taught these women were severely distorted and presented totally out of context.

    These teachers were not only the instructors in the weekend Hebrew schools of the Reform and Conservative Temples; these teachers were not only the rabbis and the cantors in the sanctuaries of the Reform and Conservative Temples. These teachers were also the writers and directors and actors of the Broadway/Hollywood (excuse me, “Hollyweird”) entertainment world. They created several classic major stage plays and motion pictures depicting Jewish life in Eastern Europe that were full of sick twisted distortions and outright total lies of the ways of our Torah. (So any normal person who would see any of these so-called “Jewish” — more correctly very UN-“Jewish” — theatrical performances would think “Whew! I am sure glad that I am not from those ‘Orthodox’!!”)

    So it was taught: In the schoolroom, in the prayer room, and in the theater room. It is a basic fact; just like one and one is two, and in fourteen-hundred-and-ninety-two Columbus sailed the ocean blue, it is an obviously known fact that the Orthodox discriminate against women! The Orthodox men look down on women and treat them inferiorly! The old Orthodox service and the old Torah laws shut women out and lock them up in a box!

    Thus these “Women at the Wall” and similar groups think in their minds and carry as their slogans, “We have to change these archaic laws! We have to make a ‘Judaism’ that is fair and equal and treat women with the dignity that they deserve!

  11. (Continuation of last Comment #17)

    B’Ezras HaShem, what obviously needs to be done is to somehow reach these women and somehow show these women what the truth is!! They will have to be shown and they will have to painfully realize how, all this time, they have been fed a gigantic thick pack of lies!! They will have to be shown and they will have to see and understand and realize what true Torah WOMEN’S life is: how extremely beautiful it is, how extremely wonderful it is, how extremely spiritually fulfilling it is, and, of course, how it is absolutely nothing like what the Broadway/Hollyweird directors said it was!!

  12. (Continuation of last Comment #18)

    How to do all this is certainly quite a complicated difficult task. To begin, I heard it stated by one of the most prominent Torah Askanim of the Chareidi world; I am sure that he said it many times, and I am sure that countless people of all different beliefs and movements said it many times: that when one group employs VIOLENCE against an opposing group, all that it accomplishes is that it drives the people of the opposing group further away, and it drives other people to now go AND SUPPORT that opposing group!

    So the very first thing that probably needs to be done here is for some kind of statement to be made, both publicly and given to the “Women at the Wall” group privately, THAT CLEARLY CONDEMNS AND APOLOGIZES for the dangerous abuse of chair throwing that was done to them!

    Then, obviously with the guidance of our Gedolay Torah, there has to be worked out proper plans for a series of appropiate outreach projects that can effectively bring these women and others like them over to the truth.

    Boruch HaShem, our current Chareidi communities nows have many knowledgeable and talented women who could probably host appropriate programs. Furthermore, Boruch HaShem, there is now a great wealth of professionally written material that beautifully explains the topic of women in Judaism.

    For online material, the Chabad web site has a huge section at:

    http://www.chabad.org/theJewishWoman/default_cdo/jewish/Women.htm.

    (I am sure that there are a lot more web sites with good information.)

    For printed material that can be purchased, for example, see:

    http://www.artscroll.com/Categories/wom.html

    http://www.feldheim.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?category=279

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