Even a Crook Can be Right

A monthly disruption at the Kotel (Arutz Sheva)

People that live in glass houses should not throw stones. This is the advice I would give to Shas MK Arye Deri. That said, I happen to agree with the stone he just threw.

Arye Deri is a crook. This is not conjecture. A few years ago he was found guilty of financial crimes in an Israeli court. A crime he paid for with prison time. After which he was reinstalled to his position as Shas Party chairman and is now serving in the Keneset as the Minster of Interior (among other duties).

According to YWN - with the police now recommending a new indictment against him for tax evasion, his party is looking to replace him. 

Once a crook always a crook, I guess.  It’s too bad that his party didn’t recognize that. Or didn’t care about it because of his effectiveness as an advocate for their issues.

Be that as it may the pending indictment has not stopped him from accusing the Women of the Wall of being guilty of their own crimes. Namely violating the rules set up for behavior at the Kotel. From Arutz Sheva: 

Deri was responding to a petition signed by hundreds of religious women that called on him to use his powers to stop Women of the Wall from holding their noisy Rosh Chodesh prayers at the Western Wall.

"For years, we have been warning of every stage and working with all the tools at our disposal to stop the destructive phenomenon of the Women of the Wall...

According to Deri, the Women of the Wall "cause a great storm and a deep blow to the feelings of the masses of Jews in Israel and the world who hurt by the blasphemy".

"The frequent provocations in the Western Wall Plaza are subject to the influence of law enforcement and law enforcement agencies, who examine every Rosh Chodesh whether they violate the guidelines set in order to bring about police intervention…"

(T)he Women for the Wall group, which opposes the non-Orthodox prayer services, had sent a letter asking Deri to put an end to the monthly non-Orthodox prayers. 

Arye Deri (YWN)

I don’t know that the sole purpose of the Women of the Wall is as Deri says - to harm and humiliate the most sacred place for the Jewish people. I will give most if not all of them the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps they are indeed seeking to serve God in their own way because they feel it is the best way for them to do that. But at the same time - for some of them it is indeed as Deri says, they have as a goal to ‘break the customs that have always existed in the area’. 

Their leaders and heterodox supporters have said as much. They want to break the ‘monopolistic hold’ that Charedim have over the Kotel. Their stated purpose is to allow Jews of all denominations to pray as they wish. 

While that sounds like a beautiful call for democratizing the Kotel, it is at the same time considered anathema to Orthodox Jews. Judaism is not a democracy. Furthermore - even leaving aside Halachic issues that may or may not be problematic - decades old traditions deserve to be upheld. Especially when they have so much meaning to the vast majority of the people that pray there.

But even without that - what this group does every month is disruptive to the traditional  decorum of the Kotel. A traditional decorum that has been honored by Jews of all denominations and people of all faiths without any objections. Most good and decent people will recognize and honor traditional practices without trying to disrupt them even for personal reasons. Let alone political ones. And have found their Kotel experiences to be inspiring.

This monthly Women of the Wall affair has in effect become a monthly protest of sorts designed to bring down Orthodox control of the Kotel. Even if that is not the motivation of all its participants. They apparently have very little sympathy for the religious sensibilities of the traditional women who feel disrupted by them. As long as they get to do what they want. 

I realize that some of those women do feel they are serving God better by praying the ‘Women of the Wall’ way. But that does not justify the disruptions.

I also recognize that a lot of people agree with the goals of  the Women of the Wall and do indeed want to end Orthodox control over the Kotel. They might add that what they do is well within the parameters of Halacha. And do not see it as anything other than allowing people the right to pray as they wish. 

But if so, at what price? Are their supposed rights superior to the rights of the traditional prayer goers who feel disrupted by them? It might be well within Halacha to (for example) have ten thousand  people blowing a Shofar at the Kotel all at once. But does that make it right?

Some will claim that they are not disruptive at all. But how can it not be disruptive to have a group of women singing at the top of their lungs and dancing with Sifrei Torah in broad daylight in front of gawking crowds that no doubt will be drawn to this unusual sight? Does their claims of having the right to do that trump the right of others there who wish to pray silently without distractions? I guess the Women of the Wall think so. They apparently feel that their exuberance in prayer supersedes the wishes of those that come there to pray in traditional ways.

I cannot imagine why anyone would think that this is OK. No matter what side of the issue they are on. Which is yet anther reason why I am opposed to what Women of the Wall do every month. If they are breaking the law, they should be arrested and charged.

I cannot understand why any Orthodox Jew would support it – even as I realize that so many on the left wing of Orthodoxy do. It is the Women for the Wall that should instead be supported. They are right.