Torah Portion:  Vayishlach;  Genesis 32:4 - 36:43

Forgive me for not writing about this week’s Torah portion, but something critical came to my attention this week, and I feel compelled to share it with all of you.  To hear more about the weekly portion, Vayishlach, however, please join us for services and hear Stephen Simon connect this week’s portion to our connection to Israel.  And speaking of Israel…

During my Junior year abroad in Israel, I attended a Rosh Chodesh (new month) morning service at the Western Wall with a group called “Women of the Wall.”  The Women of the Wall—made up of Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform women, Israelis and Americans—goes to the Kotel every month and attempts to hold a service with a Torah reading. 
   

Every month, they are turned away by the police because the ultra-Orthodox oversight at the wall prohibits women from praying out loud or—God forbid!—with a Torah.  The month I happened to attend, some men even took chairs on their side of the Kotel and threw them at our group.  No one was hurt, but I was deeply shaken.  It was the first time I had ever encountered that kind of sinat hinam, senseless hatred of one Jew toward another. 

I wish I could tell you that since that time, the Women of the Wall have succeeded in securing a regular women’s service with Torah reading at the Kotel.  However, last week Nofrat Frenkel was arrested for wearing a tallit at the Kotel.  Excerpted below are the words of Anat Hoffman, the dynamic Executive Director of the Reform Movement’s Israeli Religious Action Center, on this arrest and its aftermath:

“Nofrat Frenkel’s arrest… at the Wall was the last straw.  Last week, more of you read and forwarded our newsletter [The Pluralist] than ever before.  You were thoroughly outraged – and rightly so.  And [on November 28th], Jerusalem’s progressive community also decided things had finally gone too far.  It was time to react.

“Months – if not years – of rising tension between the Haredi community and the rest of Jerusalem, from last summer’s Karta parking lot riots, to three Shabbat protests at Intel in just as many weeks, (to say nothing of last week’s arrest at the Kotel) culminated in a 2,000 person peaceful protest against religious coercion of any kind.

“2,000 people – it might not sound like a lot, but in a country smaller than New Jersey, in our little Jerusalem, 2,000 people is huge.  The protestors stretched from Kikar Paris, where the protest began, then marched up King George Street, filled the pedestrian walkway of Ben Yehuda, and overflowed Kikar Zion.  There were signs, songs, and speeches – including one from Nofrat Frenkel.

“The protest brought out a diverse crowd organized by the Forum for Free Jerusalem: Reform and Conservative Jews, secular Jerusalemites, city councilmen, and members from the Jerusalem Open House.  In a special nod to Nofrat, the Masorti movement had made bumper stickers which read: “hakotel l’culam/n” – the Wall for everyone – which means women as well.

“It was a protest not only against religious coercion, but FOR religious pluralism.  It was inclusive, non-violent, and, notably, took place after Shabbat.
“Last week, forty women were prohibited from reading Torah at the Wall.  Forty women, and one arrest.  This week, 2,000 people showed up to prove that what happens at the Wall affects the rest of the city.”

What happens at the Wall affects us, too.  Especially as liberal Jews, Nofrat’s arrest should stir in all of us a desire to ensure that religious pluralism becomes the norm in Israel.  This week, I am making a donation to IRAC to support their incredible work in standing up for a pluralist and tolerant Jerusalem.  I encourage you to do the same by visiting www.irac.org.

For more insight on this week's Torah portion, visit
urj.org/torah.

Shabbat Shalom 
Rabbi Annie