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| Wednesday, June 7 2000 15:20 4 Sivan 5760 |
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Let the women pray (June 7) - The recent Knesset decision to pass the preliminary reading of a bill which would result in the imprisonment of women found guilty of praying at the Western Wall in tallit and tefilin is the nearest that this country has come to creating the second Khomeini regime in the Middle East. The fact that there is virtually no chance the bill will pass a second and third reading makes no difference as far as the principle of the matter is concerned. Over 30 members of the Knesset, including those who voted in favor of the bill in order to gain popularity with the religious political parties, supported this absurd proposal; that makes this one of the blacker moments in the history of Israeli democracy. The court's recent ruling allowing women to pray with talit and tefillin at the Wall was the straw which broke the religious camel's back. The decision provided the haredi parties with a new cause during a period when, despite their relatively large presence in the Knesset, they have failed miserably to pass any significant religious coercive legislation; contrary to public perceptions, haredim are gradually losing any control they once had over the public sphere. The haredi need for financial resources to support their communities is far greater than any real urge to push for new religious legislation and, as such, they are left with little more than a sexist attempt to imprison women who have the audacity to pray to the same God that they themselves worship. It is not only women from the Reform and Conservative movements who have pushed for this public form of prayer at the Western Wall. They have been increasingly joined by women from the world of Orthodoxy, who are now fighting back at the male hold on organized religion. Women within the ultra-Orthodox world have become more educated and qualified than their husbands, who have remained in the houses of learning. Modern Orthodox women as well are undergoing a process of educational empowerment in their own academies and yeshivot and, within a few years, they will be justified in demanding recognition as rabbis within their own communities. The civil rights movements in Israel have been relatively restrained in voicing their unqualified support for the womens' cause. They have a dilemma which is similar to the way they relate to the rights of the Reform and Conservative movements. Secular Israel sees these movements as attempting to impose theological hegemony, and, as such, cannot justify showing their outright support for them. Neither do secular Israelis understand the desire by some women to publicly demonstrate their need for prayer, much of it according to the Orthodox tradition, and would secretly prefer to support other civil rights causes. The High Court ruling was itself problematic. The same High Court which denied the right of right wing extremists to pray on the Temple Mount because of the expected threat to public security, did not use the same argument when ruling on the rights of the women to pray at the Wall. Either there is freedom of religion for all - regardless of their political orientations - or there is a threat to public security in both instances. Women have been attacked, verbally and physically, for demonstratively praying at the Wall and it is likely that an increase in the number of women appearing with their tallit and tefilin is going to bring about a violent haredi response. No one group has a monopoly over the rites of prayer in Judaism, neither does any group have the unilateral right to determine who will pray at this most sacred of sites. Perhaps the women should follow the example of the women suffragettes of the 1920s. They should go out en masse to pray at the Wall, and allow themselves to be arrested and brought before the courts. No judge in their right mind would pass a sentence of even one minute in jail, let alone seven years. The Knesset would look ridiculous debating, let alone passing, the first reading of one of the most absurd laws in our history. Next Opinion |
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