JERUSALEM (VINnews) — In the wake of clashes which have broken out in recent weeks at the Ezrat Yisrael southern section of the Kotel which is earmarked for reform and conservative services, the Prime Minister’s Office has stressed that regulations at the site prohibit the use of mechitzos (partitions between men and women) in Ezrat Yisrael.
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The new directives from Yair Lapid call for the prohibition on mechitzos to be enforced by police at the site even if force is required for this.
On a recent occasion chareidi elements heckled conservative groups who were trying to hold a bar mitzva service at the controversial site and even attacked the bar mitzva boy himself. Later, Prime Minister Lapid apologized to the bar mitzva boy for what had occurred.
The prohibition on partitions was part of the 2016 “Kotel arrangement” which was frozen in 2016 at the behest of the chareidi parties. The reform and conservative movements have attempted unsuccessfully since then to resurrect the arrangement which would allow them control of the Ezrat Yisrael section.
Noam party leader Avi Maoz attacked Lapid’s decision and said that “in contravention of halacha, tradition and law, Lapid continues to degrade the holiest places in Israel.
“Once again Lapid’s true face is revealed, as well as that of those who crowned him – desecrating the sanctity of the Kotel as part of secularizing the Jewish identity of the state of Israel. The reform movement has already revealed that the Kotel is simply a pawn in the battle to change the Jewish identity of the state.”
MK Itamar Ben-Gvir wrote that “the Kotel doesn’t belong to reform Jews but to all of the people of Israel, men, women, religious and secular who all respect the Kotel as opposed to the reform Jews. These elections are between those who want a Jewish identity and those who want a democracy for all citizens.”
this is not Eretz Yisroel anymore – this Eretz HUAMIM – SHAME ON YOU LAPID =
we need Moshiach now
Last month I was reading in one of the secular Israeli newspapers about what goes on at the kosel each month. You would think the “fight” between reform and us was like sefardim and ashkinazim arguing. Nothing can be further from the truth. In 1885 in the Pittsburg platform the reform movement set forth their principals for modern Jews. It’s one big piece of kefira No one in the reform movement ever renounced those principles.
When I was in Israel a few years ago, I went to the Kotel often. There were people there every hour from early morning to late at night.
I also discovered that the mechitzah in the main Kotel plaza is more like a conventional mechitzah than the one that I had seen on my last trip which was more like the Berlin Wall before it fell. Women can now be part of a minyan from the Ezrat Nashim.
And I also discovered that at least one of the shuls in the tunnel off the men’s section also has an Ezrat Nashim balcony so women can participate there. Both these options are perfectly halachic.
And I never saw a single person at the “Ezrat Yisrael” section described here.
The Kotel was made into a wall divider by disallowing partition.