Wall-E (a pun! how marvelous!)

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"And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month."

-- Nehemiah 8:2


This past Monday my wife prayed the Shacharit (morning) service.
So what?
She's done that literally HUNDREDS of times in her life.

Well, on Monday she did so at the Western Wall, with other female rabbinical students.
And chairs were thrown at them.

http://www.jta.org/news/article/2010/03/16/1011145/chairs-thrown-at-women-of-the-wall


Let me essplain... no, there is no time... Let me sum up:

First, a short history of The Wall (not Pink Floyd's)

The Western Wall (a.k.a., the Wailing Wall and in Hebrew dubbed simply "the wall"-- ha'Kotel) is nearly 200 feet long, located on the western side of the Temple Mount in Ancient Jerusalem... a place with NO CONTROVERSY WHATSOEVER.

It is the last remaining part of the Temple of Solomon... which it ain't. It's actually the outer wall that surrounded the Second Temple (built around 516 BCE), expanded by King Herod (around 19 BCE), which stood until the Roman Empire invaded and destroyed it (in 70 C.E.)

Above the Western Wall is the golden-domed "Dome of the Rock"-- what's that? Now it's a mosque that houses "The Foundation Stone." And what's THAT?

Oh nothing... except 3 big deals:

1-- The holiest spot in the Temple of Solomon (creatively dubbed "The Holy of Holies", where the High Priest could go only once a year, on Yom Kippur, where the Ten Commandments were kept.
2-- The spot of Mount Moriah where Abraham nearly sacrificed Isaac
3-- the spot where Mohammed stepped and rose to the heavens to receive a message from Allah. It is the third-holiest place for Muslims.

Yikes! Why not spread it around?!

I had the same feeling the first time I heard about the human reproductive organs ("You mean we use the same body parts to expel waste AND make babies? Gross...")

You gotta admit, that's a lot of action in one focused area!
Why not have a temple in Lebanon! Or genitalia on your elbow!
... air-tight logic, I know.


Now whenever Jews pray anywhere in the world they face the direction of the wall.

But that's not it.
Because the ultra-Orthodox and traditional Jews pray there very frequently, they kinda call the shots, so there is a mechitzah separating the Men's side of the wall, from the women's side, since traditional Orthodox men and women pray separately.

Even so, when women DO pray and sing at the Wall many, Ortho guys get upset and... ahem... throw metal folding chairs at them.

Yup.

So, on Monday, my wife led Hallel services (special prayer recited on the first of the Month/holidays) and carried the Torah. Big honor! She did great and I am very proud of her.

Yay!

Then, once she and several other women (some who were rabbinical students, some not) went to pray by the Western Wall, on the women's side, a collection of Orthodox, irate, male Jews (like a bunch of silver back gorillas), who clearly loved God and exemplified the dictum "Love Thy Neighbor"... started throwing chairs.

In the words of Jesus, "Forgive them, God, for they are a bunch of douches."

Jesus H. Crackers!
First of all, no one was hurt and my wife and her lady prayer-group were not near the actual chairs.

But still!

What the hell??!!

Is it any wonder that peace in the Middle East eludes us... when Jews are fighting other Jews.

"And I said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, The work is great and large, and we are separated upon the wall, one far from another."

--Nehemiah 4:19
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