Talking to the wall

Attended my first flash mob event last night. It was a quickly organized rally protesting Anat Hoffman's arrest at the Kotel [The Western Wall--a retaining wall from the Second Temple built during Herod's reign] last Tuesday evening for leading the Hadassah women in reciting shma while wearing a tallit [prayer shawl].

The incident raised a lot of anger among Diaspora Jews. The USCJ [United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism] organized a global flash mob for 13:00 EDT.

Her arrest raises a number of issues for me the way Israel addresses religious pluralism, the role/place of the Kotel in Israeli/Jewish affairs and separation of religion and state (aka "Church-State" issues).

While the specific facts, details of exactly what occurred are difficult to know, it seems fair to say that:

• Anat Hoffman was wearing a tallit (against the strict understanding of the law),
• the police have been, of last, actively arresting women for wearing a tallit during the monthly Women of the Wall [WOW] prayers (they meet every Rosh Hodesh),
• Anat Hoffman and WOW are interested in 'pushing the envelope' as far as possible with women's prayer activity at the Kotel, provoking haredi sensibilities to change the "status quo",
• the Israeli police are not "the best and the brightest" among security forces and thus can act in appropriate ways,
• the police took their orders from the Rabbi of the Kotel (with the acquiescence of the political and higher up police officials) as opposed to engaging their own discretion,
• the police unnecessarily roughed up Anat Hoffman,
• the haredim [ultra-Orthodox Jews] have "captured" the effective control of the Kotel through coalition politics, their regular use of the area (as opposed to other groups who don't come every day) and playing the mythological historical card that the area was always a place of (only) strict Orthodox halakhic practice. They expect to fully dictate the rules of usage for all visitors.

Instead of the Kotel serving as a reminder of the Temple and its role of creating peace (among the nations), it's become a battle site to work out Israeli and Jewish issues surrounding the Jewish life and practice. Instead of a place to express religious feelings it's a place to exercise political power. Whatever awe the remnant of the (Second) Holy Temple evokes among its visitors, it has become an awful experience to pray there. It's a place I generally avoid visiting.

The place belongs to the entire Jewish People. As such, provisions need to be made to ensure that every Jew, regardless of their religious orientation, has a place to show their reverence for the site. Under Israeli control/administration, the plaza behind the Wall itself was expanded to accommodate almost any size group. The State [of Israel] holds its annual Remembrance Day ceremony there, the army has its induction ceremony for the Paratroopers there, and until recently many other groups held ceremonies there too.

Within the last few years, some of the plaza has been taken over by the expansion of the mehitza [divider between praying men and women]. From a place that historically had no physical divider between men and women (see pictures of the Kotel from the late 1880s and pre-1948) to a place where men and women are actively discouraged mingling by obsequious "ushers" and "rules of conduct" issued by the Rabbi of the Kotel. Religious demands have encroached upon public space.

With the haredi political parties effectively holding the balance of power in successive Israeli governments, government officials including top bureaucrats (and the Courts) have acquiesced to their (unreasonable) demands and a mostly secular public has remained generally apathetic to demanding changes to make the system less biased. The long term haredi hegemony has displaced a Zionist rabbinate/bureaucracy with a haredi one that respects less non-haredi views and behaviors.

What does this mean?

First of all, there's a growing disconnect between the "believers" and the "non-believers" and little effort or mass of people seeking to close the gap. This encourages greater alienation and disrespect of The Other. Instead of discussions where people speak WITH each other, there are arguments where people scream AT each other.

The mixing of religion and politics means that sanctity acquires a secular identity and secular issues take on religious connotations. Mudslinging becomes an activity with "holy mud" and realities and meanings lose any sense of clarity.

Coming to the Kotel and discussing its use becomes an exercise of talking to a wall. Instead of a unifying experience with other Jews and Jewish history it has become an exercise in separation and alienation. An expression of triumphalism among individuals. A zero-sum gain for all (or no one).

When I talk to the Wall, I want G-d to listen and if I speak loud enough to have others respond to my plea instead of hearing my own echo.