Israel Matzav

It's Rosh Chodesh....

Hat Tip to Rena F for the image (and sorry to those who do not understand the Hebrew).

It's Rosh Chodesh (the first day of the new month), and that's the day that the Women of the Wall come out to do their thing.

But on Monday morning, there was no room for them in the women's section of the Western Wall Plaza, and they were forced to the back (I'm posting a picture of the plaza below so you understand what that means - the back area is frequently used for prayer on crowded days).

When people refer to the plaza, they are referring to the front section (the women's section is on the right and the men's section is on the left). There's about a two-foot drop from the back square to the two rectangles at the bottom (and the rectangles have been expanded slightly further back since this photo was taken. When it's really crowded (Shavuoth, the last day of Sukkoth and Jerusalem Day), there are partitions added to the middle area (until where the line is at the bottom left of the photo) to accommodate separate prayer areas in the large middle section.

I cannot tell from the story below whether the Women of the Wall were relegated to the middle section or perhaps to the back section. In any case, they were in front of the Wall.

And the reason they couldn't get access to the women's prayer section? Some 5-7,000 seminary girls  beat them to it.

The non-orthodox Women of the Wall held services, Monday morning, to mark the new Jewish month of Av at the Western Wall of the Temple in Jerusalem's Old City. A large number of police were present out of concern that hareidi-religious worshipers would disrupt the observance as they have the past two months.

In their effort to avoid friction between the sides, police did not allow the group to pray in the main women's section, citing overcrowding.

Haaretz claims that this is the first time in 25 years that Women of the Wall could not gain access to the women's section of the front plaza. I don't think that's accurate, because for many years, Women of the Wall was up the stairs in a garden all the way at the back and well above the plaza level (so they could not be heard) and for a while they were at Robinson's arch, which is well to the right of the picture above.

Sunrise this morning was 5:40 - you had to be there awfully early to get in....

And a good month to everyone....

Labels: Kotel plaza, Rosh Chodesh, Western Wall, Women of the Wall

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:31 AM