Continuing from yesterday, it was one week ago that—early in the Jerusalem morning—I made my way to the Kotel, ready to welcome the new month of Tammuz with Women of the Wall. For those who do not know, Women of the Wall has been fighting for over 30 years—on the ground and in the courts—for women to have the right to wear prayer shawls, pray, and read from the Torah collectively and out loud at the Western Wall. Though there is now an egalitarian section at the Kotel where families can pray together (Ezrat Yisrael), it is located at an isolated southern section of the Wall, where falling stones in recent years have blocked direct access to the Wall’s stones. Women of the Wall, which spans the religious spectrum, aims to create a prayer experience only for women, at the Kotel itself. The opposition to the group is fierce, and the struggle for women’s rights at the Wall over the years has in many ways mirrored some of the larger religious conflicts in Israel.
This visit marked 22 years of my commitment to the group; when my trips to Israel have coincided with Rosh Chodesh, I always make sure to show up. Ten years ago, I even made news when I—at six months pregnant—was hit by a projectile egg thrown by one of the hordes of Haredi boys bussed in to protest. Suffice it to say, I am never sure what will greet me—us—when Rosh Chodesh arrives in Jerusalem.
Arriving at the Kotel in the Jerusalem morning air, I was pleasantly surprised. While I have read some accounts that suggest that the group’s exit was difficult, the prayers themselves were beautiful and mostly unchallenged. While there were, as always, some Haredi girls and their teachers trying to yell in our faces and screaming Busha (shame), it felt the opposite. The Hallel service—chanted on festivals and Rosh Chodesh—is always a favorite of mine, and the sound of women’s voices rising up into that Jerusalem air felt deeply sacred.
Decades ago, American-born Israeli musician Rahel Sharon Jaskow wrote a prayer for Women of the Wall. And while it is not recited each and every month, I offer it as we move deeper into the month of Tammuz, just 10 days from the day we remember the breach of Jerusalem’s walls in 70 C.E. While directed to and for the women of the community, it should be a blessing and message of unity for us all:
And for our sisters, all the women and girls of your people Israel: let us merit to see their joy and hear their voices raised before You in song and praise. May no woman or girl be silenced ever again among Your people Israel or in all the world. God of justice, let us merit to see justice and salvation soon, for the sanctification of Your name and the repair of Your world, as it is written: Zion will hear and be glad, and the daughters of Judah rejoice, over Your judgments, O God. And it is written: For Zion’s sake I will not be still and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be silent, until her righteousness shines forth like a great light and her salvation like a flaming torch.
And may we all—not just women and girls—say: Amen.
—Rabbi Sari Laufer
