A woman who was praying at the Kotel Hama’aravi on Rosh Chodesh Tamuz as part of a service by the feminist group Women of the Wall was detained for several hours by police for wearing a tallit in the style of a man, which is a violation of the law governing behavior at the sacred site.

After being fingerprinted and photographed at the police station, the woman was banned from visiting the Kotel for seven days, and was warned she would have to pay a hefty fine if she disobeyed. “I know I’ve been warned before and that it’s not allowed,” the woman said, “but I feel like I’m not doing anything wrong. In fact, I think I’m doing something right. I continue to do this because I think change is necessary here.”

According to the police, the woman was taken in because – rather than donning a “female” multi-colored tallit and draping it around her neck, as the feminist group had apparently agreed to do – she was wearing a “male” black and white version that was folded across her shoulders.

Anat Hoffman, chairwoman of Women of the Wall, said that well more than half of the 66 women who participated in the monthly prayer service were also wearing tallitot, albeit the multi-colored prayer shawls. However, Hoffman claimed ignorance of any formal agreement regarding which type of tallit the women were allowed to wear at the Western Wall, and she said she had never been approached by authorities to discuss the matter.

“They know it’s forbidden to wear a men’s tallit in the women’s section,” Police spokesman Shmuel Ben Ruby stated, adding that the regulation was enacted to protect the “holiness of the site.” When the police took the woman away, the feminist group began singing to express their solidarity with her, but the police warned them that such actions were considered an unauthorized protest that would result in their dispersal.
Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch, the official rabbi of the Western Wall area, reacted to the incident by speaking out against the Women of the Wall.

“They are a group of extremists conducting a fanatical political struggle,” he declared, “It is extremely regrettable that ‘special interest groups’ turn the Western Wall plaza into a place of strife.”

Rabbi Rabinovich further stated that the Kotel is a place that unites the Jewish people, and should not be turned into a site where differences are harped on.

“There is no merit in any type of prayer which brings about dispute, argument, desecration of G-d’s name and desecration of the holiness of the Western Wall,” he said.

A law that was codified in 2001 makes it illegal for women to perform men’s religious practices – such as publicly reading from a sefer Torah, or wearing a tallit or tefillin – at the Kotel, as it would likely be offensive to traditional worshippers.

“The only provocation that occurred on Thursday at the site,” asserted Meretz Knesset member Nitzan Horowitz, “was from the extremist chareidi establishment. The Western Wall is a site of heritage for everyone, and must be characterized by tolerance and openness.”

In a strong response, Women of the Wall emphasized that “the Kotel is not a chareidi shul. There are 70 faces to the Torah and therefore, one may express one’s Judaism in a different way at the holy site.” The group’s leader Esti Sachs noted, “We want to daven at the Wall – a place holy to us no less than the Rav of the Kotel – an hour a month, and there is no justification for Rabinovich’s objections and actions.”

Sachs broadened her comments to denounce what she calls “religious coercion” at the Kotel. “The rabbi thinks the Kotel is his and it must be Orthodox as he likes, but in reality, it belongs to us all, all of Am Yisrael”.

Rabbi Rabinovich immediately responded by saying, “Yes, the Kotel belongs to all of us, all Jews, Jews with every hashkafa and walk of life. I always compare it to a father whose children spread out around the world, each with their own minhag, but when they come home and visit, they honor the minhagim that existed in their parent’s home. This is the same at the Kotel, and when we gather everyone, we must adhere to the minhagim of our Father. The court ruled, not me, and their actions are simply provocative, nothing less.”