How good it is to be a true Haredi, how good it is to be safe and sound within the walls of the Beit Midrash, away from the blinding spotlight of the difficult cases being discussed within the walls of the courthouse and in the corridors of the Knesset.
Such is, for example, the new outline approved by the government this week regarding the sacred Western Wall, whose honor is being trampled under the feet of the Reform and Conservative communities (you may not know the Reforms closely, but there are some Conservatives who walk between your feet in the Haredi neighborhoods, with a knitted, perforated cloth over their heads).
Everyone who heard the idea was shocked to the core. But precisely because of the great trust I have in my loyal readers, I allow myself to assume that the beings Abaye and Rava were at the forefront of your minds this week, and that you and the outline have no connection, not even biblical.
I believe that it is useful to know a little about the law under discussion, and to understand the degree of shock required of each and every one in the face of the absolute madness.
Here are the 'achievements of the outline' as sent to me by my scholarly friend, the journalist Yedidia Meir Yishmarah.
Read and your soul will be shocked.
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The government approved the new outline for prayer arrangements at the Western Wall, within the framework of which a third aid will be officially established, which will be run by the Reformers.
The achievements of the outline for the Reformers:
A. One Western Wall: One entrance to the Western Wall. The entrance will be divided into three inspection lanes - women, men and mixed. After inspection, each person can choose which Western Wall they want to visit. Choose between the northern extension of the Western Wall, where the local custom is Orthodox - or the southern extension of the Western Wall, where the local custom is egalitarian in accordance with the custom of Conservative and Reform Judaism.
The two extensions, the northern and southern, will be equipped with Torah scrolls, siddurim, tables for reading the Torah, and everything necessary for prayer, depending on the style you desire.
B. Equality and Pluralism: The regulations for the protection of holy places will be updated, and for the first time in the law book of the State of Israel, the explicit words will appear: "...the custom of the place will be based on the principles of pluralism and gender equality, and prayer at the place will be an equal and mixed prayer of both women and men, without a partition.".
C. Size: The egalitarian plaza will be multi-level, large and spacious. It will extend over an area that will include a raised (built) prayer plaza and the entire area of Herodian Street. The total prayer area will be almost 900 square meters (for comparison, this is an area that is approximately 70% of the existing men's section, and 130% of the existing women's section). The contact with the stones of the Western Wall – 25 meters.
D. Expansion management: A public council, appointed by the Prime Minister, headed by the chairman of the agency and 6 representatives from the Conservative Movement, the Reform Movement, and the Women of the Western Wall; alongside 6 representatives from the Prime Minister's Office, the Ministry of Diaspora, and the Israel Antiquities Authority. This is the first statutory council to which, by definition, representatives of the streams are appointed.
E. Budgets: The Prime Minister's Office will allocate a fixed, annual budget of no less than 5,000,000 NIS for the management of the new expansion, its maintenance, and the advertising of the religious services it will provide to the entire public in Israel according to Reform and Conservative custom.
F. The public plaza: The upper Western Wall plaza, the one above the prayer plaza (the current men's/women's plaza), will be defined as a state plaza and will be used as a place for state, national, and military ceremonies only. Prayer will be allowed there only on a number of specified dates per year (Twelfth of Av, the Three Pilgrimages, etc.) when the existing women's and men's plazas are not sufficient. Prayer on these dates will take place in the plaza according to Orthodox custom.
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Now, any further words would be unnecessary.
When evil, stupidity, and incompetence are exposed before our eyes, we must raise a cry, not to mention a real scream.
O God, the wicked have come into your inheritance, they have defiled your holy temple.
• Menachem Mann is an ultra-Orthodox journalist and publicist: [email protected]
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