Women of the Wall

By Evelyn Enright

The Kotel in Jerusalem

I can’t believe I almost didn’t go to Women of the Wall yesterday morning. Were it not for the friends I’d committed to meeting at 6:30am, I might have chosen to sleep in, and not limped down to the Old City on crutches.

My friends Lauren, Sarah, Yael, Arielle and I were the first women to arrive, and a young woman greeted us in Hebrew – are you here with Women of the Wall? Yes, we said. She introduced herself as Nofrat. Is there a Hazzanit with you? Before I knew it, my chevruta Lauren was leading P’sukei D’zimra, and I would be leading Shacharit and Hallel. I don’t think either of us could quite believe it.

When my turn came to take over leading, I started softly. Nofrat gently nudged me and encouraged me to be louder. “Hazak, hazak”, she said. I smiled, and started to lift my voice a little more. With a group of over forty women together, as we reached the familiar melodies of the psalms in Hallel, I forgot that I was leading a group of women at the Kotel, and was simply leading, surrounded by an incredible group of women – it was a beautiful moment, one that I will treasure. Fortunately at the time I wasn’t able to hear it, but I was told later that there were women behind us, shouting and cursing at us. We came to the end and I was embraced by friends, new and old, from Pardes and BJ alike.

Praying with the Women of the Wall

At this point in the service, the group normally proceeds to Robinsons Arch, where the Torah is read. But this morning, some of the women were discussing the new beautiful Torah scroll donated by a Reform synagogue. One asked whether we could read from it at the Kotel. The question was asked whether all of the board members of Women of the Wall were okay with it. If so, they would proceed. After some hesitation, we opened up the sefer Torah and opened it up to roll it to the correct place.

By now the story of what happened next has been all over the news. The next thing I knew, there were two men standing in front of us, in the women’s section. I couldn’t hear the exchanges, but it would seem our time was up. The women from Women of the Wall were adamant that we wouldn’t leave on their orders, only at the directive of the police – who were quickly on the scene.

Initially the police officer was questioning Nofrat, asking her for her identification, telling her that what she was doing was forbidden. As we left the women’s section though, it suddenly became apparent that the police officer was not letting Nofrat leave. She was being detained. Still wearing her tallit and carrying the sefer Torah, they quick-marched her across the plaza in front of the western wall to a holding room for questioning. A stream of women – more than forty of us – followed her as fast as we could. We arrived at a security gate that we were forbidden to go through.
Standing outside the security entrance to where she was being held, we started to sing – songs of peace, niggunim, songs in English, prayers from the siddur. Each time we were reminded that from where she was that she could hear us, we sang a little louder. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when I saw young ultra orthdox men rushing past us with their ears covered – lest they hear women singing and be accidentally aroused!

Word reached us that she was no longer being detained, but was being criminally charged – for wearing a tallit and one for holding a sefer Torah. Nofrat was being transferred to the main police station outside Jaffa gate, and our group made our way up there as well.

More than two hours after she was originally detained, and with the assistance of a lawyer, Nofrat was released. A cheer went up from the group as we saw her walking towards us. Still wearing her tallit and carrying the sefer Torah, shaking, she was surrounded and welcomed back into the arms of the Women of the Wall.