Western Wall rabbi slams ‘deceptive’ women’s group

Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch, who runs Judaism’s most sacred holy site, the Kotel or Western Wall, slammed a women’s prayer group Friday for sneaking a miniature Torah scroll into the women’s section of the site earlier in the day.

“A small group of ‘Women of the Wall’ acted deceptively this morning,” the rabbi charged, according to the Ynet news site, “and after they were prevented from bringing in [to the Kotel plaza] a large Torah scroll, they deviously snuck in a small one to the women’s section.”

Women of the Wall, a feminist prayer group that gathers at the Western Wall at the start of each Jewish month, has battled with authorities for years for the right to hold prayer services in which women take a larger ritual role than that allowed by Israel’s Orthodox rabbinic establishment.

The group gathered at the Kotel plaza on Friday morning for prayers. In keeping with the site’s rules, police prevented them from bringing in the Torah scroll they carried with them. But during the prayer service, a member of the group produced a miniature scroll, which the group read from and danced with.

According to Women of the Wall, the Friday morning gathering also saw the first-ever bat mitzvah at the Kotel’s women’s section.

Rabinovitch said he chose not to intervene in Friday’s gathering out of concern that any altercation might result in damage to the Torah scroll. But, he said, “in the future, efforts will be made to ensure that this event is not repeated.”

Rabinovitch also expressed “sadness over the activities of this group, which wants to prevent the compromise at the Western Wall that the prime minister [Benjamin Netanyahu], cabinet secretary [Avichai Mandelblit] and Jewish Agency chairman [Natan Sharansky] are trying to reach.”

Many Women of the Wall members have opposed proposed compromises that would create an egalitarian section to the Kotel site that is removed from the main plaza.

“No Torah scroll will be brought in to the Kotel [plaza], something which is not permitted for anyone — men and women alike,” Rabinovitch vowed.