Women of the Wall

A friend of mine mentioned that at an event she attended recently featuring Israel ambassoder Michael Oren, someone mentioned Women of the Wall.* I promptly envisioned a tri-chitza at the wall: women section, men section, and coed section, and wondered why it so scared the Israeli rabbinic establishment. Then I realized: Most Israelis would probably choose the coed option - that way, families can stay together. I wondered: Is the rabbinic establishment afraid that if men and women are not forced to pray separately at the kotel, they won't choose to do so? Are they afraid, in general, that if not forced to conduct marriages, etc., through Orthodox rabbinic authorities, they will choose to eschew any connection to Orthodoxy? Is that why they hold on so tightly to their power, to forcing marriages to be Orthodox and the Kotel to have separate praying space, among other things?

I think the answer to these questions is yes - but if it is yes, than the Orthodox establishment is failing. If you think that unless forced, most people will have nothing to do with your religious establishment, then your establishment is failing to provide incentive for people to remain connected. At the same time, once you have the ability to force people to be under your religious framework, you lose the incentive to provide people with the incentive to be connected; there is no need, they will be forced to do so anyway. Perhaps this is why power and religion don't go together: When religion has hegemony, it no longer needs to respond to the needs of its followers - so it loses followers.

I think that providing a proper Jewish education for people, so they are empowered to make their own religious decisions, will ultimately bring people closed to Judaism - and to Orthodox Judaism - than forcing people to have Orthodox marriages or Orthodox prayer spaces. Often, people are turned off to Orthodoxy out of mistaken beleifs about its theology and laws, and do not observe because they are not knowledgeable enough for observance to be meaningful for them. Instead of fighting for more funding for Orthodox schools, the O. establishment should be fighting to ensure that all Israeli public school students graduate with a working knowledge of the Jewish religious tradition. This knowledge must be taught in a non-coercive manner. As long as the Orthodox establishment is using force when it comes to certain issues however, any overture they take at bringing people closer to Orthodoxy will be seen as coercive; people in Israel have a natural resistance to anything to with Orthodoxy - they see O. Judaism as inherently coercive, because the O. establishment in Israel is coercive - so the establishment may actually be furthering people from Orthodox Judaism.

Furthermore, instead of separating itself from secular society by living in haredi neighborhoods or in yishuvim (depending on the type of kippah one wears) where driving on shabbat is prohibited, Orthodox Jews should be fighting for integrated Orthodox-non-Orthodox schools, and for more programs that provided substantive interactions between the two groups starting in elementary and highschool, so that Orthodox Jews and non-Orthodox Jews can have real relationships. Many O. Jews have a fear of their family being "contaminated" by too much exposure to secular culture and secular Jews, but the separaiton of Orthodox and non-Orthodox is not only a stumbling block to Israel's attempt to build a civil society, by creating many mini-socieites with little to do with each other; it also lessens the impact Orthodox Jews can have on secular society, since they are the Others lecturing to a socieyt, not integrated parts infulencing the whole. Furthermore, I think that this attitude makes many secular Jews feel they are looked upon by the Orthodox, making them more resistant to Orthodox Judaism's message.

Sometimes, the key to maintaining power is knowing when to give it up: If Louis the sixteenth had agreed to get rid of the three estates, there would be no tennis court oath, and France might still have a monarchy. The Orthodox establishment currently spends most of its efforts in a) getting funding for Orthodox institutions b) ensuring that only Orthodox authorities control government prayer spaces and weddings/lifecycle** milestones c) supressing non-Orthodox Jewish denominations. Unless the O. establishment focuses more on improving people's general Jewish education, and allows for secular marriages and other lifestyle milestones, while it still has power, as opposed to focusing on coercion and supression of other denominations, it will lose power; people are getting more and more fed up with the rabbinate, and soon might wind up leaving Judaism or turning to other denominations (lihavdil) out of pure spite.

* Women of the Wall advocates for women's rights to hold public prayers at the wall where women read out loud from the Torah and wear tallisses; it does so on the women's side of the prayer space however. Thanks to a friend for pointing out it's "Women of the Wall", not "at the Wall"
** Thank you to same friend for making me realize "lifestyle milestones" sounded like I was referring to the hundredth ejaculation using Lifestyle brand condoms...