Stuck in the middle

A 166-page Chief Rabbinate court brief, many hours of deliberations, countless headlines and endless chatter have been generated by the pointless battle over the administrative rights at the Western Wall, a battle in which both sides say one thing, but mean something entirely different.

The non-Orthodox movements have chosen to wage this battle because it is guaranteed to attract high-profile media attention. It is much easier to fight over the Western Wall than over conversion issues and marriage licensing, even though behind close doors the representatives of those movements will concede that these areas are much more important to them than being granted the right to pray at the Western Wall once a year. In much smaller forums, they also complain about the small platform on which they are currently allowed to hold non-Orthodox services at the Western Wall. They lament that no one can see them there. In other words, the issue of holding services is not the problem; what bothers them is their lack of recognition.

The other side's actions are hardly motivated by the sanctity of the place either. In fact, the ultra-Orthodox consider this battle a holy war against non-Orthodox movements. Although the Western Wall is the only remnant of the Temple complex left standing, leading rabbinical figures have long prohibited their followers from praying there because of the large number of secular, immodestly dressed Israelis there. Haredi figures have occasionally said it would be best to ignore provocations staged by Women of the Wall and similar groups, saying their protests would not be able to undo the damage done by the provocation.

So on the one side we have the Reform Jews whose sole objective is recognition, and on the other side we have the haredim, who are fighting to deny that recognition. As for the Western Wall, it is stuck right there in the middle, along with the people of Israel, who have not been following the court proceedings or the headlines closely.

There is a great swath of the general public that simply has no interest in these battles. It has been raised on respecting every form of religion, and that is how it has been raising its own children. Those who arrive at the Western Wall for study, prayer, or just to see the site during the summer break, are worlds apart from those petty fights. They dress modestly and behave appropriately when they visit churches around the world, and likewise, when they arrive at the Western Wall, they gladly take one of the paper kippot handed out at the site and then proceed to show their children how to put a note in the wall. They couldn't care less about the ongoing battle over the Western Wall. As far as they are concerned, others should grapple with it.

טעינו? נתקן! אם מצאתם טעות בכתבה, נשמח שתשתפו אותנו