I was at the Western Wall late one evening. It was quite empty. In addition to my small group of friends (five of us in all), the only people there were a few of the ubiquitous soldiers, a group of Yeshiva (seminary) students, and a college or high school group from the United States. The Yeshiva group was exclusively males, as Orthodox Judaism allows only males to become rabbis, and the US group was co-ed. They weren’t mixing, so there was no trouble at first.
The Yeshiva students formed a circle and began singing and dancing. I was moved, thinking how anemic my own liberal Protestant worship forms were. At some point, a young woman from the US group began dancing also. The Yeshiva teacher began yelling at her with such an intensity that it got a bit scary. The US group’s chaperone herded the group off somewhere else.
This all happened while my group was standing back in the plaza overlooking the large area beneath the wall itself. This spooked us enough that we just went back to our hotel. Later in our tour (the next day maybe), the entire tour group of about 150 went to the Western Wall. Those of us who wished went into the area right up at the wall. I couldn’t help thinking about the exclusivity of the entire spatial arrangement. Men on the left side, women on the right, Jews and vistors at the bottom of the wall, Muslims and visitors at the top of the wall where the Dome of the Rock is.
All in all, my feelings about the place are still very ambiguous.
over 6 years ago