Religious Services Minister, Naftali Bennett, meets the Women of the Wall organization & proposes allowing women to pray out loud & wear prayer shawls, but not wearing tefillin or reading an open Torah.
By Yehuda Shlezinger
Religious Services Minister Naftali Bennett (Habayit Hayehudi) met with the Women of the Wall organization on Tuesday after Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein instructed him to devise specific statutes defining what kind of religious observances would be allowed at the Wall.
During the meeting, Bennett proposed allowing women to wear prayer shawls and pray out loud, but not to wear tefillin and read from open Torah scrolls.
The sides agreed to think matters over, but regardless, to refrain from provocations during the upcoming Friday prayer service.
Women of the Wall Chairwoman Anat Hoffman said: “We agreed that we would not bring a Torah scroll with us on Rosh Hodesh Sivan [the beginning of the Jewish month of Sivan]. It is painful for us and offensive that on Rosh Hodesh Sivan, the day that God gave the Torah to the people of Israel, we won’t be able to bring a Torah with us and read from it.”
The Knesset Committee on the Status of Women also discussed the matter on Tuesday. Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky, who is charged with planning the Western Wall plaza’s new layout, which will allocate space for liberal and egalitarian prayer services without offending the feelings of more conservative and traditional worshippers, also attended the meeting.
View original Israel Hayom publication at: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=9149