W ith all the fuss about the Reform movement insisting on egalitarian prayer at the Kosel the extension of the Wall designated for that is nearly always empty. Where for example were all those dedicated sincere worshipers on 17 Tammuz the day Jews mourn the beginning of Jerusalem’s destruction? Not there…
A picture as they say is worth a thousand words. One young Israeli posted an eloquent picture on a social media forum. It shows him wrapped in tallis and tefillin and in the background the so-called “Ezrat Yisrael” — empty and desolate. The “Ezrat Yisrael ” for those who haven’t heard is the new name of the area at the southern end of the Kosel which was officially designated for non-Orthodox prayer service. Nearly half a century after the Kosel was restored to Jewish control these Jews have supposedly developed a desperate craving to conduct their rites there and in an effort to satisfy their desire Israel’s bighearted government earmarked the Robinson’s Arch section of the Wall for all those wishing to participate in egalitarian rituals.
It seems however that the would-be worshippers have decided not to desecrate the site after all for no one has been using it. The young man in the picture which was snapped last week on the Seventeenth of Tammuz points out that “no day could be more fitting for prayer at the Kosel for mourning the destruction of our Temple which began on this day. And yes the Kosel Plaza is teeming with mispallelim. But over here by our Reform brethren — nothing. Nobody is here not even for solitary prayer. And this empty plaza is an apt symbol of the religion it was designated for a religion empty of meaning.”
A sharp-penned Israeli journalist who defines herself as a dedicated atheist had this to say about the Reform segment of Jewry: “I am totally irreligious; I transgress all the mitzvos of Judaism. Tell me you Reform Jews what mitzvos you keep so I can transgress them.”
