Judge seeks rabbis’ input on separated prayer in Tel Aviv
The court needs to know whether the Chief Rabbinate requires a divider between the sexes when praying outside.
For the second time this month, the Tel
Aviv District Court postponed ruling on a petition asking it to order
the municipality to allow sex-separated prayers on Yom Kippur on public
grounds.
In the hearing on Thursday, Judge Erez Yakuel instructed
the municipality to obtain by Sept. 19 a position paper from the Tel
Aviv Religious Council, which is subordinate to the Chief Rabbinate, on
the municipality’s claim that Jewish law does not require a divider to
separate the sexes when praying outside.
The municipality claimed this at a preliminary hearing last week on a petition by 14 residents and the Rosh Yehudi group, whose mission statement is strengthening Jewish identity. The petitioners went to court following the municipality’s refusal last month to issue a permit for the annual Yom Kippur prayer that Rosh Yehudi has been organizing at Dizengoff Square in recent years. The holy day begins this year at sunset on Oct. 11.
The events of last year’s Yom Kippur prayer at Dizengoff Square, which Rosh Yehudi held with a permit, shocked Jews and others across the world. Secular activists interrupted the event, tearing down Rosh Yehudi’s dividers—frames made of flexible materials to symbolically separate the sexes while respecting the municipality’s ban on physical barriers. Some activists threw prayer books into the square’s fountain as they harassed and chased away Jews trying to pray on Judaism’s holiest day.
At last week’s hearing, the judge postponed ruling because he wanted the parties to compromise. Rosh Yehudi told the court it would move the event to anywhere in the city. The municipality insisted it could not allow sex-separated prayer because this would discriminate against women.
https://www.jns.org/judge-seeks-rabbis-input-on-separated-prayer-in-tel-aviv/?
Those interested in pursuing this topic, see Sefer Chassidim 393; Yam Shel Shelomo, Ketuvot 1:20; Levush, Likkutei Minhangim 36; Bach, Even Ha-Ezer 62; and Kitzur Shulchan Arukh 149. See also Iggerot Moshe OC 1:41 and Seridei Eish 1:77. PM.
3 comments:
Of course this entire case is irrelevant. The city allows Muslims to put up mechitzas and have public prayers. This is clearly anti-religious animus.
From a totally neutral standpoint, they purposely chose Dizengoff Square to drive the "Not Yet Religious" crazy!
Look, when Tel Aviv said no last year, they should have gone elsewhere instead of causing a riot.
But now that Tel Aviv has allowed Muslims to do the same thing in the name of religious tolerance, they have to be allowed too.
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