It's hard to remember the last time the members of the national-Haredi organization Liba came under such widespread and stinging criticism, even in conservative, Orthodox circles, as they did after members of the group disrupted prayers and a reading of Lamentations at the Ezrat Yisrael plaza near the Western Wall on Tisha B'Av. At this plaza, south of the Western Wall, men and women pray together, and Reform, Conservative, and modern Orthodox Jews take part.
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On Tisha B'Av this year, a little more than two weeks ago, Liba set up a curtain there to separate the men from the women as part of what they called "the battle for the Jewish identity of the Western Wall." The result was a fight and clashes on a day when many in Israel were talking about the heavy price we pay for baseless hatred.
The criticism that carried the most weight, it seems, came in the form of a "bombshell" released a few days after the incident by Rabbi Eliezer Melamed of Har Brakha, a leading figure in religious Zionism who is generally identified with its more observant, conservative wing.
While Melamed stressed that he was not versed in the events of Tisha B'Av as observed at the Ezrat Yisrael plaza, and his statement was one of principle, he called on the general public and Rabbi of the Western Wall Shmuel Rabinovitch in particular to promote visits by and welcome the Reform and Conservative Jews who come to pray there. Melamed's statement challenges rabbinical conduct that from time to time adopts tactics of exclusion and instilling fear, especially when it comes to Reform and Conservative Jews.
The explanation for his statements lie in a seemingly minor incident that took place about a month ago, when Melamed devoted one of his halachic-current events columns in the Besheva newspaper to the halachic aspects of the IUD method of birth control. Rabbis who a month later were to be "shocked" by his remarks about the Western Wall and Reform Jews, were already appalled at such a sensitive and intimate issue as an IUD being discussed publicly.
But that criticism, which had to do with the aspects of niddah (the part of the woman's menstrual cycle during which husbands and wives are not allowed to have marital relations), apparently released something in Melamed. Close associates say that his reaction to his critics about the column was correct when it came to the controversy about Reform and Conservative prayer at the Western Wall.
"The reality is," Melamed wrote, "That unfortunately, too often there is pressure that threatens rabbis so they do not dare express their positions when it is different from that of the most stringently observant. The pressure comes mainly from zealous students … who stir up a dispute about the rabbi who appears to have stepped out of line.

"Disputes like these can damage their [the rabbis'] public standing that embitter their lives with accusations and slander, and who has the energy to spend his time disproving them … Because of this, they have retreated and been deterred, and the Torah has become lessened and obscured, and the people have seen more troubles. Therefore I have decided that every time I feel that I am being threatened, I will gather up my courage and have my say in the most public manner possible … to make my modest contribution to stopping the approach of violence and boycotts in centers of learning … in my opinion, the commandment that prevents rabbinical judges from acting out of fear is so vital to the existence of the Torah that it takes precedence over the unpleasantness of addressing this issue publicly," Melamed wrote.
Melamed chose not to be interviewed for this article, but his family members sent Israel Hayom recorded lessons as well as some of his writings, which are no less than revolutionary, at least from a national-Haredi perspective. These materials lay out a coherent worldview about the appropriate attitude to adopt towardReform and Conservative Jews, which is already causing debate among Orthodox rabbis.
On the other hand, for the first time in years, leaders of the other two streams of Judaism feel that they have a chance of breaking down the Orthodox establishment's boycott of them.
"Sometimes the clearest, simplest, most elementary things are the most moving," CEO of the Conservative-Masorti Movement Rakefet Ginsburg said last week.
To sanctify, not desecrate
Melamed thinks that "the religious and Haredi public who observe the commandments and customs" should not feel badly that Conservative and Reform Jews visit the Western Wall. The opposite – they should "rejoice that more Jewish brethren are connected to the place where the Temple stood, and that more Jewish brethren want to pray to our heavenly father." He suggests that they "look at it as something positive, even though we disagree with what they changed in Jewish law. We know how to respect and value all that is good in them. Praising God is greater than taking his name in vain," Melamed explains, suggesting that Rabinovitch "honor Jews from all streams" and welcome those who come to pray at the Ezrat Yisrael plaza.
Although the Ezrat Yisrael plaza does not come under Rabinovitch's "jurisdiction," Melamed argues that "it should be a place to which he accords the greatest respect … despite the fact that he would not pray with them because he adheres to Jewish law, he should be very happy if they came to pray at the Western Wall itself and should encourage them to visit the Western Wall regularly and in the biggest groups possible, and even instruct the ushers to help them as much as possible … and if they need Bibles, to provide them with the greatest respect … and direct the women who want to read from the Torah on Rosh Hodesh to the Ezrat Yisrael plaza and ensure that all their needs are respected."
Melamed hasn't "gone AWOL" or "switched sides," but his words about the Western Wall reflect a clear decision to fight against the exclusionary approach. He makes it clear that he will not take part in Reform prayers or weddings, and even thinks that doing so gives them tacit approval. But "even though these are Jewish movements that do not reflect the tradition of the Torah … they are Jewish movements that observe Jewish customs. The Jewish aspects of life are important to them. They have important ideals about tikkun olam, and they try to strengthen their friends' Jewish identity and thereby hold back the process of assimilation, in the broadest sense of forgetting Judaism," he writes.
Melamed even holds the opinion that no distinction can be drawn between bans on the leaders and representatives of the non-Orthodox streams of Judaism and the members of those movements. "There is no way of boycotting only the representative and not boycotting the individuals," he states. "Just like we do not boycott other movements whose members include Jews and which deal with education, culture, ceremonies, and activity in Jewish communities, and feel commitment to and responsibility for all the Jewish people and the residents of Israel."
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Melamed's statements come after he held a series of meetings and conversations with leaders of the "banned" movements. Close associates say that these meetings strengthened the rabbi's "familiarity with these people's good intention and their desire to maintain some kind of contact between their communities and Judaism." He has held at least two such meetings in recent years.
Also present at one of these meetings was Dr. Moshe Weinstock, former chairman of the Education Ministry's pedagogical secretariat.
"It was a two-hour conversation with Sharon Brous, the Conservative rabbi from Los Angeles," Weinstock says. Brous is a left-winger who opposed the settlements, and eight years ago Newsweek named her one of the most influential rabbis in the US. In January 2013, she was invited to pray when former US President Barack Obama was sworn in for a second term.
According to Weinstock, in November 2020, Brous "poured criticism" on Israel's policies in Judea and Samaria. "Rabbi Melamed visited her, shaking with anger, looked her right in the face, and told her, 'You are hurting me. I'm a settler, and I live near Nablus. I'm a man of halacha and a very moral man, and you are calling me evil." Weinstock says that Brous grew pale, and looked at Melamed for a long time, and then began a dialogue with him.
"They held a long, in-depth conversation," Weinstock says. "At first, he showed her she was wrong, and she listened. Then they discussed a lot of things about which they didn't agree, but she was listening. At the end of the discussion Brous promised him, 'Rabbi Melamed, the next time I'm in Israel, I'll spend a day or two visiting you and your wife, Inbal, at Har Brakha. I'd like to truly get to know you, and listen to what you have to say. I don't know if I'll change my mind, but at least we'll get to know each other."
Together, with no separation
After Melamed's statements about prayers at the Ezrat YIsrael plaza, a series of photographs from the end of the Ottoman Empire were republished online, in which men and women can be seen praying at the Western Wall together, or at least standing near each other at what used to be the Western Wall alleyway.
These pictures, to, have a place in the renewed dispute about the Ezrat Yisrael prayer area, and the question about whether men and women prayed together at the Western Wall 100 years ago.
Lenny Ben-David of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and an expert on photographs of the Land of Israel taken in the 19th and 20th centuries, says that toward the end of the Ottoman Empire, the authorities prevented Jews from setting up any kind of separation between men and women. Moreover, at the time, the Western Wall was a "narrow, crowded alley, where it was hard to maintain separation. People, men and women, were pushed together toward the fence of the Mughrabi neighborhood delineated the Western Wall alley.
"You also need to remember," Ben-David says, "that the photographers of the time sometimes moved the subjects around according to their desire. The shawls the women wear that cover their heads and shoulders are also part of the story. The old women of Mea Shearim have given testimony about it. They said that those big shawls were their 'separation.'"