Rabbi's Letter

A man wanted to throw a party for all his friends. So he drew up a guest list and instructed his servant to send out the invitations. One of the men on the guest list was named "Kamtza," but the servant made a mistake and invited "Bar Kamtza" instead. Bar Kamtza was actually a sworn enemy of the host!

When Bar Kamtza received his invitation, he was very grateful thinking that the host had finally made amends. But when Bar Kamtza showed up at the party, the host took one look and told his servant to have Bar Kamtza immediately removed from the premises.

When asked to leave, Bar Kamtza said, "I understand the mistake. But it's embarrassing for me to leave the party. I'll gladly pay the cost of my meal if you'll allow me to stay." The host would hear nothing of this, and reiterated his demand to have Bar Kamtza removed. Bar Kamtza appealed again, "I'd even be willing to pay HALF the cost of the entire party, if only I'd be allowed to stay." Again the request was denied. At which point, the distraught Bar Kamtza pleaded, "I'll pay for the entire party! Just please don't embarrass me in this way!"

The host, however, stuck to his guns and threw Bar Kamtza out. The Talmud reports that Bar Kamtza was so hurt and upset, that he went straight to the Roman authorities and gave slanderous reports of disloyal behavior among the Jews. To make a long story short, this fueled the Romans' anger, and they proceeded to attack and destroy the Holy Temple.

Unfortunately, there are plenty of disputes among the Jewish people today carried out in the type of environment depicted in the Talmudic tale, where hostility and mistrust reign. As I write these lines, I am particularly aware of the incident that took place this past July 12, when Anat Hoffman, the head of Women of the Wall, was arrested and banned from the Western Wall for 30 days for holding a Torah scroll at the site. She was arrested by Jerusalem police, following the monthly women's Rosh Chodesh prayer service, and held for five hours before being released. I met Hoffman last summer while in Israel; she is a passionate and articulate activist of the Movement for Progressive Judaism in Israel and serves as head of the Religious Action Center – the public and legal advocacy arm of the Reform Movement in Israel.

As they do at the start of every month, Israel’s Women of the Wall gather and hold their services at the Women's section of the Wall. They then exit the plaza, and walk to the archeological site nearby known as Robinson’s Arch, where they read from the Torah scroll. They do this because in 2003 Israel’s Supreme Court prohibited women from praying as a group and reading from the Torah at the Wall. Instead, they were given permission to gather at Robinson’s Arch, along the Southern Wall of the Temple. The Supreme Court thought this was a good compromise to preserve public safety, and at the same time, give the women the opportunity to pray as a group.

Apparently, when the women gathered this past July 12 they took the Torah scroll from the bag in which they were carrying it earlier than they were permitted to do so. They began dancing with it as they left the Western Wall and made their way to Robinson’s Arch. Hoffman was arrested immediately afterwards. This is not the first time that a woman was arrested for having a Torah by the Wall….

The story in the Talmud reminds us of how baseless hatred corrodes the moral fabric of society and of the need to work towards greater inclusion of groups like Women of the Wall, who are marginalized by the establishment in Israel.

B’shalom,