Last Rosh Chodesh (November 29, 2019), I went to the Kotel to pray Shacharit (the morning service) with Nashot HaKotel, known in English as Women of the Wall (WOW). Every Rosh Hodesh, Women of the Wall organize a group of women to pray aloud on the women's side of the wall, where women are not allowed to do so. In addition, WOW has attempted to bring in a Torah to read, which is forbidden for women at the wall.
Praying at the Hotel with Women of the Wall was not what I expected it to be. I had prepared myself for a morning of spirited prayer and song isolated to a small community of women. However, when I arrived, I was met with an entirely different reality.
While I knew that WOW was always met with anger and protest, being in the midst of it made it all feel real. Every word we sang aloud was defiance, and the group treated it as such. We said every word aloud we could, our voices echoed by a wall of insults from teenage girls and endless "shushing" from one older woman circling our group.
When we finally finished Shacharit (which included reading the Torah on a parchment and having a Bat Mitzvah), we faced the mob of religious men and women shouting at us at the entrance to the women's section. This was when everything began to come together: the protest-like prayer, the security, and the fear. We linked arms with any women around us and pushed our way through the noisy crowds until we had safely exited the plaza.
This is what Women of the Wall meant to me: protest through prayer.
