Unkosher red herring

Unkosher red herring

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach would not approve of women praying at the kotel while wearing a tallit or tefillin (and what authority does he have to approve or disprove this? Why, the same authority that Eli, the high priest at Shilo had to condemn Hannah!) because this would open “the door to every group demanding a special place at this holiest of sites….” (“Religious blessing and spiritual blasphemy,” September 6.)

Well, the Kotel is not a holy place – did God call it “holy”? Where? Though we Jews regard it as sacred – it is the Temple’s outer wall – God never did. Judaism has no holy stones. Only pagans have them! Doing mitzvot imparts holiness, and wearing a tallit, because it has tzitzit, is holy work.

But Jewish women are not a “group,” as Rabbi Boteach calls them. They are our mothers, daughters, sisters, and teachers.

And last but not least, what other groups ask for the permission to wear a tallit at the Kotel?

This red herring ain’t kosher.

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