To our Beth El Family,

Rosh Chodesh tov - happy Rosh Chodesh! 

With each new moon, I avidly read the news from our movement's Israel Religious Action Center and a group called Women of the Wall.  Only on one morning a month (on Rosh Chodesh) are women allowed to pray with a loud voice at the Western Wall.  Many women take the opportunity to also wear tallisim (prayer shawls).  This morning at the Western Wall five women were arrested for wearing prayer shawls, questioned for several hours, and then released. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tasked the Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky to help bring about a resolution.  Yesterday Sharansky presented a plan to American Jewish leaders to expand the Western Wall Plaza in order to include a permanent space for egalitarian prayer.  While the location of the space, at Robinson's Arch, is not ideal, it is a significant step forward in making the Jewish sites of our holy land more pluralistic. As Anat Hoffman, the director of our Reform Movement's Israel Religious Action Center and chair of Women of the Wall remarked in an interview, "It's not everything we were hoping for, but we will compromise. You don't always have to be right, you have to be smart, and compromise is a sign of maturity and understanding what's at stake here."

It is ironic that the middah I selected for this month is patience savlanut.  In this study guide (Click Here), I ask you to contemplate the question, "When it comes to social justice when should we  be patient and when should we act with urgency?" 

May we make our voices heard so that Israel, Jerusalem, and our Western Wall can be a place that welcomes all.