A post in The Times of Israel blogs raised an interesting issue that should cause us all to take pause for a moment and consider our actions and responses. The post compared our reactions, the reactions of most people being the same, to this incident in which we all told her that it is a public space and she should mind her own business and they have just as much a right to be there and do their thing as she, and between our reactions to the fairly regular incidents at the Kotel of women, led by Women of the Wall, putting on tefillin and reading from the Torah and the reaction of Haredi people nearby and the reactions of people around the world who see the images.
When confronted with the Chabadnik putting tefillin on someone we said he is in a public space and has the right to do so, with a willing partner, and they should be left alone. Why is it that so many of us do not say the same thing regarding the Women of the Wall at the Kotel? They are putting on tefillin in a public space, everyone else should mind their own business - whether you like what they are doing or not/ Scream at them and whistle at them to disturb and harass them? What makes you, or us, any better than this childish professor in the airport?
I am open to hearing reasoned explanations as to what the differences are, as to why we can support the Chabadnik's rights but not the rights of Women of the Wall.
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