Masses in Mea Shearim

B"H

Perfect weather. More then 20° C and sunshine. Trees are blossoming and summer seems to be straight ahead of us. Nevertheless, winter is not over yet, as it is only March.

With a friend of mine I went to the Karlin – Stolin Synagogue for Maariv on Erev Shabbat. Many of you know Karlin – Stolin and their devoted prayers where they shout out the words, are more than famous and popular. Somehow Karlin – Stolin is becoming a ritual. There can hardly be another great Maariv prayer on Erev Shabbat as at their synagogue.

I admit that there aren't too many women taking part in the service and the Ezrat Nashim is empty. If you are lucky you can find five or six of them. And even if, the majority consists of visitors like us. But this doesn't mean you cannot have a great service. I can only recommend at Karlin – Stolin. The group even has its own Sidur called "Beit Aharon and Israel".

Afterwards we took part in our second ritual.
We went for a Shabbat meal to Rabbi Mordechai Machlis. Although the Rabbi doesn’t want any political talks in his house on Shabbat, he began his "ceremony" with a speech about the tragic events at the Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva in the Kiryat Moshe neighbourhood.
Eight Yeshiva students were shot by an Arab Terrorist and more than 30 were wounded. Rabbi Machlis had been to the mass funeral on Friday morning. As we are not allowed to mourn on Shabbat, the Rabbi made a very emotional speech but from one second to the other, his son Yehoshua changed the subject with a song.

After the meal, we went straight to the Dushinsky Synagogue were a Tish took place.

Next time we have to leave the Machlis house earlier, as most Tishes start at 10pm at the moment. The result of our showing up at 11pm was that we couldn't find a place behind the Dushinsky Mechitzah. I had a quick look on Rebbe Yosef Zvi Dushinsky and that was it.

Our next destination was Krechtnif. And there, we were lucky. An empty Ezrta Nashim except for the Rebbitzen who showed up with her daughters and in – laws. The only problem is that someone at Kretchnif had this great "idea" of hanging up some plastic foil on the metal Mechitzah. Now we have to stare through this foil and when you do so for ten minutes, your eyes just go crazy.
After about 20 minutes, we were dizzy enough and ready to leave. A pity, because the Krechnifer have such a great Tish and I like the Rebbitzen. Let alone the Rebbe dancing by himself.

Can please anyone take off this plastic foil.
I promise not to climb over or do something immodest. But just return the the status quo of the old Mechitzah !!!!!

We started walking down Mea Shearim Street and guess what:
The two entrance doors to the Mishkenot HaRoim building were wide open and shouted at us: "Come in, come in"!!!
The Mishkenot HaRoim are not really a chassidic group in a normal sense. They are rather a kind of secret group or organization whose present head is Rabbi Chaim Rabinovicz. Extremely anti – Zionist, secret and a member of the Edah HaCharedit.

However, don't get too excited now.
Very fast we realized that both doors are for men only.
Now what ?
Dress up as a men or give up ?
I started looking for a third entrance. But nothing. It cannot be that only men pray in this building. How about the group members wives ? Where do they pray ?
Maybe a good idea would be to finally go to the Neturei Karta Synagogue and investigate there. Someone might have an idea. It was such a pity because the Mishkenot HaRoim had a Tish.

A few meters further away, we reached the Shomrei Emunim Synagogue. But no Tish took place.

So guess what we did ?
Of course, we started our third ritual which is called "Toldot Aharon". It was Tish – time but unfortunately, it was so packed, that we didn't see much. Hundreds of women were standing on the metal benches and pushing each other. We stayed for a little more than half an hour and then escaped the scene. There was no air inside and an incredible heat.

The next morning I was really in my Neturei Karta mood.
I wasn't suddenly anti – Zionist but felt like something challenging. However, I ended up at Toldot Aharon for Shacharit. This happens when you get to Mea Shearim Street and this is the first place you see. I couldn't resist but I should have.

I walked in and saw the same as the night before. Women's legs on the metal benches everywhere. There was no space and eventually I chose the very last back bench. Now, don't ask me anything what was going on. I was there for almost three hours and saw NOTHING from the service. The truth is that I didn't even hear the service. Maybe a few words but that was it. The Toldot Aharon Mechitzah for Shabbat is simply a disaster. They put the metal bars onto the glass because the light is turned on and the men from downstairs might see the women.

There is only one thing I can tell for sure:
They had another Shabbat Chatan. Three or four young couples are getting married this week.

As you can imagine, I didn't have a great spiritual prayer service. In fact, I had no service. I prayed the Amidah twice, as everybody placed herself in position and finally even I realized what was going on. Otherwise there was just nothing.
However, the group members were in their talking moods and I had some nice brief discussions instead.

Well, what do you do when you sit in a synagogue and don't know what is happening ?
You look around.
This is exactly what I did. I stared at the clothes and head covers. Suddenly I noticed that a very young girl didn't stop staring at me. She couldn't have been older than 17 or 18 years old. She was definitely newly married. Maybe only for a few weeks.

I don't know how why but I always attract the desperate. I can enter a room with a thousand people but all the desperate only jump on me.

And the girl was desperate. Totally sad and I am sure that she has been crying out her eyes. Maybe her marriage is not the best, who knows. I had this experience a few months ago with another girl.

In the meantime, I tried looking into different directions but the girl kept on staring with the look "I want to switch with you".
Almost at the end, she left together with her mother but kept staring.

Later on I told my friend that there is another "case" and she just replied: "Oh, no".

But I promised one thing to myself. The Toldot Aharon Tish is great but the synagogue service at the Ezrat Nashim is just a disaster. I don't know how all the other women suffer through this by not seeing and not hearing. They probably got used to it.