What’s She Doing There?
For some time now in Arad there has been a battle between hasidim from Habad and Gur over who has control over the central synagogue. From time to time things get a bit violent, and the confrontation from this past shabbat created a rare situation. Apparently, there was an argument over which rabbi was going to have an aliyah, and it happened to be that two policemen were passing by when the tumult was happening. In the end, a female policewoman along with a Beduin policeman had to restore order to the synagogue. Ynet has some pictures that were first published on Kikar Hashabat. The above picture is a rarity, a woman on the bimah of an orthodox synagogue in Israel on shabbat, let alone surrounded by hasidim.
February 23rd, 2011 at 7:39 pm
She is probably saying Birkat Hagomel. In some Orthodox synagogues the women come into the men’s section to do that.