By Abby Reddy, NFTY in Israel Participant, Bus 4
The Western Wall. I’ve been waiting to visit it since kindergarten. I’ve had a great Jewish education and went to Hebrew school for nine years, so it’s not surprising that I’ve learned about it before. Every time someone talked about the Wall, I imagined a huge, beautiful golden wall, like you see in the pictures on the internet.
Then we got there, and I honestly didn’t know we were there at first. And I looked up, and there it was. It was a beautiful golden wall, but it wasn’t so huge, at least not on the women’s side.
The women’s side was about half the size of the men’s side and while the women had to wait in line to pray at the Wall, men had an abundant amount of empty space and got to pray at the Wall.
Don’t get me wrong- the Wall was one of the best experiences of my life. I felt the most spiritual I’ve ever felt. The feeling of praying at the Wall left me speechless.
I also loved being surrounded by so many strong, beautiful women. I witnessed so many meaningful things by being with only women. A woman brought her newborn baby and had her touch the Kotel for the first time. Another woman was pregnant and held her baby bump in her hands and cried as she prayed.
I may have not noticed these things if I had been with men and women, but I feel as if we just need to open our eyes to this issue. I’m not sure how long it will take, or if it will happen, or if I’m even sure what I want. Would I want women and men to have the same amount of space or would I just want us to all pray together in peace?
I truly don’t know, but I do know that I want something to change.
