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Underground at Jerusalem’s New Railway Station Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz is extending the line of the Tel Aviv – Jerusalem train to reach the Kosel. According to Katz, the train will continue via an underground tunnel for an additional two kilometers to the Kosel.Katz feels the extension of the line will reduce the crowds at the Binyanei Ha’uma Station and the Jerusalem Central Bus Station. The route of the train will circumvent the Old City and stop in proximity to the Kosel. The train is expected to begin operating by Pesach 2018. According to the initial plan, the train line was to end at the new Binyanei Ha’uma station but it will now continue to the Kosel. The new fast train From Tel Aviv to Jerusalem train cab view |
Jerusalem Cold Weather advice Jerusalem Municipality | עיריית ירושליםThis is the future of Jerusalem
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Temple Institute Inaugurates Historic Registry of Biblically Eligible Kohanim |
Esther Piekarski |
Israel Future Mega Projects (2018-2030) – The New Centre Of Technologyenrigue8 30April2018 |
This is not the future of Jerusalem
Chaos at the Kotel‘Women of the Wall’ infiltrates women’s section of Western Wall during mass Rosh Chodesh prayer, causing a commotion.14June2018 09:22 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/247436
Provocation at the Western Wall. Women from the group “Women of the Wall” managed to infiltrate the women’s gallery this morning, causing a commotion. The Western Wall Heritage Foundation reported that today, on (the first day of the new Hebrew month) Rosh Chodesh Tammuz, a mass prayer was held for Orthodox men and women alongside Women of the Wall at the Kotel (Western Wall). “Despite the desire of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation and the police to separate the groups, this group chose to integrate with the Orthodox women and thus created a riot and a controversy contrary to the directives of the Ministry of Justice.” “Senior officials from the Ministry of Justice were also present at the Western Wall plaza in order to closely monitor the events at the Western Wall and witnessed a blatant violation of rules and guidelines by Women of the Wall, a day after they had received a further warning in writing from the Deputy Attorney General regarding the intention to take measures against them if they violated guidelines. “Unfortunately, this morning too, the Women of the Wall came to the women’s square and created provocations and violated public order during a mass prayer on Rosh Chodesh Tammuz. “ “We will protest against this behavior and in the coming days a joint meeting will be held between the state officials qualified for decision-making. Likewise, measures against those who acted against this group in violation of procedures will be assessed.” Last week, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit ordered the Women of the Wall to pray only in the special area designated by the police and the Western Wall Heritage Foundation. The order was given following a petition by the Foundation and the police in response to disturbances which took place on Rosh Chodesh in recent months.
The Off the Wall WomenBoris Karshinov https://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/13440 The writer is an international educator, teaching and training teachers around the world. His real name is known to the editors.
This month, the Women of the Wall – perhaps better, Women off the Wall – enjoyed a hollow victory. Secluded by the police, the video cameras captured how genuinely devote they really are. Many women spent their time tweeting and taking photos. Their generally disorderly behavior contrasts strongly with last month’s pictures of the religious young girls praying with sincerity and devotion. Did these women really come to pray or to tweet? The scene looked more like a market-place. We need to thank the leaders of WoW for turning the spotlight on the Reform Movement and enabling us to see its real nature. First, we must distinguish between the actions of the WoW group and the male hreidi individuals who became violent last month. The latter were acting against the instructions of the Rabbanim through misguided zealousness or perhaps just to have some ‘fun’. In contrast, leaders of Wow are official officers of the Reform Movement and are acting with their full approval. For 24 years they have been deliberately provoking those praying at the Wall
They have succeeded in showing that the Reform Movement is morally bankrupt, intellectually dishonest, manipulative and plain deceitful. One of the videos showed an interview with 3 young women studying at the Movement’s Jerusalem theological college (even though one of their leaders declared that the Reform Movement has no theology) to become ‘rabbis’. Clearly, the girls are sincere. They should go to Neve Yerushalayim or Aish Hatorah women’s programs to get a taste of the real thing. Interestingly, there were no significant comments or talkbacks attempting to refute any of the points I raised against the Reform Movement in my last article, or indeed in any of my other articles on the WoW’s. The WoW claim that they need to don what is traditionally male ritual apparel to enhance their connection with G-d. In reality, the feelings of ‘spiritual’ elation the women have when they engage in these practices are purely psychological. Firstly because throughout the ages, apart form extremely rare exceptions, women have never sought spiritual enhancement through wearing tallis and tefillin, and never through making their own “minyanim” and reading from the Torah. This would mean that these are not the ways that G-d wants women to use if they want to come closer to Him. Throughout the ages, many pious and G-fearing women have sought ways to elevate their service to G-d, but, except for a few, in the privacy of their homes, never did they choose these means, Do the motley crowd, led by feminists and members of the Reform Movement, many of them immodestly dressed, really believe that they are more righteous than our glorious female ancestors? Secondly, many of the women are not wearing their tallit and tefillin correctly. True, they are adorning themselves with these artifacts, but they are not doing so in such a way as to be performing any mitzvot. A bar mitzva boy at the Wall, after being taught painstakingly where and how to place the tefillin headpiece (it is even on the internet, like everything else),, noticed that some of the tefillin were put on wrong and, as is absolutely not allowed, covered the women’s foreheads.. What, exactly, does wearing tefillin mean to these women, if they can’t be bothered to put them on properly? For 24 years they have been kidding themselves that they are doing mitzvot, that they have been reaching new levels of inspiration and coming closer to G-d and enhancing their prayers – and it has all been a joke. Thirdly, many of the women are not covering their hair as Judaism demands and/or dressing according to the halakhic code of modesty and it is then forbidden for them and others near them to wear tefillin. Furthermore, it is not they way of a modest Jewish woman to dance, pray and sing loudly in public and in a situation when men can see or hear her, that, too, is not the Torah’s way. Jonathan Rosenblum quotes the following incident. “Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, the preeminent Modern Orthodox thinker, made this point once to a woman who sought his permission to wear a tallit while praying. He told her she should first try wearing a four-cornered garment without the tzizit. She returned to Rabbi Soloveitchik after three-months and told him that her prayers had never been so inspired and exhilarating. He pointed out that her exhilaration came from an act that he had told her to perform, but which had no halakhic significance, and then forbade her from wearing a tallit. Rabbi Soloveitchik’s point was that an emphasis on the subjective emotional experience reflects a pagan, not Jewish, approach to prayer. Jewish prayer takes place only within the context of the Divine command”. In other words, all this so-called inspiration is a complete canard and has nothing to do with serving G-d. Thank you, Anat. You and your friends have done a great job. You have succeeded in getting publicity and having the Kotel barred to religious worshipers on the first day of the New Month. But a five year old, praying quietly at the Kotel with her religious Zionist mother on the first day of the Hebrew month, said it best. She took one look at the self-titled Women of the Wall and asked innocently, as chldren do: “Why are they dressing up as men?” Why, indeed.
City of Jerusalem refuses to renew permit for Reform Kotel plazaJerusalem District Planning and Building Committee says permit to work on expanded egalitarian section has expired, new request necessary.Arutz Sheva Staff, 30December2018 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/256918 This document means that from a legal point of view it is impossible to continue advancing the plan to expand the egalitarian prayer section at the Western Wall in the District Committee, and a new planning process should be initiated and a new request must be made. The document states that the Jerusalem Municipality and the local licensing authority believe that it is impossible to renew the permit for expansion because it has already expired and no work has begun on the ground. “Accordingly, the date on which it is possible to renew it is past,” the document says. “As explained in the letter of the Director of the Licensing and Supervision Department, Mr. Ofir May, dated December 3, 2018, the actual construction does not conform to the building permit and the applicants for the permit in meetings with the municipal engineer and his team, declared that they intend to work on a different plan than that allowed by the permit (construction in accordance with an architectural plan to improve accessibility that requires the issuance of a separate building permit),” The document also stated that the municipality’s position is consistent with the position of the new mayor, Moshe Leon. Prime Minister Netanyahu, through his representative on the committee, is currently seeking to advance the approval of the building, but it is possible that the committee, which is conducting its deliberations behind closed doors, will be forced not to allow the continuation of work there. Jerusalem Cats Comment:
‘They have turned the site into a pile of garbage’Noted archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar describes the severity of damage caused by construction of ‘egalitarian’ prayer space at Western Wall. Hezki Baruch, 22November2016 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/220689 Speaking with Arutz Sheva, respected Jerusalem archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar who excavated the Ophel area nearby described the severity of damage already caused, and efforts to stop the construction so as to prevent future damage. Mazar explained that ancient remains being damaged in the archeological complex under Robinson’s Arch near the Western Wall are one-of-a-kind. “We’re talking about the only surviving remains from the original fall of the Second Temple as it was destroyed by the Romans, [the rock slabs that] they knocked onto the original street near the Western Wall that existed during the Second Temple. This is the only place that we can show such an important and defining chapter in the history of Jerusalem, in the history of the Jewish People as it existed during the Second Temple.” Mazar said that the construction has caused serious damage: “They turned the site into a pile of garbage. It’s just unbelievable what they did there. We need to remove what they did there and leave the entire archaeological complex alone.”
Women of the Wall call to end using Wall for prayerIn court, the O-WOW attorney says, in effect, that the Kotel should be a tourist site, not a prayer site. “In actuality, there wouldn’t be a Mechitzah (gender divider partition, ed.) there at all, and I would send all of them to their synagogue. Perhaps I would earmark certain hours for them… It needs to be a public plaza. ‘All of them’ includes both observant women and those women who want to wear tzitzis (ritual fringes).” She went on to say that the Wall is not a synagogue, and should not be treated that way. Rather than arguing that women should have Torah scrolls at the Wall, she in essence argued that no one should. Orthodox men, too, would not pray if there is no partition. Leah Aharoni is co-founder of Women For the Wall, an organization created by women who pray at the Wall regularly and object, as do many others including haredi and religious Zionist women, to the disturbances created by O-WOW and Women of the Wall (WOW). “This confirms what we have said from the beginning,” she said. “They are not advocating for women’s rights. Rather, they want to deny observant Jews the ability to pray at the Wall.” Neither, she argued, is their suggestion offensive only to the observant Jews who stream to the Wall on a daily basis. “For most visitors,” she said, “the idea that they can go to the Wall at any hour of the day or night, any time of the year, and find people pouring out their hearts to G-d… that is a critical part of the experience.” This experience would be denied to millions of Jews, if the members of O-WOW were to have their way. |
