re: #661 LudwigVanQuixote

ON the contrary, the separation of sexes at prayer is precisely for sexual reasons. The idea is that you should be focusing on prayer and not flirting.

As to the norm, or who gets to decide what is Jewish, I have to completely disagree with you. A religion is defined by what it believes and the rules and practices it follows for whatever reason.

The Conservative and Reform movements were founded on the principle of “throwing out” bits that they did not like. I would never call the child of a Jewish mother not Jewish. However, to claim that whatever fun thing you do that violates Jewish law is Jewish is simply insulting.

That does not make you wrong or bad. It means you are not observant and that is your choice. Again you may be right, and like I said, I personally have problems, big problems with certain parts of the Tradition too. However, I do not kid myself as to what the Tradition is. I do not try to redefine it. I do not try to claim it is something other than it is.

This is just like a Catholic sect that became convinced that you do not take communion and that Jesus was actually a short Asian woman. They have every right to believe that. However, that is not Catholicism.

The Kotel is the physical center of the Tradition. Agree with it or not, some things should be preserved intact and pristine. It is not the place of me, or anyone else to try to change what that Tradition is particularly if it involves non-discriminatory rules that harm no one except the egos of certain disrespectful women.

I don’t redefine tradition (but I choose not to capitalize it), I simply do not think it has the power some assign to it. Also, traditions (not just Jewish, but any tradition) are not a-historical entities immune to change through the ages, even though they are portrayed as if they were. That’s just not how history works.
The Kotel symbolizes a lot of different things to different Jews. I agree that the Kotel should be preserved. I do not see how women wearing a Talit taint the purity of it more than tourists wearing flip-flops and taking photos, yet the Haredim do not see the latter as a casus belli for rioting.
I do not agree with your assertion that forbidding women from wearing a Talit in that particular location is non-discriminatory. And I also don’t see why the egos of certain disrespectful women are less valuable than the self-righteousness three misogynist ultra-Orthodox Jews.