Chabad's rabbinical leadership acquiesced to a call by heads of the most important hassidic sects - Ger, Belz, Sanz, Sadigora and Viznitz - to restrict the music and dancing to indoors, effectively preventing women from participating.
Chabad Bans Women from Succot Event
JERUSALEM, Israel — Responding to haredi pressure, Chabad blocked the participation of women in its Succot celebrations in Jerusalem’s Shikun Chabad neighborhood Tuesday night.
Chabad’s rabbinical leadership acquiesced to a call by heads of the most important hassidic sects – Ger, Belz, Sanz, Sadigora and Viznitz – to restrict the music and dancing to indoors, effectively preventing women from participating.
Last year Chabad ignored a call by the Lithuanian rabbinic leadership to tone down its festivities.
However, this year for the first time hassidic leaders joined the call.
Chabad, a hassidic sect that is known for its outreach work with assimilated or unaffiliated Jews all over the world, traditionally celebrates outdoor concerts and dancing that targets the wider Jewish population.
Chabad’s last rabbinic leader, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson – who passed away in 1994 – vigorously encouraged holding Succot festivities outdoors in the most visible locations possible.
Rabbi Menachem Brod, spokesman for Chabad in Israel, said that Schneerson, known as “the rebbe,” directed his followers to “take the Torah from the study halls to streets” on Succot.
“We will continue to follow the rebbe’s orders in all locations except Jerusalem, where the local public specifically requested that we respect their sensitivities,” he said.
Chabad events at other venues during the holiday will take place outdoors. Both men and women, separated by partitions, will be allowed to participate.
Rabbi Mordechai Bloi, a senior member of the Guardians of Sanctity and Education, an organization based in Bnei Brak that enforces what it sees as normative haredi behavior, praised Chabad.
“The rebbe of Chabad told his hassidim to spread the joy in the streets, but he was not talking about haredi areas,” said Bloi. “Let them do what they want in secular areas.
”The Talmud teaches that even in the time of Temple men and women were strictly separated and this was called ‘the big tikkun.’ I am happy that this year we will have this tikkun in Jerusalem.“
Brod said that Chabad respected the call by the rabbis to maintain strict codes of modesty. However, he added that the increasingly stringent demands by haredi rabbis that have effectively brought about a total ban of outdoor concerts might be counterproductive.
”If haredim are not given a kosher option for musical entertainment they might end up turning to non-kosher options,“ he said. ”As a result of the changes we made this year in Jerusalem, women who came to our annual event in the past will be forced to stay home.
“Only time will tell whether or not this is the best policy to adopt,” he said.
unbelievable
utterly discusted… women and men alike should be sharing this simcha.
Bob
We’re 20 years away from wearing Burka’s. The Rebbe would be very proud.
CHOSSID
we should do the same in CH
Chana from Israel
This is the wrong policy. And davka in Yerushalayim, we should make sure to firmly stand our ground. Chareidi women, as it is, have severely limited options; something like this will only cause these women to let the kids dance with their husbands, and then go off to a bar, for lack of anything else to do.
mem lamed vov
‘“The rebbe of Chabad told his hassidim to spread the joy in the streets, but he was not talking about haredi areas,” said Bloi. “Let them do what they want in secular areas.’
huh? if the rebbe wasn’t talking to hareidim, the WHO was he talking to? and ask yourself what they did IN YERUSHALAYIM in the BAIS HAMIKDASH(!) for simchas bais hashoeiva??? WAS THERE NOT AN EZRAS NOSHIM?
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‘”If haredim are not given a kosher option for musical entertainment they might end up turning to non-kosher options,“ he said. ”As a result of the changes we made this year in Jerusalem, women who came to our annual event in the past will be forced to stay home.’
couldn’t have said it better!
sukkers
lubavitch has become like israel – bowing to the rest of the world. When, if they would stand their ground (the Rebbe’s ground), then the world would be ‘a horse of a different colour’
EX CHER
FOLLOW THE MONEY BOYS AND GIRLS. FOLLOW THE MONEY. THATS ALL THIS IS ABOUT
ML London
Wow. What a lot of interesting comments. Just perhaps the Rabbonim are right. Just perhaps we have drugs on the streets, zenus on the streets,lack of tznius big time – just read the article by Rabbi Hecht – and the number of our kids going off is astronomical in comparison! They came out against the internet and cell phones and you big chachomim made fun. Well experience has taught us that we were wrong! Oh and by the way, the ezras noshim had a balconey built to prevent mixing at the simchas beis hashoevah in the Beis HaMikdosh – Mishna in Succah! And they weren’t Chassidim of the Baal Shem Tov! We are, and it behoves us to have the standards suitable. If you want to wear the begodim and have the standard of bnei akiva then that’s fine. But be aware, that is not what the Rebbe zy“o approved of and there was no mixing in 770!
The vast majority of Chassidishe women and frum women do not have a problem with this and we are perfectly capable of putting on our own entertainment. Or are you suggesting that poor little women do not have the skills needed – the Rebbe zy”o held very highly of us. As far as Chana is concerned – you are totally out of line! I and thousands of Chassidishe women, Chabad and others would rather be seen dead than in a BAR – your suggestion is indecent!
A liberal lubavitcher
Why can’t women make their own simchas beis hashoeva? Who needs to be with the men. It would be so beautiful for women to have their own music and dancing!
mimush
the rebbe wanted anoshim,vnoshim vtaf. why did tzach go against the rebbes ratzon. i guess we owe this to tovia bloi, where is shmuel greisman, when we need him..
LOVE CROWN HEIGHTS IN TISHREI
THE REBBE OF CHABAD MADE THIS STATEMENT ABOUT SIMCHAS BAIS HASHOEVA TO BE DANCED IN THE STREET UNTIL THE STREETS WILL TREMBLE SAID THIS IN RELATION TO CROWN HEIGHTS, THE YERUSHOLAYIM SHE BI BOVEL NOT SOME NON FRUM AREA! AND HE KNEW EXACTLY WHAT THE SETUP WOULD BE. BUT HE TRUSTED THAT OUR MEN HAVE MORE CONTROL OVER THEIR YETZER HARAHS THEN THAT SO THAT THEIR WIVES AND DAUGHTERS CAN SHARE IN THE SIMCHA AND BE TREATED AS EQUALS AND THEY STILL REMAIN FRUM CHASIDISHE YUNGELIET AND CHASIDIM REGARDLESS. ON THE CONTRARY, THE REBBE SAID THE WOMEN SHOULD ENCOURGE THE MEN’S DANCING BY CLAPPING ALONG TO THE MUSIC.
LOVE CROWN HEIGHTS IN TISHREI
THE CHABAD RABONIM THAT WENT ALONG WITH THIS NETUREI KARTA STYLE ARE ACTUALLY GOING AGAINST WHAT THE REBBE SAID.
LOVE CROWN HEIGHTS IN TISHREI
CHOSSID WROTE….. WHAT IS HE A SATMAR CHOSID? THIS IS NOT THE ATTITUDE OF LUBAVITCH!
PEOPLE SEE WHAT THEY WANT TO SEE. ALL I SAW LAST NIGHT WAS BEAUTIFUL DANCING. NOT THAT I’LL FOOL MYSELF THAT THE REST DIDN’T GO ON THAT SHOULD NOT HAVE BUT I WENT THERE FOR THE DANCING AND THAT’S WHAT I ENDED UP SEEING AAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLL NIGHT! OH YES, I ACTUALLY ALSO SAW A BUNCH OF MEN WITH SHTREIMLACH COME TO JOIN THE DANCING. THAT LOOKED PRETTY GOOD TO ME.
a woman waiting for the geulah!!
Strange…they let their women go out to work to make a living so that they can stay within their holy daled amos. Did it ever dawn on pople that women can participate in simchas bais hashoeva within the boundries of halacha in ofen tzenua?
bezchus nashim tzidkonious…