Star Trek Inspired Birkat Kohanot

A petition was submitted to the High Court on Monday asking the court to issue an order nisi and a demand for an urgent deliberation to prevent the “Women of the Wall” holding their planned “Birkat Kohanot” at the Kotel during Chol Hamoed Pesach. The petition was submitted by the B’tsedek NGO and Rav Yitzchak Cohen, resident of the Old City of Jerusalem.

The petitioners claim that the planned event contradicts the Law of Preservation of Holy Places, and that such an event, “contravenes ‘local custom’ according to all opinions and will severely harm the feelings of those who come to the Kotel to pray, especially since it is against Jewish law.”

Further, the petitioners state that there has never been such a ceremony because there is no formal status for female “kohanot” since the priesthood, including service in the Beis Hamikdash, passes from father to son.

The petitioners add that in order to demonstrate to what extent the planned “Birkat Kohanot” is a joke and has absolutely no basis in Jewish tradition, “We note that the ‘Women of the Wall’ are advertising the event only in English. The event is being held in honor of the late famous American actor Leonard Nimoy who played a half-human, half-alien figure in the iconic Star Trek series. The character would “bless” people holding his hands as the kohanim do in Birkat Kohanim.

The English publicity notes that they wish to pay tribute to Nimoy who, “Adopted something valuable and ancient and brought it into the ‘future’. . . and by doing so took a message from the Jewish faith and changed it into a universal message of peace and prosperity.”

“This makes it obvious that the real intention of the event is not an innocent act of prayer as the ‘Women of the Wall’ advertise. This is an event whose goal is to leave the confines of Judaism, to minimize the meaning of its worship and to claim that its practices are merely archaic, folkloristic customs.”

The petitioners conclude that the event is meant to ridicule and denigrate Torah Judaism in general and the massive Birkat Kohanim to be held a day later at the Kotel on the second day of Chol Hamoed Pesach in particular.

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!