Thursday, October 17, 2013

A "Spiritual Ladies Room" at The Jerusalem Central Bus Station aka Egged

When the new Jerusalem CBS aka Central Bus Station opened, it proudly announced that there was a synagogue.  I see the synagogue in use most of the day for those travelers who have the time to "catch" a minyon, prayer with a quorum of ten men.  Some men just like to sit there and study sacred texts while waiting for their bus.  That's all well and good, but when I wanted a place to doven Mincha, the afternoon prayer, or say T'hillim, Psalms, I discovered that there wasn't an Ezrat Nashim, Women's section.

Apparently I wasn't the only one complaining, and after awhile I discovered that they designated a small room or closet nearby as Ezrat Nashim.  Even though there's no window or visible air vents, I prefer dovening there instead of the waiting area when I have the time.

It seemed to be well cared for during my most recent visit.



It looks better than at the previous visit.  I don't know who actually is responsible for its upkeep, so I'm using this blog post to thank them/him/her.

4 comments:

Miriam said...

Very nice! And for us women...another only in Israel happening.....

Thank-you Batya for the blog..I never knew this!

Miriam

rutimizrachi said...

Good to know! Thank you, and thank you to the person/people involved in making it happen, and in the upkeep.

Batya said...

Miriam, Ruti, enjoy. Just passing on the news.

Rahel Jaskow said...

When I stopped at the women's section more than a year before this post, it was a dump. Literally. I phoned the rabbi and protested, and he promised me that he would clean it up and install a bookshelf.

It seems that he kept his word. Now if only he wouldn't lock it early in the evening on the claim that women don't need it then, that people sneak in to drink cola there, and so on.