A few weeks ago I ventured out into the cold, trudged over to my nearest Home Depot and bought enough PVC to redo an entire bathroom.

My bathroom is just fine, thanks. So why did I do it? The truth is, the rabbis made me do it. …

Israel’s rabbis have chosen to commemorate this moment in two ways: First, by holding a men-only candle-lighting in the men’s section of the Western Wall, to which male members of the Knesset were invited in flagrant violation of all the laws that guarantee freedom of worship and equality at all public events in Israel.

And, secondly, by denying Women of the Wall (WOW,) an organization I have admired for close to thirty years, the right to bring in their own menorah.

So I set out on a winter adventure with the aim of creating a menorah that would be illuminating, beautiful and stealthy. My sisters in Jerusalem had to be able to smuggle it past the metal detectors that lead into the Western Wall Plaza. …

Victory was ours: Despite the threats of the Western Wall Rabbi, despite the police’s attempts to prevent us from bringing our menorahs into the Western Wall Plaza, despite the rain and the cold: we did lit up the night.