Rebbetzin Tzipi Lau, Wife of Israel’s Chief Rabbi, Delivers Message of Strength and Encouragement to Women in Bat Melech’s Shelters

In an emotional visit to a shelter for battered women run by Bat Melech, Rebbetzin Tzipi Lau, wife of Israel’s Chief Rabbi David Lau, delivered a powerful and uplifting message of strength and encouragement in advance of the upcoming Pesach holiday. Bat Melech runs the only shelters in Israel for religious victims of domestic violence.

“On the eve of Pesach, women who have suffered from abuse identify with the Festival of Freedom in a powerful and symbolic way,” said Noach Korman, Bat Melech Founder and Director. “Each woman is going through a process of freedom from the enslavement of abuse and domestic violence. We are very grateful to Rebbetzin Lau for coming to strengthen these women, and for sharing her beautiful words of encouragement with us.”

“Our rabbis tell us that every Rosh Chodesh is a time for women,” said Rebetzin Lau, addressing shelter residents and staff.  “Each month the moon grows from something we can’t even see, to an object that brings us more light each day.  With every month we experience renewal, a new beginning. So too the shelter gives us light, strength and the opportunity for a new beginning. And like Miriam the Prophetess whose difficult choice to watch over her infant brother Moshe saved the Jewish people, you made a difficult choice to leave your home and watch over your children. Miriam took her drum and lead the celebration of our freedom. By coming to the shelter you displayed initiative, leadership and inner strength, saving yourselves and your children. This is something to celebrate, and is an experience from which you will only grow.” 

Several women shared their personal stories and described the transformation they experienced since arriving at Bat Melech. Rebbetzin Lau was clearly moved as she heard the women talk about making the decision to leave an abusive marriage and everything that was familiar to them. They described the warmth and caring Bat Melch staff, and the feeling that ‘this is home.’ The intensive therapy they receive has had a positive effect on them and their children, bringing them from a place of fear, low self-esteem and hopelessness to one of self-confidence happiness and hope for the future.

"It is commanded that Pesach, the holiday of redemption, must be celebrated in the spring, teaching us about the connection between the external environment and inner redemption,” said Bat Melech Chairwoman Tzilit Jacobson. “Bat Melech will continue to provide an environment that will allow each and every one of you to grow and blossom again, to begin a new life from a place of inner strength."

Bat Melech provides shelter, therapeutic counseling, legal services, childcare and transitional aid to religious victims of domestic abuse in Israel. Bat Melech runs the only two kosher, Shabbat-observant shelters in the country, and has housed over 5,000 women and children since opening its first shelter in 1996. The Bat Melech hotline is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Bat Melech’s Israel Center for Family Justice provides legal representation in secular and religious courts, as well as free legal services for women of all backgrounds, guiding them through the maze of Israeli family law. The Center has assisted 20,000 women to date.

Rebbetzin Tzipi Lau with Bat Melech staff during a recent visit to Bat Melech's Jerusalem shelter.  (L-R): Einat Engelman, Salit Geva, Orly Tobolski-Hadad, Rebbetzin Tzipi Lau, Bat Melech Chairwoman Tzilit Jacobson