Woman leads Kabbalat Shabbat at Orthodox Shul
Rabbi Gil Student and most of his commenters aren't too happy, but I certainly am!
posted by Shira Salamone at 1:48 AM
Sunday, August 01, 2010
About Me
- Name: Shira Salamone
Once upon a time, I belonged to a left-wing egalitarian Conservative synagogue, where I was one of a number of women who wore a tallit—and one of the few members who used an Orthodox prayer book (adding the Mothers, of course). Having moved since then, I now belong to a right-wing traditional Conservative synagogue, where I’m almost always the only woman wearing a tallit—and one of the few members who adds the Mothers. I seem destined to be forever . . . on the fringe.
PUBLIC SERVICE POSTS
- Park your ego at the door: Links to my series "On raising a child with disabilities"
- Parenting 101
- Febrile seizures: Life-saving information
Previous Posts
- R. Student & commenters miss the obvious
- Female Torah scholars need a title. Suggestions?
- A challenge to Rabbi Gil Student, of Hirhurim blog...
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- Good questions
- A typical (?) Shabbat at our local shul
- My husband explains the Rotem conversion bill . . ...
- A kavvanah-killer
- Catching up on music links
- For the sin of self-righteousness . . .
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7 Comments:
We'll see... I think that this is a huge mistake... and yes his Halachic justification is spot on.
Right now, Rabbi Weiss IS Modern Orthodoxy. YU is sliding into Hareidism without hats, and purging itself of actually modern elements. YCT is the only institutional source of actually MO Rabbanim, his women's program is the only of it's kind, and he's creating opportunities for people to challenge his Orthodoxy.
This is bad, bad, bad... His institutions need not be more discredited, or he's going to flame out as a trouble maker that left Orthodoxy, instead of one of the leaders like he legitimately is.
Shira:
I'm leaving. I no longer find this blog interesting, it's sliding into Orthodox bashing (or I suppose, cheering for egalitarian orthodoxy, an oxymoron if I've ever heard one.)
I agree with Al. This is a huge mistake. I'm as left wing Orthodox as you can get. This isn't Orthodoxy. We had Avi Weiss speak at our shul a year or so ago. I doubt we would now. This has gone too far, too fast.
I wish you well.
JDub, I am very upset, and sincerely hope that you will change your mind.
As luck would have it, today happens to be my sixth "blogoversary": I published my first posts on August 2, 2004. I've always tried to run a civil blog, both in terms of my own writing and in terms of monitoring the comments and insisting on respectful language, though, obviously, I haven't always succeeded. I have also tried not to restrain my criticism to any particular movement, and have have criticized my fellow and sister Conservative Jews in addition to those of the Orthodox persuasion. If you (or any other commenters) think that I could improve my blog, I would certainly be interesting in reading your suggestions.
Shira,
Because you've shown that you're NOT interested in understanding the Modern Orthodox world, just bashing it. The situation on the "Rabba" and her head covering, plus this one, shows the pattern.
You're lecturing the MO world on how it should behave, with no insights into it, and disrespecting it despite your MO posters. You have a connection to the RW Jewish world professionally, and the death throes of the observant Conservative world, but no connection to the MO world.
More understanding and respect would be helpful, but you've painted a caricature of Modern Orthodoxy, and lecturing to that caricature, which has made your blog less interesting.
You understand your personal struggles, keep your focus there, and you have a good blog. Lecturing people on things that they live and you do not isn't a good blog.
Miami Al, thank you for making me aware of that problem. I thought that the problem was the tone with which I've been writing recently about the more right-wing Orthodox community. I wasn't aware that my writing concerning the Modern Orthodox community was also problematic. I will certainly keep that in mind.
By any chance, can you (or any other reader here) recommend some good Modern Orthodox blogs? I have several good ones on my blogroll, but, sadly, many of them are not currently active. It's possible that my exposure to the right-wing world, both at work and in the blogosphere, may be skewing my perception. I, and my blog, are both, apparently, in need of a course correction.
For the record, by the way, I do understand your concern about Rabbi Weiss moving too far too fast. It might have been wiser for him to have waited until the brouhaha from his decision to change Maharat Hurwitz's title to Rabbah Hurwitz had died down before he made another controversial move. In the future, I will try to keep such issues as timing and/or the opinions of the broader Orthodox community in mind when writing about decisions and issues such as this one.
To all of my readers whom I may have offended with my apparently-ill-informed posts concerning the Othodox community, I apologize. I have always prided myself on running a respectful blog, and I will make every effort to steer back in that direction.
You'll find the Orthopraxy blogs, but not much in the way of LWMO, for the same reason you can find political blogs that are LW, RW, but not moderate.
Basically, most LWMO Jews (not all) don't think that much about their Judaism, at least not enough to blog about it. They are culturally observant, and generally live their lives within Halacha as they understand/observe it, but it's not a intellectual effort. Those that really think pretty hard about it realize that logic and reason take them outside the bounds of Orthodoxy and find themselves on the Orthopraxy side.
RWMO is the prevalent form of YU-Modern Orthodoxy, which seems to be mostly a synthesis between working in the secular world while observing Chareidi Judaism, albeit without either the Yeshivish/Chassidish dress code.
There doesn't seem to be a real push for an intellectually rigorous Modern Orthodoxy that is serious about both religious and secular interests.
For those of you who haven't seen it yet, here’s a follow-up and corrective.
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