ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE MYSELF
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.
On the fringe.
posted by Shira Salamone at 6:46 PM
8 Comments:
Welcome to the Jewish blogosphere Shira. What you have written so far is very interesting and I look forward to more posts. I am also a Jewish woman in generally strange circumstances and I can appreciate your problems. Chazak!
Welcome, Shira! A kindred spirit!
I once belonged to a heavenly egalitarian C synagogue where women were encouraged to wear tallit and tefillin. A lot of women wore tallitot, but only 2 of us wore tefillin, but I rarely got hassled about the tefillin. In every way the services were "traditional" in the sense that they followed the liturgical norm.
Now I belong (nominally) to an egalitarian "loosely"C shul which I would say is on the fringes of Renewal; one person described it as an "entry level shul". Women are encouraged to wear tallitot. Some of the men don't wear them. And no one wears tefillin, or speaks of tefillin, and the shul does not participate in World Wide Wrap, and most people have never seen tefillin and that includes the men. I feel like they're on the fringe but I"m even farther out, in an inverted sort of way :). I am looking forward to reading your posts.
Welcome to my blog, Barefoot Jewess. It's always a pleasure to encounter another "fringe dweller." :)
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Sorry about the deletions--my original welcome to Barefoot Jewess took so long to appear that I kept re-posting it.
You know, right, that Michal, Dovid HaMelech's wife, wore tefillin.
I've heard that, and I've also heard the legend that Rashi's daughters wore tefillin. I'm not sure that there's any proof, but I'm happy that the legends exist. If nothing else, they serve to indicate that the wearing of tefillin by women was discussed as far back as talmudic times, and that the idea of women wearing tefillin is not "just" a 20th-century-feminist "chiddush"/new idea that was previously unknown.
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