Limmud NY: Some observations and reactions
Limmud NY compared to the National Havurah Institute
The advantages of the Institute are:
What a pity that many in the Orthodox community observe the rule of Kol Isha that prohibits a man from listening to a woman sing. They miss out not only on the sound of women's voices, but also on the beauty and joy of mixed-gender harmony singing.
(Sun., Jan. 23, 2011 update: here's a video snippet of Rachel's and Matti's Sunday-night performance)
A shout-out to my new friends
Shoshana Jedwab, who attended Rabbi Hammer's Miriam the Priestess class with me, apparently appreciated my comments enough to ask me whether I was a writer. Holy Moses, who, me? I just write for my blog, I told her. So she asked for the URL. I figured it was an even trade, since I enjoyed her drumming as much as she enjoyed my yacking. Shoshana, you rock, figuratively and literally!
I also made a new friend at the shuk ("market")--Chaya Adler-Poretsky was selling kippot (yarmulkes, skullcaps) as a fundraiser for the school in which she's a student, Yeshivat Maharat. In between discussions about how I wanted her to make my new beribboned raspberry-red and white kippah about an inch bigger, I mentioned my opinion that there was no good reason for a woman with grown children not to observe the time-bound commandments, such as wearing a tallit (prayer shawl), since "B'nei Yisrael/The Children of Israel" (mentioned in the third paragraph of the Sh'ma quote) includes women. The Torah certainly includes women when it says "V'shamru V'nei Yisrael et haShabbat, the Children of Israel will observe the Sabbath," and when the Torah wants to specify males, it does--"Shalosh p'amim bashanah yeiraeh kol z'chur'cha, Three times a year shall all your males appear . . ." Chaya reminded me that the rabbis distinguished between B'nei Yisrael, the Sons of Israel, and Beit Yaakov, the House of Jacob, traditionally interpreted as referring to the women. I'm looking forward to having additional interesting conversations with Chaya in the future.
Speaking of time-bound mitzvot . . .
I just had to mention to a woman whom I saw at Monday morning minyan that, while I'd seen many women wearing a tallit but not tefillin, I'd never before seen a woman wearing tefillin but not a tallit. She confirmed my guess--she doesn't wear a tallit because she's not married. This is a minhag/custom observed by many unmarried Ashkenazi Orthodox men, but I'd never seen a non-Orthodox unmarried woman follow this minhag before.
And speaking of garments . . .
I was struck by the fact that a number of the married women davvening/praying with the egalitarian minyan were indistinguable in their head-coverings from Orthodox married women, wearing head-scarves and "engineer" caps, head-gear that I don't generally associate with egalitarian women. There seems to be a return to more traditional attitudes toward head-covering among traditional egalitarian women than the approach with which I was raised (which held that everyone should cover their heads in synagogue), with a clear distinction between bareheaded single women and covered-headed married ones. I'll have to get used to that.
Photos and videos to follow--I haven't even had time to upload them.
The advantages of the Institute are:
- It lasts a week, enabling more in-depth study--each participant takes one morning and one afternoon class for the entire week.
- With a longer get-together, and with multiple-session classes, it provides more opportunities to spend quality time getting to know people.
- It's closer to New York City, and easier for someone from the NYC area to get to, especially with charter buses leaving from Manhattan and Brooklyn. Aside from providing shuttles from the airport and a ride-seeker's message board online, the Institute leaves transportation arrangements to the attendees.
- It's all under one roof, rather than in half a dozen different buildings scattered around a college campus, and I'm lazy--I'd rather save my energy for dancing. :)
- It's less ideological, and, therefore, attracts a broader spectrum of attendees. The NHC is, on principal, egalitarian, and, to the best of my knowledge, still won't officially organize any service that doesn't allow equal participation by women in leading services and reading Torah, though there has been much discussion, over the years, about changing this policy. Consequently, Orthodox attendees have to pray with a non-Orthodox minyan, by themselves, or in informal services that they organize themselves, and no Torah scrolls are provided to Orthodox minyanim. [Tues., Jan 25, 2010 correction: Commenter BZ said "The NHC policy is actually that Torah scrolls would be provided to non-egal minyanim if organized by participants (though I'm not aware of any such minyanim actually happening since I've been involved with the NHC)."] Limmud, on the other hand, provides for a broad spectrum of observance in planning their minyanim. Check out the Shabbat (Sabbath) morning line-up of services here. The printed program specified not only which services had mechitzot and which mechitzah minyanim allowed some female leadership, it also specified which services would use amplification and/or musical instruments on Shabbat. As a result of their commitment to pluralism, inclusiveness, or whichever term you prefer, there were many more Orthodox attendees than I remember having seen at the Havurah Institutes that we attended in 2008 and 2009.
What a pity that many in the Orthodox community observe the rule of Kol Isha that prohibits a man from listening to a woman sing. They miss out not only on the sound of women's voices, but also on the beauty and joy of mixed-gender harmony singing.
(Sun., Jan. 23, 2011 update: here's a video snippet of Rachel's and Matti's Sunday-night performance)
A shout-out to my new friends
Shoshana Jedwab, who attended Rabbi Hammer's Miriam the Priestess class with me, apparently appreciated my comments enough to ask me whether I was a writer. Holy Moses, who, me? I just write for my blog, I told her. So she asked for the URL. I figured it was an even trade, since I enjoyed her drumming as much as she enjoyed my yacking. Shoshana, you rock, figuratively and literally!
I also made a new friend at the shuk ("market")--Chaya Adler-Poretsky was selling kippot (yarmulkes, skullcaps) as a fundraiser for the school in which she's a student, Yeshivat Maharat. In between discussions about how I wanted her to make my new beribboned raspberry-red and white kippah about an inch bigger, I mentioned my opinion that there was no good reason for a woman with grown children not to observe the time-bound commandments, such as wearing a tallit (prayer shawl), since "B'nei Yisrael/The Children of Israel" (mentioned in the third paragraph of the Sh'ma quote) includes women. The Torah certainly includes women when it says "V'shamru V'nei Yisrael et haShabbat, the Children of Israel will observe the Sabbath," and when the Torah wants to specify males, it does--"Shalosh p'amim bashanah yeiraeh kol z'chur'cha, Three times a year shall all your males appear . . ." Chaya reminded me that the rabbis distinguished between B'nei Yisrael, the Sons of Israel, and Beit Yaakov, the House of Jacob, traditionally interpreted as referring to the women. I'm looking forward to having additional interesting conversations with Chaya in the future.
Speaking of time-bound mitzvot . . .
I just had to mention to a woman whom I saw at Monday morning minyan that, while I'd seen many women wearing a tallit but not tefillin, I'd never before seen a woman wearing tefillin but not a tallit. She confirmed my guess--she doesn't wear a tallit because she's not married. This is a minhag/custom observed by many unmarried Ashkenazi Orthodox men, but I'd never seen a non-Orthodox unmarried woman follow this minhag before.
And speaking of garments . . .
I was struck by the fact that a number of the married women davvening/praying with the egalitarian minyan were indistinguable in their head-coverings from Orthodox married women, wearing head-scarves and "engineer" caps, head-gear that I don't generally associate with egalitarian women. There seems to be a return to more traditional attitudes toward head-covering among traditional egalitarian women than the approach with which I was raised (which held that everyone should cover their heads in synagogue), with a clear distinction between bareheaded single women and covered-headed married ones. I'll have to get used to that.
Photos and videos to follow--I haven't even had time to upload them.
Labels: Limmud
posted by Shira Salamone at 6:23 PM
17 Comments:
I'll be waiting to see your photos. Sounds very interesting!
"She confirmed my guess--she doesn't wear a tallit because she's not married. This is a minhag/custom observed by many unmarried Ashkenazi Orthodox men, but I'd never seen a non-Orthodox unmarried woman follow this minhag before"
I guess she never heard of the long-standing Ashkenaz minhag that women don't wear tefilin.
Did I say minhag? I meant halachic ruling.
Kind of reminds me of people who don't wear leather shoes on Yom Kippur, but drive to shul. Or people who have no problem intermarrying but would never dream of violating the minhag of not naming after the living.
G-d should have given us 613 minhagim and we would never break them.
While there is a consensus that women are not *required* to observe time-bound commandments such as wearing a tallit and/or tefillin, there seem to be differences of opinion as to whether women are *forbidden* to observe time-bound commandments and/or whether we women should recite the b'rachah (blessing) if we choose to observe a time-bound commandment. For example, Ashkenazi woman who choose to take the lulav and etrog recite the b'rachah first, whereas, from what I've heard, Sefardi women who choose to take the lulav and etrog do not recite the b'rachah.
While women can perform time-bound mitzvot if they wish, and in fact there are some time-bound mitzvot that they ARE obligated to, the overwhelming consensus of halachic sources state that tallis and tefilin are and exception, and that womem may not put them on even if they wish to.
There is no mesorah to do so, it is something that the Conservative movement invented out of thin air in the 1980's.
It seems to me that I've heard that the Talmud mentions a woman (Michal?) wearing tefillin, with both positive and negative reactions on the part of the rabbis. So this discussion dates back farther than you seem to think.
Nobody forbids what no one does. The fact that at multiple points throughout Jewish history rabbis have issued decrees urging women not to wear tefillin indicates there is a live (albeit countercultural) tradition for it. I recommend Jewish Legal Writings by Women for an excellent article on the history of women and tefillin.
Nu, Larry, you gotta stop recommending books that are out of print. :) I still haven't found Two Jews Can Still be a Mixed Marriage, by Ariela Jaffe, that you recommended. This one sounds good, too.
"Nobody forbids what no one does."
That sounds logical--why would they bother?
"The fact that at multiple points throughout Jewish history rabbis have issued decrees urging women not to wear tefillin indicates there is a live (albeit countercultural) tradition for it."
Wait 'til I tell my husband and son that I'm "countercultural." On a second thought, they may have figured that out after over two decades of seeing me as, about 90% of the time, the only woman in our local synagogue wearing a tallit. :)
Oops Shira I saw the book listing and the price and didn't notice where it said 'temporarily out of print.' You can borrow my copy sometime. Two Jews Can Still Be a Mixed Marriage is available on Amazon cheaply in a used edition.
"Nobody forbids what no one does."
That sounds logical--why would they bother?
It seems like Conservative Jews want to have it both ways.
Back when I was Conservative, I asked a Conservative rabbi how we justified not having a mechitzah.
He pointed out that there is nowhere in the Shulchan Aruch that it specifically says that shul needs a mechitzah. The Orthdox counter-argument to this is that it was understood and axiomatic that a shul ipso facto by it's very nature, would have a mechitzah.
And of course, there are plenty of things that the SA (and even the Torah!) excplicity forbid that the C movement allows.
Why is that C women (at least in my experience) don't seperate challah and make the appropriate bracha?
You have to make a pretty large amount before you separate with a bracha. I suspect lots of C women are unaware of the requirement, as opposed to knowing it exists and just not caring.
Consequently, Orthodox attendees have to pray with a non-Orthodox minyan, by themselves, or in informal services that they organize themselves, and no Torah scrolls are provided to Orthodox minyanim.
The NHC policy is actually that Torah scrolls would be provided to non-egal minyanim if organized by participants (though I'm not aware of any such minyanim actually happening since I've been involved with the NHC).
BZ, thanks for the correction.
BZ, I'd copied your correction into the post.
Just found you blog and i felt that I had to comment
"She confirmed my guess--she doesn't wear a tallit because she's not married. This is a minhag/custom observed by many unmarried Ashkenazi Orthodox men, but I'd never seen a non-Orthodox unmarried woman follow this minhag before"
When I first read that I did a double take and had to read it again. I must say I find it really odd to wrap tefilin but not wear a tallis, but then again I started wearing a tallis way before I started wrapping tefilin. I must say i think my liberal jewish upbringing has truly jaded me. ;-) Now the real question is why she has decided to observe that minhag? I just find the idea or wrapping tefilin with out a tallis on foreign.
Rebecca said:
I just find the idea or wrapping tefilin with out a tallis on foreign.
Larry commented:
In the German and Conservative worlds, most men put on a tallit starting at the age of 13. But in the a lot of the O world the more common custom is to start wearing a tallit upon mariage. I can well imagine a woman who grew up in that environment wearing tefillin w/o a tallit.
Kol Tuv
Larry
Larry: many Sephardim also start wearing a tallit gadol when they are bar mitzvah. In all cases, I suspect that everyone starts wearing a tallit katan in elementary school or thereabouts. Wonder if this young woman does too.
Larry and RivkaYael, thanks for the clarifications.
For the record, I decided some time back that I would not wear a tallit katan/arba kanfot (a four-cornered garment with the tzitzit/ritual fringes on the corners, usually worn under one's clothing) because I don't have the nerve to deal with the looks and questions I would get if the tzitzit popped out of my skirt. I have enough trouble being the only woman in my synagogue who wears a tallit and tefillin.
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