My grandmother, Hannah Bahar, was a yevamah. My grandfather, Sallah Bahar, was a yavam. My grandmother was born in Baghdad around 1908. Her parents were Hacham Ya’akov and Rahel Gubbay. She was one of ten children. When my grandmother was only seven, her father passed away. A year later her family moved to Bombay, India. […]
Perhaps the Last Yibbum in History Read More »
Although the story of Ruth is not the classic case of yibbum described in Deuteronomy, Shavuot provides an opportunity to focus on this issue which has serious implications, even today, for Jewish women. As is clear from the two articles, historically there was a split as to whether yibbum or halitza takes precedence. Ashkenazim have
Yibbum: Present Day Implications Read More »
The unusual law of levirate marriage in the book of Deuteronomy raises many questions—exegetical, sociological, and philosophical—and definitive answers are hard to find. In a slight reworking of the New Jewish Publication Society translation, the text in Deuteronomy 25 reads as follows: Among other, perhaps more serious, problems, the text seems to contradict directly the
Levirate Marriage: The Limits of the Law Read More »
Embedded in various rabbinic passages is a very basic principle, namely the force of the human element even in divinely given commandments. In Mishnat R. Eliezer (p. 266),1 for example, it is stated that the difference between the first tablets of the Ten Commandments and the second ones was that “in the first, the image
It is generally assumed that the reclaiming of mothers’ names within the context of traditional Orthodox liturgy is a modern phenomena which emerged out of a desire to bring an egalitarian spirit to ceremonies which otherwise have a distinct patriarchal tone. As such, practices such as mentioning mothers’ names in the context of memorial prayers,
Claiming and Reclaiming Our Mothers’ Names Read More »
It is customary not to eat meat or drink wine during this week [that is, the week during which Tisha B’Av falls]… Some add [the days] from Rosh Hodesh [Av], and some add [still more], from 17 Tammuz. (Shulhan Arukh, Orah Hayyim 551.9) Introduction There is no doubt that these prohibitions were not observed in
The Prohibition of Eating Meat and Drinking Wine During the Three Weeks Read More »
Many readers of this journal may have heard that their grandmother or great-grandmother fasted “alle Montag und Donnerstag” (every Monday and Thursday). This popular Yiddish saying actually reflects an ancient halakhic tradition, namely, the Talmudic “ta’aniyot bahab”—the fasts of bet–hey–bet (Yom bet is Monday and Yom hey is Thursday)—that were first associated with prayer for
Women and Asceticism in the Talmudic Tradition Read More »
Last year, I was privileged to attend my sister’s birthing of her first child. I stood at her bedside, gripping her hand as she labored, while both the nurse and the doctor encouraged her with “push!” She was straining so hard that blood vessels looked like they would burst with her effort. The baby’s head
Mourning the Loss of a Baby Read More »
A cornerstone of the tahara prayers is the invocation of the name of the deceased several times during the ritual. We do so as we begin the tahara (literally “purification”—the process of preparing a Jew for burial according to Jewish law and custom), when we advocate for his or her soul before the Almighty, and
Dignity in the Face of the Holocaust Read More »
Everyone who observes Shabbat has had a moment when he or she really understood why Shabbat has been so vital to their lives. I certainly did. Though I grew up in a Shabbat-observant household, it was not until I was at university in England that I connected in a profoundly personal way with the peace
Shabbat and Rediscovering Community Read More »
