In 1986, when the Women’s Tefillah Network was formed, the number of women’s tefillah groups could be counted on one hand. There are now at least 55 women’s tefillah groups in existence world-wide. It is safe to say that women’s tefillah is one of the fastest growing institutions in Modern Orthodoxy today. Women’s tefillah groups […]
Women’s Tefillah Groups Grow and Face New Challenges Read More »
This discussion is excerpted from the author’s Women, Jewish Law and Modernity: New Opportunities in a Post-Feminist Age (Ktav Publishing House), which has a more extensive presentation of the halakhic arguments. There is a widespread custom of arranging special meals in honor of a new bride and groom during the first week of their marriage
Women’s Participation in Sheva Berakhot Read More »
Civilized discourse and the creative exchange of ideas set the tone for the First International Conference of the Religious Women’s Forum, held July 14-15 in Jerusalem. The 1000 halakhically committed women and 150 men who participated were encouraged by the changes that have already taken place in the Modern Orthodox landscape in Israel. These changes
International Women’s Conference In Jerusalem Read More »
The mishna in the Talmudic tractate of Kiddushin, page 29a, states “…and all positive, time-bound commandments (mitzvot aseh shehazeman gerama), men are obligated [in] and women are exempt [from].”1 The gemara acknowledges that there are exceptions to this rule when the Torah (either explicitly or through the interpretation of the Oral Law) states that women
Women and the Fufillment of Positive Time-Bound Commandments Read More »
In recent years, there has been a great deal of conversation about women’s spirituality. I have often wondered what this new term means, finding little discussion of it in the sources. Traditional definitions of women as interior and men as communal seem to reflect neither innate truth nor current reality. So what is women’s spirituality
Our Spirits Rising Read More »
In the Torah, women are major players whose actions often chart the paths of Jewish destiny. Beginning with Eve and then Lot’s daughters, followed by Sarah, Hagar, Rebecca, Rachel, Leah, Tamar, Yocheved, Miriam, Zipporah, and many others, each can be said to have affected the course of our history. But when we leave the biblical
Pirkei Imahot The Jewish Women’s Reclamation Project Read More »
Now that Orthodox Jewish women have the ability to access Torah on a high intellectual level, they have begun to inquire if they too could participate in certain synagogue rituals surrounding the sefer Torah. Would halakha permit them to dance with the sefer Torah on Simkhat Torah? Could they carry the sefer through the women’s
Our Scholars Speak Can Women Touch the Torah? A Halakhic View Read More »
It began at Melbourne’s Mizrachi Shul when a woman was handed a sefer Torah to dance with on Simkhat Torah. Within seconds, Rabbi Jack Simcha Cohen had wrested the Torah away from her arms. The following Shabbat he delivered a p’sak from the pulpit: Women were not permitted to handle a sefer Torah. His reasoning,
News From Down Under JOFA Supports Australian Women in Fight for Torah Read More »
When I think of the Jewish Orthodox feminist movement these days, an old saying comes to mind: When everyone criticizes you, you must be doing something right. There is a certain irony in the fact that our movement has managed to get an extended range of criticism within our community. But, while these disparate Orthodox
An Orthodox Feminist Speaks — In Response to Our Critics Read More »
Shabbat T’lamdeini: a project of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, will take place Shabbat Parshat Emor, 15 Iyar 5759, April 30 through May 1, 1999. Orthodox synagogues around the world will participate in this international event in which each individual synagogue will design a program centering on women’s learning and leadership to take place on
“And She Will Teach Me…” Shabbat T’lamdeini: Women, Learning, Leadership and Community Read More »
