“Ani mekabelet tabaat zu, v’hareini mekudeshet lecha kedat moshe v’Yisrael,I accept this ring and I am thereby sanctified to you according to the laws of Moses and Israel.” With those words, I became an active participant in my wedding ceremony. Moments before, Rabbi Saul Berman, our mesader kiddushin, had instructed the witnesses that they would
My Wedding: The Choices I Made Read More »
The eyes of strangers searching me up and down as I come towards them on a Jerusalem street… the voices of the Sephardic and Ashkenazi eighth graders singing Hebrew songs together at my sister’s school, Evelina de Rothschild… the determination of the disabled children at Shalva — a lifesaver for parents who are overwhelmed with
The spiral effect of September 11 was enormous. As in any disaster, the unknowns added to the chaos and pain. One such matter concerned potential iggun for the widows. By day three, even before the full shock and horror had crested, I had received several calls: what was JOFA going to do about the agunot
A Matter of Choice Read More »
In our wedding photographs, Ori is wearing a top hat precisely like the one his grandfather wore at his wedding in the early thirties and my veil is as thick and heavy as any old fashioned one. Our chuppah is a tallit. Some of the images, especially those in black and white, are impossible to
Reading the Ketubah Read More »
My wife (I’m still getting used to saying that—we got married just two weeks ago!) and I were married in Jerusalem, where Esther’s family lives. In the warren of offices at the Rabbanut, a world quite different from our own, we suddenly realized that the wedding was not going to completely reflect us—either as individuals
A Marriage of Equals: In His Voice Read More »
I am the youngest of three sons. No sisters. I never learned that boys and girls have different roles in the family. There were no girls. I washed dishes, did laundry, vacuumed, dusted, and did whatever chores I was asked to do. But I am not a feminist. I was very active in NCSY, our
I Am Not A Feminist Read More »
What I have to say may well surprise many who know me as a halakhic feminist. Over the past 33 years, I have been involved in numerous ways—both in theory and practice, in lecture and in print—with various aspects of the “Women and Halakha” issue. Many of the innovations that are taken for granted today,
Feminist Innovations in Orthodoxy Today: Is Everything in Halakha—Halakhic? Read More »
I am periodically asked how it feels to be married to the president of JOFA. Do I feel excluded or marginalized? Do I feel threatened? Do my wife’s activities take away from the quality of the religious life of our family? The answer to these questions is no, no and no. About twenty years ago,
From the President’s Husband Read More »
I will never forget the first time I saw a woman wearing a tallit. I was 27 years old, living in Israel and attending the first International Conference on Women and Judaism. I arrived early, stumbled upon the “wrong” room and came upon a room full of women praying. Many had on tallitot, tefillin and
The Road to Wearing a Tallit: Why an Orthodox Woman Wears a Tallit Read More »
One of the key goals of the Women’s tefillah movement is to provide observant Jewish women with the liturgical knowledge, regular opportunities, and communal acceptance so that each woman can “pray as a Jew,” to borrow the title of Hayim Halevy Donin’s useful book. The premise is not that Orthodox women try to pray like
To Pray as a Jewish Woman: A Personal Perspective Read More »
