The topic of the synagogue mehitzah has generated impassioned discussion spanning more than a century. Widely debated in the United States throughout the twentieth century, mehitzah (and even separate seating) was not always the standard for Orthodox synagogues. In the 1950s, a significant number of synagogues that identified as Orthodox did not use a mehitzah. […]
The Synagogue Mehitzah Revisited Read More »
The suggestion that both parents’ names should be used to identify someone for various rituals, such as being called to the Torah for an aliya, is often met with the objection that using the mother’s name in such a context would constitute a change of minhag (custom), and that customs are not to be changed.
“If They are Not Prophets, Then They are the Children of Prophets”1 Read More »
Naming and Names in Life ״שלושה שמות נקראו לו לאדם: אחר מה שקוראים לו אביו ואמו, ואחד מה שקוראין לו בני אדם, ואחד מה שקונה הוא לעצמו. טוב מכולן מה שקונה הוא לעצמו״ (תנחומא, ויקהל) “People are called by three names: One is the name the person is called by his father and mother; one
Reflections on the Ethics of Naming in a Community of Prayer Read More »
Anyone who begins to think about the meaning of names will realize that names signify identity both in the historic sense as well as how our parents thought we should appear in contemporary society. For committed Jews, personal identity takes on greater ramifications regarding family history and ties, community beliefs and fashions. There is a
Jewish Women’s Names: A Historical Perspective Read More »
There are many precedents for women’s readings of Eikha and kinot (the mournful elegies that are recited) on Tisha B’Av. This is apparent from numerous sources including the medieval Kol Bo, which describes the laws and practices of Tisha B’Av. And therefore they extinguish all the lamps and the cantor begins to recite the lamentations
Two years ago, our Cherry Hill, NJ Women’s Tefilla Group held its first reading of Eikha, the book of Lamentations, which is read on Tisha B’Av, the day of mourning which commemorates the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. This reading has since become an annual ritual. A number of factors motivated me to initiate
Eikha Through the Voices of Women 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 »
As a young married woman (and I was young) in the Syrian Jewish community of Brooklyn in the late 1960s, I do not recall going to funerals. Once a body was prepared for burial, there was a tradition of women wailing very loudly as the deceased was driven past the house to the synagogue where
Mourning Practices in the Syrian Jewish Community Read More »
It is very hard to believe that it is almost a year since Nathaniel’s passing. I still feel his presence throughout the day and miss his warm, smiling face and upbeat outlook. When Nathaniel died, we in his immediate family said kaddish for the shloshim, the thirty-day period of mourning. My husband Ruvan, our children
A Mother’s Kaddish Read More »
I grew up in a large family and busy household in New York’s Upper East Side. On Friday afternoons my friends and I would part ways to go home and help our mothers prepare for Shabbat. Later, as we lit the candles we felt as if we were re-creating the miracle of beriat ha’olam. Although
Shabbat in Phoenix Read More »
