Last weekend, I went home to attend a prayer service at an Orthodox synagogue in Lexington, Massachusetts. As is customary in Orthodox synagogues, this particular synagogue separates men and women with a mechitzah. Separating the men and women was a row of fake trees serving as the mechitzah. You could see through the tree branches, but not very well and the trees were approximately six or seven feet high, so even the tallest men could not see the women by looking above the mechitzah. When I got to the synagogue, one of the men came over to me and handed me a siddur (prayer book) and I sat down on the women’s side of the small, make-shift synagogue. The service had already started and the men continued to pray throughout the morning.
The service itself was pretty typical for a Shabbat morning prayer service. The male rabbi, or leader of the synagogue, led the congregation in prayers and then invited only the men to read from the Torah. What surprised me most about the service was that men came over to talk to the women occasionally during lulls in the service, but the women never went to the men’s side of the synagogue. The women do not to distract the men from their prayers and from being closer to G-d, which is the main reason for the separation of the two genders in the first place. Also, I found it interesting that the women did not pray out loud. It was clear that they prayed, but did not chant the prayers for their voice to be heard. The women did not take the service as seriously as the men did and used part of the time to catch up on each other’s lives such as where certain high school seniors are going to college and other gossip around town. On the contrary, the men took the service seriously and were hardly distracted throughout the entire service.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Friday, April 2, 2010
Negative Connotation
As I alluded to in my second blog, some people dislike being separated from the other gender during prayer. Although many women embrace the separation from men during prayer, other women believe that the separation makes women inferior to men. In a typical synagogue, women sit above men or behind them, which puts men closer to the rabbi (leader of Jewish synagogue and prayer services) and to what the rabbi or cantor is saying. By being farther from the leader of prayers, women can not see what is going on. Orthodox Jewish women also feel that they are isolated from other people, even though they are surrounded by other women in the same position. The feeling of isolation comes from not being able to sit with the people one loves (if he is a man) and not feeling comfortable being separated by gender. In our American society, we are not used to being separated because we are male or female, but in Orthodox Judaism, this type of separation is widely accepted and believed to be beneficial in prayer so that people can get closer to G-d. I think that Orthodox women accept the gender separation and do not think about the separation after attending many prayer services because after some amount of time, they become accustomed to the separation.
The idea that women are inferior to men speaks to the cultural idea of gender and how people of different genders are supposed to behave. In the American culture, men are superior to women and have a greater status than women. The same holds true for Judaism. Men are superior to women and are the only people who hold important roles in an Orthodox Jewish society. In Judaism, women are not inferior to men; rather men and women are equal, but men have more duties to perform as a Jew than women do. According to Jewish laws and commandments, it the job of Orthodox Jewish women to care for their children and their house, which is similar to the traditional role women in American culture. In the American culture, women are housewives and men are the workers who make money to support his family. I believe that women are certainly inferior to men in our American culture because of the lack of equality between men and women in jobs, salary differences, in the ways women are supposed to behave, and in the jobs women are expected to have. However, in Orthodox Judaism, it is clear that women have less of a role than women. While I do not think this right and I believe that women should have equal rights to men, many Orthodox synagogues still separate men from women during prayer. There is not much that I can do to change the situation, but I think eventually, most Orthodox synagogues will become egalitarian where men and women are not separated.
The idea that women are inferior to men speaks to the cultural idea of gender and how people of different genders are supposed to behave. In the American culture, men are superior to women and have a greater status than women. The same holds true for Judaism. Men are superior to women and are the only people who hold important roles in an Orthodox Jewish society. In Judaism, women are not inferior to men; rather men and women are equal, but men have more duties to perform as a Jew than women do. According to Jewish laws and commandments, it the job of Orthodox Jewish women to care for their children and their house, which is similar to the traditional role women in American culture. In the American culture, women are housewives and men are the workers who make money to support his family. I believe that women are certainly inferior to men in our American culture because of the lack of equality between men and women in jobs, salary differences, in the ways women are supposed to behave, and in the jobs women are expected to have. However, in Orthodox Judaism, it is clear that women have less of a role than women. While I do not think this right and I believe that women should have equal rights to men, many Orthodox synagogues still separate men from women during prayer. There is not much that I can do to change the situation, but I think eventually, most Orthodox synagogues will become egalitarian where men and women are not separated.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Role Reversal
When I was doing my research, I came across an article discussing women’s prayer groups and a mother’s perspective as her daughter becomes a Bat-Mitzvah. Women’s prayer groups are relatively new and Orthodox women are not supposed to read from or touch the Torah. As Shelly Sher recalls her daughter’s becoming a Bat-Mitzvah, she tells how she sat downstairs for the first time at her Orthodox synagogue:
[A]s the mother of a bat mitzvah girl, Mrs. Sher sat downstairs and up front in her Orthodox synagogue las month, eyes misting over as she watched her daughter, Anna, chant in Hebrew from an open Torah scroll. The rows of folding chairs were filled with women and girls. In the back of the room, in a separate section for men, nine of Anna’s relatives huddled behind a green divider, catching glimpses through a crack.
With its reversal of the genders, this Midwestern bat mitzvah is one sign of the small but steady revolution that is redefining the role of women in Orthodox Judaism. In prayer groups founded and led by women, like this one in St. Louis, Orthodox women in growing numbers are celebrating rites of passage like bat mitzvahs and baby namings. They are teaching one another to read from the Torah and are making sure their daughters learn, too.
Being able to sit in the front of the synagogue and watch her daughter chant from the Torah is a big accomplishment for any woman in Orthodox Judaism. As I explained in an earlier post, women are typically the ones who sit in a separate section of the sanctuary; however, on this morning, the men sat in the back of the make-shift sanctuary behind the mechitza because Anna, a female, was chanting from the Torah. Through my research I have read about the women’s prayer groups and how they strive to give women equal opportunities to pray. In women’s prayer groups, women have freedom to pray and do not have to think about how they are separated from men. Rabbi Abraham Magence, the rabbi at Anna and Mrs. Sher’s synagogue, believes that women’s prayer groups are an excellent idea because “‘[he feels] strongly that if the mother is educated, she is influencing the children”’. When a mother has an education in Judaism and Hebrew, she sets an example to her children that they should become educated in their religion. In reading this article, I now have a better understanding of the role of women’s prayer groups and how they act to give women more rights to pray and participate in their synagogue. Through the prayer groups, women can celebrate important milestones in their lives and their children’s lives. I agree with the women's prayer groups that women should have equal rights as men. However, if women must be separated from men during prayer, they should have another outlet of expression so that they can pray how they want. It is through the women's prayer groups that women can pray out loud and not feel belittled through the separation from men.
Sources:
Goodstein, Laurie. “Women Taking Active Role to Study Orthodox Judaism.” New York Times.
New York Times, 21 December 2000. Web. 17 March 2010.
[A]s the mother of a bat mitzvah girl, Mrs. Sher sat downstairs and up front in her Orthodox synagogue las month, eyes misting over as she watched her daughter, Anna, chant in Hebrew from an open Torah scroll. The rows of folding chairs were filled with women and girls. In the back of the room, in a separate section for men, nine of Anna’s relatives huddled behind a green divider, catching glimpses through a crack.
With its reversal of the genders, this Midwestern bat mitzvah is one sign of the small but steady revolution that is redefining the role of women in Orthodox Judaism. In prayer groups founded and led by women, like this one in St. Louis, Orthodox women in growing numbers are celebrating rites of passage like bat mitzvahs and baby namings. They are teaching one another to read from the Torah and are making sure their daughters learn, too.
Being able to sit in the front of the synagogue and watch her daughter chant from the Torah is a big accomplishment for any woman in Orthodox Judaism. As I explained in an earlier post, women are typically the ones who sit in a separate section of the sanctuary; however, on this morning, the men sat in the back of the make-shift sanctuary behind the mechitza because Anna, a female, was chanting from the Torah. Through my research I have read about the women’s prayer groups and how they strive to give women equal opportunities to pray. In women’s prayer groups, women have freedom to pray and do not have to think about how they are separated from men. Rabbi Abraham Magence, the rabbi at Anna and Mrs. Sher’s synagogue, believes that women’s prayer groups are an excellent idea because “‘[he feels] strongly that if the mother is educated, she is influencing the children”’. When a mother has an education in Judaism and Hebrew, she sets an example to her children that they should become educated in their religion. In reading this article, I now have a better understanding of the role of women’s prayer groups and how they act to give women more rights to pray and participate in their synagogue. Through the prayer groups, women can celebrate important milestones in their lives and their children’s lives. I agree with the women's prayer groups that women should have equal rights as men. However, if women must be separated from men during prayer, they should have another outlet of expression so that they can pray how they want. It is through the women's prayer groups that women can pray out loud and not feel belittled through the separation from men.
Sources:
Goodstein, Laurie. “Women Taking Active Role to Study Orthodox Judaism.” New York Times.
New York Times, 21 December 2000. Web. 17 March 2010.
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