Posts
Judy:
How is it extemporaneous?
DEAR RABBI ABRAMS: THE POSITIVE MITZVAH, BEING INCUMBANT ON A WOMAN, OF SAYING A QUICK BRACHOT, UPON SEEING ANOTHER'S LIT CHANUKAH MENORAH, IS ''EXTEMPORANEOUS'' BY DEFINITION.
IF I UNDERSTAND THE GEMORAH DISCUSSED ON THIS DAF, AND PLEASE REBUKE ME IF I AM INCORRECT, THE WOMAN, IS NOT BEING ASKED TO PLAN THE EVENT, NOR TAKE TIME AWAY FROM WHAT THE RABBIS CALLED HER 'MORE IMPORTANT' DUTIES, SUCH AS CHILD REARING, TO GO AND VISIT A CHANUKEAH AT A SPECIFIC TIME AND THEN SAY THIS BLESSINGS.
SHE IS ASKED TO SAY IT, ONLY, IF IN HER NORMAL COURSE OF HER DAY, PERHAPS WHILE SHOPPING, ( IF I AM SOUNDING NON-FEMINIST HERE, I AM PLACING MY LANGUAGE CIRCA 2500 YEARS AGO, AND HENCE NOT SAYING, ''WHILE ON HER WAY TO HER PULPIT WHERE SHE IS A RABBI''), AND SEES A LIT CHANUKEAH, TO SAY A PRAYER.
SHE DOESN'T HAVE TO LITE THE CANDELABRA. JUST SAY A 15 SECOND PRAYER. SHE COULD DO THIS WHILE NURSING TWINS, I IMAGINE THE SAGES THINKING.
ALSO, SINCE CHANUKEAHS ARE LIT AT NIGHT, IN ALL CASES DURING THIS TIME, WITH FEW EXCEPTIONS, THIS WOMAN, WOULD BE ACCOMPANIED BY HER HUSBAND, OR A PARENT, AND I SUPPOSED THE SAGES EVEN BELIEVED, THAT IF SHE WENT INTO LABOR, SHE COULD STILL MANANGE TO MUMBLE THE PRAYER WITH KAVENAH.
Judy:
Please...you dont really agree with Rambam here do you? That on the whole, women are more spiritual, so they can do housework?!? GOSH NO RABBI JUDY. BUT UNTIL THE RAMBAM, FOR AT LEAST 1500 YEARS, JEWISH WOMEN WERE TOLD THEY WERE LIGHTING SHABBAT CANDLES TO MAKE UP FOR THE SIN OF EVE.
THAT IS A HEAVY BURDEN OF GUILT TO PLACE ON 1/2 OF OUR POPULATION, AND DOES A PRETTY NEAT TRICK OF KEEPING THEM IN THEIR 'PLACE'.
JUDAISM EVOLVES. THE WORLD HOPEFULLY EVOLVES, ALTHOUGH FOR THE LAST 7 YEARS WE HAVE TAKEN SOME STEPS BACKWARDS.
IT WASNT SO LONG AGO, IN THE USA, WOMEN COULDNT VOTE, AND NOW ONE IS HAVING A SERIOUS CAMPAIGN FOR PRESIDENT, AND THERE IS NO SILLY PRESS ABOUT A FEMALE NOT BEING UP TO THE JOB BECAUSE HER HORMONES MAY BE OFF, AS WE WOULD HAVE READ IN THE 1950S.
THE RAMBAM, SAYING THAT WOMEN LITE CANDLES BECAUSE EITHER A) THEY ARE TO DO HOUSE WORK ANYWAY, AND LITE CANDLES EVERY OTHER NITE (ONE HAD NO ELECTRICITY 1000 YEARS AG0), OR THAT WOMEN LITE CANDLES, BECAUSE THEY ARE MORE SPIRITUAL BEINGS THAN MEN, IS A MUCH KINDER WAY, THAN BLAMING 50% OF HUMANITY FOR ALL OF MALE'S CHARACTER DEFECTS.
ADAM DIDN'T PHYSICALLY DIE FROM EATING THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT, HE SPIRITUALLY DID. HE BECAME HUMAN WITH A YETZER HA RA. AND WOMEN WERE BLAMED, IN THE TALMUD, FOR THEIR HUSBANDS' STUPID ACTS.
MY WIFE AND I SPLIT HOUSE HOLD CHORES, EACH DOING WHAT WE ARE GOOD AT. I COOK. I CLEAN THE DISHES. SHE SETS THE TABLE, BECAUSE I STILL HAVENT FIGURED OUT WHERE THE THREE SPOONS AND 2 FORKS GO, AND DON'T CARE. LOL.
SHE LIGHTS THE SHABBAT CANDLES BECAUSE OF TRADITIONS WE SAW OUR BUBBIES ,OF BLESSED MEMORIES, DO.
AND WE USE TWO CANDLES, ALTHOUGH, THERE IS NO TALMUDIC RULE THAT SAYS WE MUST.
AS FAR AS WOMEN BEGIN MORE SPIRITUAL THAN MEN: ELLEN HAS MORE SPIRITUALITY IN HER PINKY THAN I HAVE IN MY ENTIRE BODY. I HAVE TO, NOT BECAUSE OF SOME RULES, BUT HAVE TO, PRAY AND MEDITATE THRICE A DAY, TO STAY SPIRITUALLY CONNECTED. SHE JUST IS.
BUT ON THE WHOLE, IT DEPENDS ON THE PERSON, AND HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH GENDER.
I WAS QUOTING, NOT PROMOTING.
THE TALMUD IS FULL OF QUOTES FROM SAGES WHO SEEMED CLUELESS WHEN IT CAME TO THEIR WIVES, MOTHERS, OR SISTERS:
The Talmud contains quotes that may be seen as both laudatory and derogatory of women. The Talmud states that:
- Ten measures of speech descended to the world; women took nine Kiddushin 49b
- Women are "light on raw knowledge" — i.e. they possess more intuition Shabbat 33b (our dafs this week)
- A man without a wife lives without joy, blessing, and good; a man should love his wife as himself and respect her more than himself Yevamot 62b
- When Rav Joseph heard his mother's footsteps he would say: "Let me arise before the approach of the Skenhinah ('divine presence')" (Kiddushin 31b)
- Israel was redeemed from Egypt by virtue of its righteous women (Sotah 11b)
- A man must be careful never to speak slightingly to his wife because women are prone to tears and sensitive to wrong (Bava Metzia 59b)
- Women have greater faith than men (Sifre # 133)
- Women have greater powers of discernment (Niddah 45b)
- Women are especially tenderhearted (Megillah 14b)
WHILE SOME OF OUR PEOPLE STILL KEEP WOMEN BEHIND MEKETZAHS AND NOT PART OF A MINYON, OTHERS ALLOW WOMEN TO BE RABBIS. IT IS THE LAWS THAT ASKED WOMEN TO DO THESE CERTAIN MITZVOTH, THAT HELPED US GET TO THE POINT WHERE RABBI ABRAMS COULD BE A RABBI. MOST OPINIONS BASED THIER POSITIONS ON AN ARGUEMENT THAT JEWISH WOMEN ALWAYS WERE, OR HAVE BECOME, LEGALLY OBLIGATED, TO PERFORM THE SAME MITZVOTH AS MEN AND TO DO SO IN THE SAME TIMELY MANNER.
ONE OF THE BEAUTIES OF THE TALMUD IS THAT IT RECORDS MINORITY OPINIONS, AND WHEN IT DISCUSSES MINYONS, AND THAT IF TEN ADULT MEN ARE IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND, A CHILD HOLDING A TORAH CAN COUNT, AND ONE WOMAN CAN COUNT. THIS OPINION OPENED THE DOOR, FOR WOMEN TO BE PART OF A MINYON, 2500 YEARS LATER, AND IF THEY CAN PRAY WITH MEN,. THEY CAN STUDY WITH MEN, AND EVENTUAL LEAD TO THEM LEADING MEN AND OTHER WOMEN IN PRAYER AND STUDY, AS CANTORS AND THEN RABBIS.
SHABBAT BLESSINGS, RABBI DR ARTHUR SEGAL
Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape in the new year.
