Author: vspatz
“Gift” Resources
[email of early March, 1998, to Fabrangen Havurah–
providing source notes for dvar Torah on the portion Terumah (“Gifts,” for the Tabernacle), Exod. 25:1-27:19 — Note: I don’t (yet) provide links here for most print resources or check to see if the internet links still exist.]
54 New Torah Ideas
Jewish Lights has just [May 2009] published a volume called The Modern Men’s Torah Commentary: New Insights from Jewish Men on the 54 Weekly Torah Portions, which offers an interesting array of new perspectives. Continue Reading
Study Mechitza?
The Torah: A Women’s Commentary is a great new resource, from women Torah scholars highlighting women in the Torah and women’s perspectives on the Torah.Continue Reading
Order Up: Meaningful Prayer
Lisa Schlaff spoke at March’s conference on women and prayer about her experiences with the “partnership minyan” Darchei Noam. She pointed out that explaining a partnership minyan can sound like ordering at Starbucks: “I’ll have the mechitza with women-leading-psukei-and-men-leading-musaf, please.”
New “Ball of Fire”?
The Torah: A Women’s Commentary — published in 2008 by the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) — includes full English and Hebrew Torah texts interspersed with commentary; introductory essays; and an overview, poetic “voices” and “another view” for each weekly portion. It encompasses the commentary of 100 authors, from across the spectrum of Jewish practice and belief, and incorporates the work of 140 poets. The Torah: A Women’s Commentary is attractive and useful, but it is unclear whether it does — or should — meet its creators’ expectations.
I find this publication situation a bit reminiscent of the 1941 Cooper/Stanwyck movie, “Ball of Fire”: Professor Bertram Potts and fellow lexicographers are about to publish their long-researched dictionary when Potts realizes that language usage has changed — “cats” are spending “dough” — while they’ve been in their study. Much has changed between 1992, when the URJ commentary was conceived, and 2008, when it appeared — and those years are not clearly reflected in the new volume.
I was similarly struck when Alison Lavie spoke at the conference, “This is My Prayer–Va’ani tefillati: Jewish Women in Prayer,” on March 1 (2009). Her comments centered around her personal discovery of women’s prayer traditions from various points in Jewish history. To some Israeli audiences, “Why didn’t I know about the women’s traditions of my ancestors?” might have been a reasonable refrain; to a U.S. audience — one self-selected for an interest in prayer, and women’s prayer at that — the question drew many puzzled looks and mutterings long the lines of, “Good question. Why didn’t you know about women’s traditions?”
Various compilations of Jewish women’s prayers have been available in English for nearly 20 years. And, while Lavie’s recent English publication, A Jewish Woman’s Prayer Book, was a welcome addition, it was not “groundbreaking” for U.S. readers — and her remarks were not news to many in the conference audience.
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Chag Sameach
A kosher and joyful Passover.
News and views from the Jewish Women’s Prayer conference coming.
Yitro, for Something Completely Different
This week’s Torah portion “Yitro,” Exodus 18:1-20:23, famously relates Revelation at Sinai, including the Ten Commandments. Vital Torah. But I always like to put in a good word for the portion’s namesake Yitro (or Jethro) — introduced both as “Priest of Midian” and “Father-in-Law of Moses” — and his daughter Zipporah.
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“this is my prayer”
The schedule for “This is My Prayer–Va’ani tefillati: Jewish Women in Prayer” — the March 1 inter-denominational conference — is available now. Registration closes February 24 — NO ON-SITE REGISTRATION — for the event, which takes place at the Abraham Joshua Heschel High School, 20 West End Avenue (at 60th Street), New York City.
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Song and Survival
Shabbat Shirah is marked at Temple Micah (DC) — as in many congregations — with extra emphasis on the Song of the Sea, the Israelites’ praise-song to God after their escape from Egypt (Exodus Chapter 15). At Micah, the much-anticipated annual celebration incorporates special readings and musical selections; each year presents several settings of “Mi Chamocha” [“Who is like you, God?”] — the pre-Amidah prayer, taken in part from Exod. 15 and recalling the Israelites’ offering of “a shirah chadashah” [new song].
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