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From: fox@ozone.DEC
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish
Subject: Women's participation in shul
Message-ID: <613@decwrl.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 1-Oct-85 06:43:38 EDT
Article-I.D.: decwrl.613
Posted: Tue Oct  1 06:43:38 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 3-Oct-85 05:35:16 EDT
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    Now that things have settled down in home, job, and life, I 
have resumed pursuing my interest with the role of women in Judaism, 
specifically in terms of spiritual needs.  So my eye was caught 
by a letter in _The_Jewish_Week_, written by Lifsa Schacter in 
response to a recent ruling by five Orthodox rabbis that women's 
prayer groups were not halachically valid.  I quote from the 
letter: 


   "My father came to this country in the early years of this 
century.  In the shtetl in which he grew up, his mother was one 
of the very few women literate in Hebrew.  She was known as a 
'_zugger-ke_'.
     "In the shtetl synagogue, on the other side of the partition 
separating the men from the women, she would follow the service 
and say it aloud (_zug_) so that the other women could 
participate and respond.  My father told me that the women would 
press so close that she would sometimes faint.  A barrel-type 
contrivance with a seat in it was constructed for her to prevent 
this from happening.  A professor of Talmud recently told me that 
he saw such structures in synagogues in Eastern Europe.  He had 
not been able to figure out their purpose until he heard the 
story of my grandmother."

     Ms Schacter goes on to say that this vignette

     "...casts a different light on the legitimacy of women 
seeking forums for participating in public prayer services.  
Contrary to the claim of the five rabbis, the inability of the 
traditional male service to satisfy the spiritual needs of Jewish 
women is not a new phenomenon that developed only in response to 
the women's liberation movement of our times.
     "When I think of my grandmother and the women who pressed 
around her I am overwhelmed by the spiritual greatness that made 
it possible for them to continue to try to find ways of 
participating in aspects of our tradition that ignored them and 
their needs.  I believe that women who today organize and 
participate in women's _tfilla_ groups and egalitarian services 
are the spiritual descendants of the 'zugger-kes' and their 
coteries."

    I have become part of a (small) mailing list (USPS,not 
electronic) of women who are seeking to find new ways to meet the 
spiritual needs of Jewish women.  We are a diverse group, 
interested in developing prayers and ceremonies within the 
tradition (for example, shedding light on the Rosh Chodesh, a 
traditional, and in this country, ignored, half holiday for 
women), and to expand on it, or create new traditions.

    I would be interested in a discussion with other Jewish women 
about these subjects, either on the net, or through personnel 
correspondence.  I'm including my U.S. address for those who are not 
"connected" to the net.world (please pass this on).  I'd also be 
happy to send a copy of the full text of Ms. Schacter's letter 
(preferably electronically) to individuals who request it.

  B'shalom,

	Bobbi

        USPS: 252 Aspinwall Ave, Brookline, MA 02146
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