Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site decwrl.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!ucbvax!decwrl!fox@ozone.DEC 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 Sender: daemon@decwrl.UUCP Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation Lines: 64 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 UUCP: ...decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-nimbus!fox ARPA/CSNET: fox%nimbus.dec@DECWRL