Sisterhood

Binyan Shalem is an institute devoted to strengthening the Jewish family. They are connected to Midreshet HaRova in Jerusalem giving guidance and training for maintaining and nurturing marriage and family. Besides their year-round programs, there has been an amazing two day gathering each summer of literally thousands of women who come to hear shiurim and lectures on topics related to maintaining a Jewish home and marital relationship. (Sorry, the Hebrew word zugiut זוגיות -couplehood?- just doesn't have an English equivalent - too bad!)

I took this picture on Tuesday morning in at the ICC in Jerusalem at the break after the first round of lectures let out. There were almost 100 shiurim to choose from over the two day conference which was attended by around 4,000 women! There is tremendous energy in this experience and I find these encounters invigorating.

I attended the first Binyan Shalem conference (I think it was 9 or 10 years ago) and have participated in several since then. I always enjoy encounters with women especially when they are focused on serious issues and espcially on Jewish issues. That's just how I am. Binyan Shalem and I are not a perfect match though. There is an idealization of the family and the woman's place which draws heavily on Rav Kook. This wasn't easy for me to accept because it seemed to ignore all the difficulties that develop over the years both between spouses and in the family. In the last few years they have devoted more attention to real issues like single parent families (widows and divorcees), coping with with disease and death, child development, fertility, pregnancy and couple counseling. I was pleased to see that they had set up an area where individual women could come for consultations and referrals. This is good for our community and good for religious women.

I was also very pleased to see that they are finally trying to reach the men of the national religious community (I believe this is the third year they have organized a parallel men's conference.) It's about time they realized that men are part of the family. The men's conference was much smaller and they have a long way to go, but it is a beginning. I am waiting for the session on how to balance a career in torah study and raise a family. Then I'll know they're really serious.

Something else I found disturbing was the status of the unmarried women. The discussions were about choosing a mate, how, when etc. What was missing was a sense of self-definition outside of being part of a couple or potentially part of a couple.

All in all it was a very nice two days and I enjoyed it even more because I was there with my daughter, daughter-in-law and one of my sons also participated in the men's conference. I'm happy I went.

Tell me it ain't so!

Zvulun Orlev, chairman of the National Union-National Religious Party (Ichud Leumi-Mafdal) is also the head of the Knesset choir. I didn't know any of this until I heard on the radio today that the choir sang Hatikvah at special session of the Knesset in honor of Gordon Brown, the British Prime Minister. No big deal. Ha, nothing in Israel is 'no big deal'. The choir sang without its three female MKs. Why? So the haredi MKs wouldn't be offended.

In the interview I heard with MK Orlev he told Galatz that he himself sings with the women in the choir but in this instance deferred to the sensitivity of the haredi MKs who are 'makpidim al kol b'isha erva'*. I can't believe he said that. For one thing, as an accomplished politician he should have just gotten someone or some other group to sing. What's the big deal? Does anybody think Gordon Brown or anyone else cares who sings Hatikva?
More substantively though, I would have expected him to cite support for women participating in a choir in public. I know it can be done.

Is all that we have left to Religious Zionism is a pale compromise of the real thing (represented by the haredim but which can be ignored sometimes if they're not around)????

Tell me it ain't so!

*Erva, which doesn't have an English translation, is a negative term which means something repulsive,defiling something you want to keep away from. When applied in this situation to women in this case it means that hearing their voices in this situation will have a repulsive or defiling effect.

Look Mom! I'm in a Blog Carnival!

Esser Agaroth: Haveil Havalim #174
In a creative stroke of genius Esser Agaroth askes what we all think of the fact that July 4, 1776 was also 17 Tammuz. Although I agree wholeheartedly with his call:

Make Aliya Now!

I can't really make a case for the declaration of Independence being one of the tragedies that befell the Jewish people over the millenia.

Sorry, if you're gonna make aliya, and you should, it better be for a more positive reason. The pull has to be greater than the push, so to speak.

My Baby's Baby

ברוך...שהחינו וקימנו והגיענו לזמן הזה
I had the amazing experience of attending the birth of my granddaughter Tamar. My daughter invited me to be at her side during this moving and intimate experience. I was honored and fascinated at being able to witness this process. (Disclosure, I have been there before but never as an observer.)

As I held my daugheter's hand I watched as her daughter's crown, then ear, then almost all her head and finally a shoulder appeared and the midwife pulled her free and out into our lives. We heard her first cry as she filled her lungs with the air of Eretz Yisrael.

She joins us now in that chain of Jewish mothers that Sara our first mother began. There is a unique feeling as a mother that I have a daughter who has herself become a mother. Not just a mother but a mother of a potential mother herself. It is probably as close to immortality as I can come.

I thank God for having given me the opportunity to see this day.