It's worth reading about the Tzohar Rabbis: they are trying to put a more open and modern face on the Rabbinical Establishment in Israel. I applaud their efforts to compete with the monopoly that the Rabbanut holds on marriage and divorce in this country.
Still, I worry that the Tzohar Rabbis may remain squarely Orthodox (and more important orthodox- with a lower case "o") in their halakhic thinking. And I wonder if they will have the gall to uproot some of the systematic inequities that lead to the problems of mesorovot get, as described in this creative article.
Painting by Cricket Diane C Phillips
The recent Air France plane crash has halakhic consequences for one women whose husband was on the flight. While she and her family had a natural reaction to plan a memorial ceremony after the coast guard began finding the awful remains of the plane and its passengers, the Rabbis were debating her status as a married woman, an agunah, or a widow.
If a woman's husband disappears, she must remain in limbo, awaiting the facts of his absence. The talmud says, if a man drowns in a Yam Shayin lo sof, a sea that has no end (a very large one), then the Rabbis free her on the assumption that we have enough (if not 100%) proof that he died.
I don't want to add my own comments today, for this issue feels like a Sea of tears with no end, for the widow, for agunot of all types of cases, and for mesoravot get.
I do have to say the comments on this r
ecent article intrigued me. While I disagreed with a few, overall I was glad to see a civil public debate on the topic.
A lot takes place during the Counting of the Omer between Pesach and Shavuot: we count (or maybe loose count); we commemorate and celebrate Yom HaShoah, Yom HaZikaron, Yom Ha’atzmaut, Lag Baomer, Yom Yerushalim; we went from being slaves in Egypt to receiving the Torah at Sinai; and we started to notice the spring turn to summer.
Often we over look the agricultural meaning of the holidays because the historical-conceptual links have become so much more relevant to our urban and suburban lifestyle. But the sacrifices given on the two holidays can refocus our attention. On Pesach we offer the Korban Omer, raw sheaves of barely, which coincides with the beginning of the grain harvest. By offering this simplest form of grain we thank God for the basic nutrition that the land affords us. But on Shavuot we offer the “Shnei Halaechem” two robust challot. This is the only time we bring leavened bread into the Beit Hamikdash, as if we are thanking God for the sumptuous bread (coated in egg, with a lot of sugar, like Pear Challot…maybe?), and for the ability to transform raw materials into more complicated and delicious delectables.
When we think about Shavuot as the holiday of receiving the Torah, we imagine ourselves as traveling Jews stopping momentarily in the desert. But when we think of bringing grain and bread to the Beit Hamikdash we are transported to an agrarian lifestyle in the land of Israel. After all, when we were traveling in the dessert it was relatively easy to give animal sacrifices, as the animals can wonder with travelers in the desert. But to give a barely and wheat sacrifice really represents an additional blessing of stability, land to farm and live on, hopefully a extra produce to sell at a profit.
We don’t all individually farm land these days (though I am very happy with my new CSA- Community Supported Agriculture- that delivers organic vegetables to my door, with the dirt still on them so I feel a little more connected to the land). But many of us do have a sense of stability and source of income, similar to owning a plot of land, something that especially in todays economic climate we should be thankful for on Shavuot.
P.S. The AJWS works teaches poor people all over the world to cultivate land, growing food for themselves and to sell. It’s a “grassroots” (excuse the pun) way to enable people to support themselves instead of putting a band aid on the issue of poverty and hunger. If you want you can donate in spiritual preparation for Shavuot. https://secure.ajws.org/site/Donation2?df_id=2600&2600.donation=form1&autologin=true&utm_source=fdrm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=shavuot&JServSessionIdr010=jk2dmigp63.app304b
I've been glad to see several articles recently published on Ynet (an Israeli internet news source) exposing the ills of the Rabbinic court here in Israel. The writer, Rivkah Lubitch, is a toenet (a lawyer in the Rabbinic court system) and works through Center for Women's Justice , who are strategically publishing articles weekly to raise awareness about women's rights in the backwards and corrupt world of religious courts. Kol Hacavod!
Recent invitation to rally for an aguna.
I recently came across an energetic invitation on-line to a rally against a man who is refusing to give his wife a get, a Jewish Divorce. The strategy of helping such women by complicating a man’s comfort in his community- taking away his right to be called up to the Torah or boycotting his business – is quite an old idea. Trying to convince but not force a husband to give his wife a get has been the preoccupation of Jewish leaders since the Talmud. Softer than the Rambam’s plan to beat offending men until they said “yes I want to give this get,” most Rabbis today sanction using community and consumer pressure as a way to right the wrong.
I was glad to come across the invitation for this specific rally and am always glad to hear of people who are dedicated enough to the cause to take to the streets and yell about it. However I still have to admit that these individual rallies fall short of my dreams of an ultimate end to the problem. By exerting so much energy on fighting each man on his turf, we simply continue the status quo, which places all the key to unlock marriage entirely in man’s hand, a basic power differential that will always lead to manipulations and abuses of the divorce process.
The invitation to this rally earnestly wanted to persuade people to participate and so it read: “Come out to protect your daughters!” Unfortunately this very well meant call to action reeks of paternalism. Do they only expect men to show up at the rally? Maybe, maybe not. But the underlying point is clear: women need men’s help. A grown woman, who may be a professional, a mother, and clearly a wife, is transformed back into a child, a daughter of the community. However successful this rally may be, the woman’s status in the community will always be in need of protection until the very structure of marriage is equalized.
I was just rattled by this article about “victim feminism.” Marla Braverman claims that second wave feminism, in pointing out the systematic forces that work to keep women down, has created a generation of women who see themselves as victims. Consciousness Raising itself creates women who don’t feel stronger for recent gains, but rather accept that the deck is stacked against them.
The most startling claim she made is that sexual harassment victims who do not protest and or make reports immediately are part of the problem. Had we been trained to see ourselves as loud outspoken strong women then…. well then what?
Problem is, Braverman suggests that those women who report abuse after the fact are themselves adding to the sense of victimization by declaring their own victimhood and scaring more women about the invincible predators lurking around the corner. So perhaps they should have protested in the moment, she suggests.
Yes why not, women should be trained to voice their consent or refusal loudly and clearly. Maybe we can strengthen our sense of choice and voice. Yet that does not erase all the societal barriers than need to change for this utopia of women’s strength to flourish. (Maybe that’s the “victim feminist” in me). Society at large – not just women- still attributes shame to being sexually harassed and to talking about sex in general. Moreover, how do we change a boss or a professor’s awareness about his or her power, without talking about it?
I’m not sure how I would react if I was ever put to the test, but I know that I have gained from the conversation about power dynamics. I know that as a teacher I am aware of the influence I hold over my students and I try to use it wisely. I agree that all relationships: sexual or professional, work of friend, across gender lines or across power divide are complicated. And perhaps the court room, as Braverman suggests, is not the best place to begin policing some of the more nuanced cases she mentions. Still I am not certain that the work of feminism in the societal and educational spheres can yet afford to stop raising awareness.
I recently attended the conference on Halakhic Prenups, mentioned in this article. I must say there were a lot of fascinating details, that differ from the RCA agreement, which I had not been aware of. Here are just a few tidbits.
1) The prenup is entirely egalitarian. Both the wife and husband-to-be sign this document promising to pay each other a certain amount of increased food stipend if either side is recalcitrant (meaning the husband refuses to give a get or the wife refuses to accept or either side doesn't show up for their court date. )
2) The Israeli prenup builds in a period of reconciliation. During the 6 month waiting period, which precedes the requirement to pay each other the sum mentioned above, either side can request marriage counseling, with either a psychologist or a rabbinic figure. The second person (usually the one who sued for divorce) must attend three sessions in order to maintain their right to the sum at the six month point.
I learned a lot at this training conference and hopefully will share some more details in further posts.
Sometimes Chazal make drashot on a word that you just find totally implausible. Like on daf 10b of Ketuboth they say that the term Almana- Widow- is based on the word Maneh- the amount of money an widow receives in her Ketubah if she remarries (as opposed to the double portion – maataim- that the virgin receives).
Are they for real or is it just a cute mnemonic device that happens to linguistically work out?
Thankfully the gemarah expresses the same consternation. When the word Alamana appears in the Torah, it wasn’t known that the Rabbis would later institute this kind of Ketubah, with this specific amount. To me this is another way of saying that creative linguistics shouldn’t work backwards; you can’t assume origin from the current usage or the current value assigned. Other voices in the gemarah quiet the question by citing additional locations where the language employed by the Tanach seems to reflect a reality much later than its period of composition.
Now I’m getting into Biblical Criticism and that’s not a place I feel comfortable going….. Just want to say that while the Rabbis play with language, and imbue words with multiple meanings from multiple periods of history- granting the word a timeless power- I also think they are winking at us, aware of the elegant word games they are playing.
The week of Yom Haatzmaut, as I prepare a shiur on whether one should say Hallel to celebrate the founding of the State, the police are blowing up a Chefetz Chashud outside my window.
First I hear a cop speaking into an intercom telling people not to cross the police line, but that could just be the end of a Hachnasat sefer torah or a street fair, which are frequent in the neighborhood. But then I hear the sound of the police robot shooting into a chefetz chashud, blowing up a suspicious object that might be a bomb. They are unmistakable loud tight targeted shots.
I am forced to think about Rav Ovadiah’s claim that the miracle of the founding of the state is incomplete; that we can’t say Hallel on a country that still isn’t safe and secure, to the extent that there are suspicions of bombs on a quiet residential street. I think of his claim that we can’t say Hallel over a war that was so bloody and the limbo state in which we are still suffering casualties.
But then I see, in the lamplight, the silhouette of the policeman in his bulky ephod, proud as a Cohen Gadol, saunter down the street. He takes off his helmet and tells the people on the sidewalk they are free to walk down the street. There is something in his swagger, in his pride to sound the all clear to the neighborhood children, that reassures me. With all its dangers and shortcomings, this is our country and we take care of each other here, and that is reason enough for me to say Hallel.
To day is Yom Hashoah, Holocaust remembrance day. The siren sounded at 10:00 am for a moment of silence where people even stop in the highway to stand at attention. It is such an Israeli way to commemorate. It is the sound of war, a call to war to defensive stance, to miluim, to bomb shelters. It is not a sad sound, it is a fearful sound. Like at the seder where we are asked to relive the feeling of leaving Egypt, you too should feel like you lived through the holocaust and survived, you too should feel what it means to be in war to panic to think fast to make creative solutions to save yourself and to fight back.
RSS Feed