http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2008/03/the-secret-agre.html
I know this article is about a year old but, I just found it. Apparently, the real controversy is that WOMEN ARE PRAYING together and they don't want that? Oh, I'm sorry, they are upset with women's prayer groups. To me, that's saying they don't want us praying at all. So, does it reallly say in the Gemara that women are supposed to be hated or are the rabbis that hate women putting it in there?
Do you see in this article that the men are calling women monkeys? I think they probably hate women so much that they figure if they stop the women from praying, G-d will never do anything for the women, creating a cycle where they have an excuse to treat us even worse. These men are completely and totally sexist. G-d help these men.
The only defense I can think of on the behalf of the people who are disallowing these prayer groups was mentioned in the article itself. It said the word 'minyanim.' In and of itself a prayer group is fine, unless I'm missing some major part of Orthodox Judaism. I don't know the type of prayer group this is, but minyan implies the saying of kaddish, barchu, kedusha, etc. If that is the case, then yes, there is a big problem. 3 women above the age of 12 can make a mezuman for benching, but they cannot make a minyan. If they aren't actually having a minyan but just davening together, boy oh boy are the Jews in trouble.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, although the article says it, where does the chief authority on conversions in America call women monkeys. I can write an article too that says the president said something along the same lines, but without proof, the claim is baseless and unbelievable. I followed the link where it says the monkey line, but found nothing that suggested that Rabbi Hershel Shachter called anyone a monkey.
Second 'by the way.' This website sounds a bit radical no?
I will admit that an interesting fact is that the USA head of conversions has changed in the last year. Previously, it was Rabbi Zylberman. I spoke with him on the phone. He arranged for me to have a Shabbos meal, which is more than I can say for my first two conversion rabbis who essentially didn't speak to me, didn't answer shailas and didn't arrange Shabbos or yontiff meals for me.
ReplyDeleteOh, and no, women are not saying anything they aren't allowed to say. What they don't like is the Manhattan-style acknoweldgement that women are people. If you look at Avi's Weiss' shul's website, it states this. Also, the men leave the santuary for women's groups. The only exception is when a bas mitzvah girl gives a devar Torah or whatever. Her male family members are allowed in.
ReplyDeleteThe main point I was trying to get across in this post is exactly that, that the radicals are pushing their way in conversion. There are problems with both EJF conversions and RCA conversions. For one thing, many EJF converts are getting their information off of a Yahoo group or from a tutor who might not be so knowledgeable, instead of from a rabbi. I saw one of these tutors post that women don't have to wash in the morning.
RCA rabbis doing conversions don't always feel obligated to hold to the RCA standards. All in all, the rabbis and the organizations convert who ever they want and they do whatever they want. Good candidates are treated like dirt because they don't have a good enough job and candidates with an ok job go to the mikvah with thier period.
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