Comments on: Rosie the Tefillin Wearer

By: Miriam

Miriam — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 01:09:00 +0000

Hi Danya,

I found your blog via my hit tracker, and I guess I’m coming to the party a little late, but since you asked, I’m the girl who cobbled that little picture together with Microsoft Paint one day around two years ago. It tickled me to see it pop up now after so long. If you’re curious, here’s a link the original post:
http://sospire.blogspot.com/20.....lefty.html

By: Danya

Danya — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 00:26:00 +0000

Ooh, but who did it? I’d love to give proper attribution if possible….

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 17:29:00 +0000

Just thought you all should know that the brilliant artist of rosie the tefillin wearer, who crafted her sleek straps in microsoft paint, is a reconstructionist (or was for a while…)

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Dec 2005 18:54:00 +0000

I always feel more offended by conservative shules that aren’t egalitarian than by orthodox shules. I think this is because (at least from my point of view) the non egalitarianism in orthodoxy might stem from fairly earnest respect for halacha whereas it seems to me that in the conservative movement when shule is not egalitarian, it is to do with conservatism with a small c and sexism. Having said that, I don’t think mehitza is not egalitarian.
What do people think about this?

By: The RetiKhah

The RetiKhah — Mon, 26 Dec 2005 03:06:00 +0000

Actually ( re your comment above, DAnya) I do think that halakha mandates egalitarianism (see my essay in Rabbi Dorff’s new book).
OTOH, I DON’T advocate kicking out non-egal shuls from the movement. I have mixed feelings because of the job thing ( they are currently perfectly within their rights to refuse to hire women, and this is a problem in a movement where women are having trouble getting adequately paying jobs -including a big differential as to whether they even recieve very rock-bottom requirements like …health insurance!), but on the whole I think that eventually both Conservative (and Orthodox) shuls WILL eventually be egalitarian. It’s moving that way, it will just take a while. We ‘re used t things changing very quickly, but Judaism doesn’t work that way: we have to stay the course to make sure that halakha DOESN’T get run over or abandoned, and that means change will be slow.
A colleague of moine responding to a simlar comment by another colleague of mine said that he found the attitude that it wil change anyway so we don’t have to do anything about it to be not comforting, and perhaps even condescending. Nevertheless, IMO that’s the way thigns are going - and hsould.

By: Danya

Danya — Mon, 26 Dec 2005 02:09:00 +0000

I really don’t think the poster is meant to be saying f-you to everybody. It’s interesting how people who say things that challenge the status quo are often interpreted as meaning that, no?

By: MaxKohanzad

MaxKohanzad — Sun, 25 Dec 2005 23:37:00 +0000

Funny!! - Rashi’s daughters are said to have worn teffilin, however - just a minor point - according to some opinions (shulchan aruch?) hair combed backwards (i.e. if that is against the natural ‘grain’ of the hair) would be considered a ‘chaztita’ a separation between the teffilin and the head - the poster - it really just says - F* U to everyone! - I think you could go farther and put ‘SHEMA ISRAEL’ or something in the place where it says ‘WE CAN DO IT’? also at the bottom of the poster - something like the ‘Brought to You By The Campain For Holy - Women in Teffilin ?!?!?!’

By: Marilyn

Marilyn — Sat, 24 Dec 2005 10:05:00 +0000

My problem with the “large tent” theory is that women who wish to wear tefillin and leyn and lead services, etc., are not always allowed in the tent. I see your situation as a prime example. A “hard-core” egalitarian man would still be able to fully practice. You, a woman, are not able to practice within a movement that supposedly allows for all.

I do respect the elders of the congregation, but I feel that they do not respect me. They can come to my synagogue and practice, but I can’t fully practice at their synagogue.

I realize you are in a bind, and I wish it were different. I wish the choice wasn’t that you and your fellow congregants would be expelled from their “home.” I wish the choice is that the elders would have to realize that the time for this change is now, and allow women to fully practice everywhere in the movement.

By: Shira Salamone

Shira Salamone — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 06:35:00 +0000

As many of you know, I’m a tallit-and-tefillin-wearing, service-leading, Torah-leining and haftarah-chanting hard-core egalitarian. It’s just my luck that I’m now living in a neighborhood in which the only Conservative synagogue is a traditional one. As a consequence, I find myself caught in the middle of this disagreement. On the one hand, I would certainly like to see all Conservative synagogues, including my own, become egalitarian. But as a member of a traditional Conservative synagogue for roughly 20 years, I cannot, in good conscience, advocate the expulsion of non-egalitarian synagogues from the USCJ.

What have my fellow and sister congregants, many of whom have been associated with Conservative Judaism for decades, done to deserve to be expelled from their “home?” The traditionalists are the elders of the Conservative movement. Whether or not we agree with them, they deserve some kavod (respect). I hope that the USCJ will continue to advocate a “large tent.”

By: Naomi Chana

Naomi Chana — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 05:07:00 +0000

There might also be a useful (and not especially halakhic) distinction between congregations which “we” view as immoral (is this the same thing as “unhalakhic”?) and congregations which “we” view as simply Not Part Of The Same Movement We Are In. Judaism (rabbinic or Second Temple) has pretty much always featured a plethora of parties, sects, minhagim, and so forth. I’ve said elsewhere that I would like to find language which indicates “those people over there practice a real form of Judaism, but not my real form of Judaism.”

Whether or not the Conservative movement should then include non-egalitarian shuls (which have a logical alternate home in the Traditional breakaway movement, I would think) is a separate question.