"I am woman, hear me roar"

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What do many traditional Jews and the Pharaoh from Exodus have in common?

They don't think women need to pray!


"And Pharaoh’s servants said unto him,... Let the men go, that they may serve the LORD... And Moses said, We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters... And he [Pharaoh] said unto them... Not so: go now ye that are men, and serve the LORD..."
(Ex. 10:7-11)

“Women, slaves and minors are exempt from reciting the Shema prayer… but they are subject to the obligations of Prayer…”
(Mishnah Berakhot 3:3)

“exempt” eventually became “not a priority”… when synagogues (as we know them) were being formed, women were busy with the home and the kids, so they couldn’t make it to prayer services all the time—THAT’S why they were “exempt.”

While it’s more complex than those two excerpts, it’s fairly obvious that men are the priority in most traditional/Orthodox prayer services. Women cannot read from the Torah, lead services are counted in the minyan (quorum of 10 adult male Jews necessary for a complete prayer service).

Now, since I am married to woman who studying to be a rabbi, I am clearly biased.
I also think women should be allowed to read books and use in-door plumbing.
But hey, that's just me.

I have prayed several times in a synagogue with a mechitzah (rhymes with "the pizza"), which is essentially a prison for women.

Every time I pray in a synagogue with a mechitzah, I have to resist the urge to act like Tobey Maguire in “Pleasantville” or Tracey Turnbladd from "Hairspray"-- Just run in front of the entire congregation, push the rabbi aside, tear down the separating wall and yell, "People! People! Listen to me! You don't have to live like this! Now… everybody dance!"

Roe v. Wade, Rosie the Riveter, Helen Gurley Brown, etc.

I want to tell the ladies, "Women, you deserve to be equal to the men! Get up, stand up... don't give up the fight!"

But then... that is what America tries to do all over the world.
"Come on, you should have a government exactly like us! Live like WE do!"

If I force religious people to live like me, and become less traditional, then I'm just as bad as religious people who would force ME to live like THEM!

There’s constant tension in Israel. This past November 28th, the wife and I went to a demonstration on Ben Yehuda Street because a woman was arrested at the Western Wall for wearing a tallit (prayer shawl), which is traditionally worn, only by men in Haredi (ultra orthodox) communities.

I have prayed several times in a synagogue with a mechitzah (rhymes with "the pizza")

Mechitza shul
What is a mechitzah?

According to The American Heritage® Dictionary (4th ed., 2009):

“A partition erected in the seating section of an Orthodox synagogue to prevent the mixing of men and women.”
[From the Mishnaic Hebrew ḥāṣaṣ, to divide]


A “mechitzah” is the separation between men and women in most Orthodox synagogues.
It is often a lattice, like all the Jewish men are peering through a fence, Huckleberry Feinstein.

But other synagogues put the women behind the men, in the back of the synagogue, or in a balcony.

Either way, I don’t care for it. This wasn’t always the case—in my more traditional days, when I was even MORE insecure around the opposite sex, I appreciated a Mechitzah—when I was 17, and girls were always on my mind (and not in my life), it was a relief to prayer away from them, to avoid distraction. But I was a clenched fist of sexual repression. Now I use women!
... to feel closer to God. They sing better than men! So let’s have ‘em sing! And they are as much a part of a praying community as men. Let’s sit together.
But in Israel, it’s not that easy.


Israel is a country of contradictions.
A modern country, just 62 years old... yet one of the most ancient, continually-inhabited lands.
Science, technology... place of the Bible

Women serve in the army, and as Prime Minister (Golda Meir, 1969-1974)... but multitudes practice a brand of Judaism that limits their rights and their voice (Literally... one rule in observant communities is that a woman cannot sing in front of men... because her voice may excite them).

The problem starts with the Bible (what a shock!)... the second WORD in the Bible.
…and the ninth word.

2nd word: “barah” = “[he] created”
9th word: “haytah” = “[she] was”

The first word was the act of God (implied to be a man).
The second word refers to the earth (implied to be feminine).

God, the man, created the world, the woman

In Hebrew gender is reflected in verbs, like in French or Spanish or most languages... but not English.
I gotta give proverbial snaps to English.
No gender.

“The Lord is a man of war” (Exodus 15:3)



Coincidence-- as I was writing this, my wife (a rabbi-in-training... and a lady) came home singing the old spiritual “Down to the River to Pray,” known to most of us thanks to Alison Krauss and the Cohen brothers' film "O' Brother Where Art Thou":

"As I went down in the river to pray
Studying about that good old way...

Oh sisters, let's go down/
Let's go down/Come on down..."

Great tune (notice I didn't make a sexual innuendos about that last couplet... classy, as usual).

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