Kotel

I mentioned visiting the Kotel, or the Western Wall, in my last post, so I wanted to expound on that experience a bit.  This was about a year and a half ago toward the end of my two-week trip to Israel, and before I made a commitment to officially convert, though I was already observing some of the traditions and holidays.

Visiting and praying at the Wall was actually a very profound and spiritual experience for me.  It was the plainness and simplicity of it, in stark contrast to the fancy churches I had grown disillusioned with, that allowed me to really connect with the moment and concentrate on what I wanted to convey in my prayers to God.  I didn’t know any Jewish prayers yet at that point so I just spoke silently in my own words.  It was an emotional experience and I even cried a little when I thought about some of my past ungratefulness towards God’s love and all the second chances I’ve gotten in life.

Before this visit I had viewed Judaism and my attraction to it as primarily a matter of culture and ethnic identity.  But connecting with God in this holy spot caused me to start seeing Judaism as also a religion and system of spirituality, and I suppose this is what led me to eventually want to convert in a synagogue as opposed to simply adopting the culture and traditions.

The trip itinerary took us to the Kotel right after Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, which I thought was fitting and added another interpretation to my visit to the Wall.  I saw this giant Wall, which survived the destruction of our Temple and is our holiest place on earth, as a symbol of the survival of the Jewish nation.  They tried to destroy us, but we stand tall and strong like this Wall.

Right before my group went up to the Kotel, our tour guide said to us:  “No matter what you believe in, whether you like it or not, this is your place, and no one can take it away from you.”

I’ll have to talk more about my trip to Israel in future posts.

Honoring Women

Last night in class, while reading samples of Writings, we read Proverbs 31:10-29 which is an ode to women and is traditionally sung by husbands to their wives on Shabbat.  It’s absolutely beautiful and touching.  I won’t repost the entire piece because it’s quite long, but here are some excerpts:

Her [a wife’s] value is far beyond that of pearls.  Her husband trusts her from his heart, and she will prove a great asset to him.  She works to bring him good, not harm, all the days of her life. […]  It’s still dark when she rises to give food to her household and orders to the young women serving her.  She considers a field, then buys it, and from her earnings she plants a vineyard. […]  She sees that her business affairs go well. […]  When it snows, she has no fear for her household; since all of them are doubly clothed. […]  Clothed with strength and dignity, she can laugh at the days to come.  When she opens her mouth, she speaks wisely; on her tongue is loving instruction.  […]  Her children arise; they make her happy; her husband too, as he praises her:  “Many women have done wonderful things, but you surpass them all!”

It’s so wonderful that wives are appreciated in Judaism for everything they do, even if some of this piece is a little sexist in that a woman is an “asset” to a man and is to, you can say, “serve” him.  But you have to consider the historical context in which this was written, and I still think it’s remarkable that women are an “asset” that is greatly appreciated.  In fact the husband is to reciprocate and make her happy by praising her.  We also have to note that women had their own earnings and were the ones responsible for things like ordering the servants, buying fields, and seeing to the family’s business affairs, which is actually quite a progressive and even feminist concept.

Our Rabbi mentioned that since women are expected to do so much for their households, they are not expected to partake in all of the mizvot that men are to do; for example they don’t need to pray as often.  This reminded me of when I visited the Kotel, or Western Wall, in Jerusalem over a year ago, and I and the rest of my group noted that the women’s section (women and men pray separately) is much smaller than the men’s (though because of this it was a bit crowded).  Our tour guide explained that this is because women don’t have to come pray as often, because they honor God in their everyday lives by fulfilling other mitzvot such as cooking kosher meals and raising their children Jewishly.

So you could interpret this division of requirements as actually egalitarian and in a way feminist.  Yes, women and men have separate roles and women are expected to be very domestic.  But the religion respects and appreciates this and doesn’t expect as much of them in other areas of observance.