Why Do Women Light the Sabbath Candles Long before the Sabbath Begins?[1] If people would take the time to look at the bulletin of an Orthodox Synagogue, they would find something very curious. The women are instructed to light candles several minutes before the men are scheduled to attend the Mincha service, [...]
By Israel Drazin Kaddish: Women’s Voices By M. Smart and B. Ashkenas Urim Publications, 2013, 271 pages ISBN 978-965-524-150-1 Smart and Ashkenas collected some fifty essays by articulate women of the various Jewish denominations in which they tell poignant emotional tales about relatives who died and their experiences in saying the mourner’s [...]
By Israel Drazin Virtually all societies and religions, if not all, are paternalistic, belittle women, discriminate against them, and require them to dress and act in ways that preclude them from possibly enticing men. Judaism is no exception. While Judaism is not monolithic and Jews differ widely, many Jews do not treat [...]
Review by Israel Drazin Lilith’s Cave Jewish Tales of the Supernatural Selected and retold by Howard Schwartz Oxford University Press, 1988, 274 pages ISBN 978-0-506726-6 What is thought-provoking about this book, its fifty Jewish tales of demons and the supernatural, is that most of the demons are women. Yes, Satan appears, [...]
By Israel Drazin Dr. Naomi Harris Rosenblatt examines the biblical report of the lives and activities of seventeen biblical women in her well-researched, insight-filled, and frequently innovative reading of biblical tales in her 2005 book After the Apple. The women lived as second-class citizens under the authority and control of men: fathers, [...]
By Israel Drazin[1] Aside from the few astonishing legends about regal amazons who retained control over their spouses and men in general, world history has unfortunately continually assigned a submissive and subservient role to women in the home and in society. Since Judaism is not monolithic, Jewish literature contains both positive and negative [...]
By Israel Drazin Many people recognize that women have still not entirely succeeded in participating in society as they should. How were women portrayed in the Hebrew Bible? Professor Jennie R. Eberling answers this question in her very readable and informative 2010 book Women’s Lives in Biblical Times where she analyses biblical [...]
By Israel Drazin I think that women should be treated with respect and have the same rights as men. Many ancient Jewish sages felt the same, but not all of them. The question was raised[1] why did the very wise Greek philosopher Aristotle,[2] disparage women? The answer given is that he was [...]
By Israel Drazin Dina and I were married 52 years ago by a Hasidic rabbi in Germany. His wife and children were murdered by the Nazis. He remarried a woman whose family was also murdered. At the synagogue services on the Shabbat before our wedding ceremony, when I was called to the [...]
Family Redeemed By Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik Ktav Publishing House, 2000, 207 pages This is one of about a half dozen volumes published after Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik death (1903-1993) based on writings he never published. This one, the first of the posthumous volumes, contains six essays that focus on family relationships. [...]
From Defender to Critic The Search for a New Jewish Self By Dr. David Hartman Jewish Life Publishing, 2012, 303 pages Rabbi Dr. David Hartman disagrees with the views of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik (1903-1993), the former Dean of Yeshiva University and spiritual leader of the Rabbinical Council of America, the organization of Orthodox rabbis. [...]
By Israel Drazin Why do people feel that they should listen to their clergy? There is nothing in the Hebrew Bible, New Testament, or Koran that says that its adherents must obey rabbis, priests, and imams. In fact, Judaism didn’t have rabbis until around the year 70 of the Common Era, after the second [...]
A Daughter’s Recitation of Mourner’s Kaddish By Rahel Berkovits JOFA, 2011, 93 pages Orthodox Judaism, like American and other judges, makes legal decisions based on precedences, not only on what modern people think is correct. When a question arises, Orthodox rabbis examine what has been said about the matter in the past, and scrutinize [...]
Some Thoughts about God By Israel Drazin The popular view that God is ever present and meticulously involved, such as making detailed decisions about and controlling every raindrop and every falling leaf, and counting and recording the good and bad deeds that humans perform, is so well known that it doesn’t bear repeating. So [...]
One of the great tragedies of Judaism is the way that it handles divorces. The rabbis interpreted the Torah to state that only men can initiate marriages and divorces. Thus if a woman wants a divorce but her husband refuses to give it to her, she is chained (Hebrew, aguna) to her husband forever. [...]
The God Who Hates Lies Confronting & Rethinking Jewish Tradition By David Hartman with Charlie Buckholtz Jewish Lights Publishing, 2011, 192 pages David Hartman points out that Modern Orthodox Judaism has in many respects been frozen in suspended animation, refusing to budge and grow despite moral imperatives and logic, resulting in many people [...]
On Changes in Jewish Liturgy Options and Limitations By Daniel Sperber Urim Publications, 2010, 221 pages Reviewed by Israel Drazin This is the second recent volume where Daniel Sperber, professor, rabbi, author of thirty books and more than four hundred articles, a leading expert on Jewish laws and customs, addresses what many consider [...]
Women and Men in Communal Prayer Halakhic Perspectives Edited by Chaim Trachtman, MD Ktav Publishing House, 2010, 418 pages Reviewed by Israel Drazin One of the great world tragedies is the systematic exclusion of women from many activities and positions, making them, in essence, only partial citizens, reminiscent of blacks being considered only three-fifths [...]
