Rivka Haut and Adena Berkovitz

Our guests this week are the editors and "familiar and respected activists in Orthodox feminist circles" - of "Shaarei Simcha" ("Gates of Joy"), a mini prayer book that was hailed as "the first modern liturgical work written and edited by women for use in the Orthodox community."

Rivka Haut is a long-time agunah activist, a mother and grandmother, and the co-author of two books, Daughters of the King: Women and the Synagogue and Women of the Wall: Claiming Sacred Ground at Judaism's Holy Site.

Dr. Adena Berkowitz holds graduate degrees in law and ethics. A popular teacher of Torah, Adena has lectured across the U.S. on Jewish ethics, rabbinics, women and Judaism and Jewish values.
Readers can send questions to rosnersdomain@haaretz.co.il.

Dear Mr. Rosner,

I would like to ask your guests how can women of such stature and wisdom can confine themselves to such small achievements? why won't they just demand full equality as members of the Jewish community?

Is it because they think it will ever be forbidden - or is it because they believe such changes should be made in a gradual way?

Thank you,

Tamar, Jerusalem


Dear Tamar,



Thank you for a very important question. Our approach to Jewish tradition and Yiddishkeit is that all of us are created b'Tzelem Elokim- all-- both men and women have been created in the image of G-d. Orthodox Jews believe that developments have to take place within Halakha, Jewish law. When Sara Schneier founded a school movement which would become the standard for yeshiva education for girls, her actions were considered revolutionary. Yet today, even in the most fervently religious communities, girls receiving a Jewish education is a given.

In the last fifty years the Orthodox Jewish community has seen the widespread acceptance of girls and women learning classic rabbinic texts, including Talmud. Today there are yoatzot halakha, madrichot ruchaniot, congregational interns and more. For example, in New York, Dina Najman serves as Rosh Kehillah in an Orthodox synagogue.

When halakhic women's tefillah groups began, about 30 years ago, they were considered radical, a phenomenon that could destroy Judaism, and were quite aggressively attacked. Yet, the groups withstood the criticism and proliferated. They laid the ground work for the expansion of women's role within Orthodox Jewish religious settings, Women of the Wall, and more recently to the rise of partnership minyanim.

Thirty years ago the women who participated in women's tefillah were considered beyond the mainstream. Yet now, the grandchildren of those women who were called revolutionaries have their bat mitzvah and read from the Torah, as their yerusha, their inheritance, part of their religious life. What their grandmothers fought for has become their tradition. All this has occurred in about 30 years! A major accomplishment indeed.

Therefore, we have not settled for merely small accomplishments. This is a journey that has only just begun. Shaarei Simcha is just a small part of trying to set that tone within our community: adherence to Jewish law and a striving for Yirat Shamayim, fervor, and an innovative spirit within the Tradition.


Regards,


Adena and Rivka

And how far will this revolution go?

This week's parsha talks about the kiyor, the basin, in the Mishkan. Next week's parsha teaches us that this kiyor was build with the mirrors donated by the Tzovot" the women who gathered in large numbers at the door of the Mishkan, to, in the words of the great commentator Ibn Ezra, pray and study at the door of the holy space.

We see from this that this so called "revolution" has been an ongoing effort on the part of Jewish women to have their share of the holy, to not be shut out, even if this means sitting at the entrance, not yet permitted inside.

This is what women are still engaged in today. Shaarei Simcha (published by Ktav) provides both men and women with many halakhic sources that permit women to participate more directly and more actively than they have actually been doing.

We will persist in this struggle l'Shem Shamayim,, and so will the generations after us, until all can feel that they have a "seat at the table", with everyone- both rabbis and laity - acknowledging that prayers of women are as pleasing to God, as acceptable, as are the prayers of men.

Dear Adena and Rivka,

The word "feminism" was not mentioned in your response, but many perceive your project as yet another component of the new wave of Jewish orthodox feminism.

1. Do you think such observation is accurate?

2. Did you want it to be perceived this way?

3. Is it a burden for a book to be considered in such a way?

Best

Rosner

The only f word people should be afraid of is fanaticism.

Orthodox Jewish feminism has sought to highlight the need for Jewish women to have safe harbors within the frum community - greater access to Jewish education, sensitivity to the place of women in synagogues and their active participation within a halakhic framework in ritual and Jewish educational institutes. These are goals that everyone should feel comfortable embracing.

The main goal of our project was to produce a work that encourages everybody to praise G d and to participate in mitzvot as fully as possible within halakhic parameters.

Rather than emphasize differences, we sought to produce a liturgical volume that adheres to halakha yet is inclusive. We define inclusiveness as referring not only to women but to all who sometimes feel marginalized within the larger Jewish world, for example, singles, those without children, Sephardim. One of the great joys we have experienced with the release of this work is the widespread acceptance our mini siddur is enjoying, whether with rabbis working in kiruv in the Modern Orthodox or fervently Orthodox Jewish world.

We provided transliteration and translated Shaarei Simcha to enable Jews with limited backgrounds and Jewish education to have equal access to Birkat HaMazon, Shabbat and festival prayers as well as many lifecycles events. In addition we provided the opportunity for both fathers and mothers to participate in many of those lifecycle events - whether b'nei mitzvah, brit, simchat bat or weddings. We also provide explanations to help men, women and children to understand tefillah, and the laws and customs surrounding ritual, such as Shabbat and festival candlelighting.

We include a techina for wives to recite to their husbands on Friday night as a corollary to the traditional Eyshet Chayil. We have been influenced by the late Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Avraham Kook, ZTL who said we have to make the old new and the new holy. In our introduction we quote Rav Hisda, one of the great Amoraim , who was guided by sensitivity regarding women and the language of Birkat HaMazon 2000 years ago. He became a model for us in writing this work, in trying to balance liturgical sensitivity with halakha.

Dear Adena and Rivka,

The first Question will have to be an easy one, as I want the readers to be presented with your project.

What were you trying to achieve and who were you trying to appeal to with this new book?

Thank you

Rosner
"Shaarei Simcha" - "Gates of Joy" - is a mini prayer book (siddur) dedicated to joyous life cycle events that also contains the Friday night and Sabbath Day/Holiday prayers and blessings that are recited around the table at home or at a synagogue meal.

Originally our intention was to prepare a small volume that would include Birkat Hamazon,- Grace after Meals, would adhere to halakha, and be sensitive to the religious needs of many groups. As we began working on the project we saw it grow exponentially and it became a small prayer book for joyous occasions

We were particularly eager to see that women have a "seat at the table" - for example by providing the format for both a general zimmun as well as a zimmun for women. Tradition tells us that when three or more men eat together, a certain series of introductory phrases are added.

We carefully researched and have provided options for women to add those phrases whether in a group of three women or ten women.

While it was traditionally understood that women were permitted and according to some obligated in zimmun, it fell into disuse. Through the lack of Jewish education, women by and large ceased exercising this opportunity. We are hoping that through our small contribution, more and more women will re-embrace this possibility. In addition, we carefully researched the issue of whether ten or more women can add certain prayers and based on our research and referring to leading Rabbinic figures- whether certain Rishonim or Rav Soloveitchik, we have provided that as an option as well.

In addition, our definition of halakhic inclusiveness includes being sensitive to the needs of baalei teshuva, "frum from birth" Jews, married couples, singles, people with children and those without, Ashkenazim and Sephardim. We were inspired by the approach of Rav Hisda in the Talmud (Berachot 49a) who tried to create a version of Birkat Hamazon that would be applicable to everyone saying it including women and slaves. Although his version was not accepted by the Chachamim, his emphasis on sensitivity to all inspired us as we engaged in this endeavor.

As we embarked on this project, we soon realized that it was bigger than just a volume to include Birkat HaMazon. We realized the need to expand it to be a mini siddur for happy home occasions. This meant that we were going to include material for Shabbat, Hagim, and life cycle occasions.

We wanted to provide scholarly sources along with popular explanations and background discussions of various prayers and blessings connected with Shabbat and holidays. In this way, those with a deep background in Judaism would be comfortable, as would those with limited Judaic backgrounds.

We also decided to include material for adults as well as children, including traditional zemirot, along with contemporary Israeli, Yiddish and Hasidic songs; Yiddish prayers and children?s poems and songs. In one volume you can find ceremonies for naming a baby girl, for a boy at his brit, as well as a unique ceremony for adopted children. We have provided moving prayers for parents to say at their children'?s bar and bat mitzvah and weddings, spiritual meditations to add at holiday times, such as Rosh Hashanah, and Sukkot, whimsical poems such as a Dr, Seuss type poem for Sukkot as well as a way of making Hannukah more meaningful. We have made it as user friendly as possible by transliterating it and translating it into gender-neutral terms

In addition, we felt it important to present material that for many was unfamiliar- age old techinot written in Yiddish, for example to be recited before baking challah or lighting candles, as well as moderm material such as a Yom HaAtzmaut seder, ceremony for newborn girls, adopted children as well as bar and bat mitzvah and weddings. In addition, we were troubled by the large scale absence in printed birkonim of prayers for the welfare of American troops as well as the State of Israel and the Israeli army, which we included. The net result is that for the first time in the modern era a liturgical work has been written and edited by Orthodox women for use in the Orthodox and general Jewish community.