2003-01-29 - 2:21 p.m.
This entry is a collaboration for On Display. The topic for this month is �firsts.�
FOR THEIR TIME
�Noah was a good man for his time. He was blameless in his age. For his time. In his age. Maybe God does grade us on a curve.� Shortly before I spoke words similar to those, I had a chance, from my perch on the bima (the stage) at the front of the synagogue, to watch a large group of men toward the back, blatantly stand up and walk out as one. You see, I was the first girl to become a Bat Mitzvah on a Saturday anddoing what the boys did.
Jewish thirteen-year-old boys have been called to say the blessing over the Torah, to read from the Torah, to chant from the prophets (the Haftarah), and, often, to make a speech, since the Middle Ages or so. Girls, whom the rabbis traditionally believed came of age at twelve, did none of that. In traditional Orthodox Judaism, girls are not supposed to lead prayers for fear that the thoughts of the men praying will be on the girl and not on the prayer. They are not supposed to chant or sing in front of men. More important, they are not required to recite certain prayers at certain times of day and therefore have no business leading prayer.
But even as the more liberal branches of Judaism developed, the coming of age of girls had no formal recognition until 1921. At that first Bat Mitzvah, the girl did not read from the Torah but out of a personal bible. She did not chant from the prophets and she did not give a speech.
From this beginning, the idea of Bat Mitzvahs began to spread. In the synagogue I belonged to until I was twelve or so, girls did become Bat Mitzvah�but never at a Saturday morning service. They did not read from the Torah. They did not give a speech. Instead, they read from the Book of Ruth on a Friday night other than one in the holiday of Shavuot when reading from the Book of Ruth is required.
Then, in the middle of my preparations to read on a Friday night from the Book of Ruth, we moved east. I had to start over. We met with the new rabbi and he talked about what I would do on a Saturday morning. He neglected to mention that no girl had ever done that on a Saturday morning before.
So, I became an unlikely pioneer. Although I strike out in my own direction today, I spent most of my teen years trying desperately to fit in and not making it. I would have preferred being the second to being the first.
But first I was. And as for those men who got up and walked out, well, they eventually stopped doing that. They were good men�for their time.
LAST YEAR: Van Stop and Its Consequences
LAST FIVE ENTRIES:
36 Years
Losing My Mind
A Time for Every Purpose
Here Comes Atticus
Torpor
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Copyright 2006 by Ellen |
