When I lived in San Jose, outside of my pulpit I volunteered my time in an advisory capacity at a local community day school. The school had recently expanded to include a middle school, and the administration realized that there was an entirely new set of religious issues to consider. Now that school prayer would include boys and girls after their bar or bat mitzvah, should girls and boys be required to wear a talit during tefilah (prayer) after their bar and bat mitzvah? What about a kipah? And what about tefilin?
These questions led to many hours of discussions ranging from what the Jewish sources had to say about these ritual practices, to issues of gender and equality. Since egalitarianism is, historically speaking, a relatively recent phenomenon, whenever these questions come up in Jewish day schools, synagogues, supplementary schools, or summer camps they tend to stir up many emotions about what it means to wear the Jewish uniform of prayer, and what equality in the 21st century should actually look like.
Over this past week, I have been reading that some in the Modern Orthodox world are raising these questions as well. Two Orthodox day schools in New York have recently permitted women to wear tefilin, something that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago but is reflective of the “open orthodoxy currently playing out on the American Jewish scene.
Not sure what tefilin are? Not sure why this is such a big deal?
1) Come and join us for our yearly World Wide Wrap– open to men, women, those who know what tefilin are but are out of practice, and those who have never heard of tefilin: Sunday, February 2 at 8:30am at Congregation Torat El
2) Check out the following articles to read about this newest evolution of Modern Orthdoxy:
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and to seeing you on Sunday!