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Judaism

Why women are raising their voices on Purim

What lies behind the growing trend of Orthodox women's Megillah readings.

March 1, 2012 11:54
Borehamwood and Elstree Synagogue first women’s Megillah reading last year: (from left) Jo Grose,  Helena Freedman and Charlotte Cohen

By

Lindsay Simmonds

3 min read

Women's Megillah readings have become increasingly popular over the past decade, reflecting the growing interest of women in their religious development. I know of at least half a dozen that will take place next week in United Synagogue communities at Purim including Radlett, Borehamwood and Muswell Hill. One girl this year will be reciting the Megillah with members of her family in celebration of her batmitzvah in a home in Mill Hill. At Radlett's 10th anniversary reading, my daughter and I likewise read for her batmitzvah.

I have been asked by those uncomfortable with the trend, "Isn't it just a slippery slope?" They mean of course, a slide into radical feminist rhetoric: the presumption that women want to be like men and perform their lives just as men do.

I have found that Megillah readings have indeed been a slippery slope: the women participants are often inspired to commit to the other mitzvot of the day: eating a festive meal, delivering food gifts to a friend and donating money to the community's poor. It becomes an open door for them to study Torah both in terms of halachic obligation and the Megillah text itself.

In the UK, Orthodox Jewish women's religious experience is very different from their Israeli or American sisters: in education, ritual participation and leadership opportunities. It is absurd to imagine that intelligent and motivated women, articulate and literate in secular and professional life, should not feel the same way about their religious heritage. As Rabbi Moshe Meiselman, a Jerusalem yeshivah head, said: "No authorities ever meant to justify the perverse modern day situation in which women are allowed to become sophistically conversant with all other cultures other than their own."