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Collected Critiques (Hebrew)
Gratitude Notification (Hebrew)
Read Rabbi Yisrael Meir
Haskama
Letter for
"Tfilat Nashim"
Overview
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Aliza
Lavie's Biography
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Essential Jewish Books
:: A Jewish Woman's Prayer Book
By Maureen Kendler, Head of Educational
Programming, LSJS Aliza Lavie
stood in Shul on Yom Kippur in 2002 wondering what words
of comfort she could possibly offer a woman she had
never met who had just lost both her mother and daughter
in a terrorist attack. She longed to show this woman she
was not alone, that before her women had found words to
sustain them with fortitude through pain.
Lavie’s journey resulted in this beautifully researched
and presented volume, (winner of the 2008 National
Jewish Book Award) a collection of prayers written for
and by Jewish women from ancient to modern times with
English translation.
Some are intensely moving, such as the prayer recited
secretly while preparing wicks for Shabbat candles by
female Conversos of Portugal in the fifteenth century.
These women had almost no Jewish knowledge and they
asked God to ....
“watch over me and protect me, and grant me that which I
know not how to ask of You...”
“The prayer of a mother-in-law” composed by Shulamit
Eisenbach in 1984 made me smile. S he asks not to feel
“resentment” towards her daughters-in-law. I loved her
comment that she only dared publish the poem fourteen
years after having written it.
Lavie uncovers a hidden treasure in the work of Fanny
Neuda, (1819-1894) who wrote prayers in Old German to
meet the needs of women in her generation. Her touching
supplications inspired women in their hours of need and
crisis.
The book also resurrects lost voices: Perl, wife of
Hassidic master Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev
(1740-1810) prayed as she kneaded dough for Shabbat:
“.....-please help me that when my Levi Yitzhak recites
the blessing over these loaves on Shabbat, he should
have in his heart the same meditations that I have at
this time when I knead and bake.”
Inspiration and comfort sing from every page from this
wonderful book. |
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