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Tradition in a Rootless World: Women Turn to Orthodox Judaism

University of California Press

It is Saturday morning, about 9:30. The streets of the Upper West Side of Manhattan are empty, except for a few hardy joggers puffing along with their Walkmen. As Stephanie,1 a thirty-two-year-old advertising executive, approaches her destination, the large, modern, white-stone synagogue at the corner of West 69th Street, she begins to notice the dressed-up people converging on the streets, all seemingly heading to Shabbat2 (Sabbath) services. She draws her breath and follows them into the synagogue.

Inside the building, in the red and black carpeted lobby, people are milling about. The women are fashionably dressed and bejeweled, and several are wearing stylish hats. Little children run around, comfortable in the shul (synagogue). Some of the men wear long white shawls, with black stripes and fringes at the ends, over their suits.

Stephanie hesitates. The people in the lobby appear so at ease, whereas she feels awkward and conscious of not having been in a synagogue for years. Recently, Stephanie and her boyfriend of three years had split up, and she had been going through a rough time at work. She had mentioned to a friend, an Orthodox woman, that she was looking to do something new and exciting, something that would be intellectually as well as socially stimulating. As the two of them had recently been talking about Judaism, her friend suggested that she go to the Beginners' Service at Lincoln Squarea lively, fascinating service led by a dynamic rabbi and attended by many young, attractive people. Stephanie decided to give it a try, and today is the day.

She glances around, trying to get a feel for the place. On her left, through a pair of glass-paned doors, she sees an unusual sanctuary. It is built in the round, with women and men seated on

wooden benches in separate semicircular sections leading upward toward stained glass windows. The men also occupy the floor space in the center of the circle, and the men's and women's sections are divided by six-foot-high plexiglass. Stephanie decides that this room looks too formal to fit her friend's description of the Beginners' Service. A man in a white shawl notices her bewildered look and asks if she's new here. She nods. He says, "Don't worry; we all began sometime" and directs her upstairs to "Effie's minyan (prayer service)." First hurdle overcome, Stephanie heads up the concrete flight of stairs.

At the top of the stairs she steps into a long corridor where she is confronted with a confusing array of sounds, people, and doors. Through a doorway across the hall and slightly off to the left of the stairs, she hears singing. She glances through that open door and sees the women's section. The people in the room all seem perfectly able to follow the Hebrew service, so she heads down the corridor to a small classroom with a waist-high wooden divider down the middle. Men are seated on the left, women are on the right, and a rabbi is standing up front in the middle explaining the service. Stephanie realizes this must be the Beginners' Service, but she hesitates to enter because getting to the women's section requires walking around the rabbi as he leads the prayers. She asks a woman standing next to her in the hall if there's another entrance to the room. The woman replies, "Oh, that's okay. You can just go right in." She shows Stephanie how to fold her coat on top of an already jam-packed coatrack and says with a smile, "This is the hardest part; after this it's simple." Once Stephanie has placed her coat on the rack, she draws a breath and walks in.

As she enters, she passes a poster on the door that says:

Welcome to this service for people with little or no background. Take a Bible (blue book) and a siddur (black book) [prayer book] and find a seat and prayer shawl (men). Remember, other people in here didn't know what they were doing when they first came but they learned quickly, and you can learn too. . . . Please follow along.

When she walks past the rabbi, he nods quickly at her and points with his chin to the women's section. She doesn't immediately see the books she's supposed to pick up, so rather than stand-

ing in the front looking, she takes a seat. While he continues to lead the prayers, the rabbi walks over to her and hands her the two thick books as well as a handout welcoming newcomers to the service and explaining a little about it.

She relaxes a bit and looks around the room. The service is already in progress, and the room, which holds about seventy people, is half full. The somewhat larger women's section has about forty seats. All the people in the service look professional: they are well groomed, nicely clothed, and fashionably coiffed. Most are young, in their mid-twenties to late thirties, although there are also some middle-aged and elderly people in the room. She notes that although most of the participants "look Jewish," a Chinese woman and a black man are seated in the room and are easily following the service.

In the front of the room hang several handwritten cardboard posters explaining the service. In the center is a large poster announcing:

If you do not yet read Hebrew, you may sign up for the free crash course in Hebrew reading; you only need to call the synagogue office to make arrangements. Meanwhile, just try to follow along and get into the rhythm of the prayers and chanting.

Reading this sign, Stephanie thinks, "Crash course in Hebrew? It's nice that they offer it, but who's got the time?"

The other postersin transliterated Hebrew and in Englishdescribe aspects of the service. One displays the order of the prayer service:

Berchot Hashachar (morning blessings)

Pesukei Dezimrah (Psalms of Praise)

Shema (Hear, O Israel) and its blessings

Amidah (silent devotion)

Torah (Pentateuch) reading

Return of the Torah

Mussaf (additional Amidah )

Aleinu (It is our duty)

Adon Olam (Lord of the Universe)

As Stephanie struggles to pronounce these words, she suddenly realizes that "Torah" is the only one she recognizes. She wonders how it is that she went to Reform Sunday School for eight years, and even was confirmed, and yet never heard of most of these words.

Another poster, this one extending over two sheets of oak tag, lists the three brachot (blessings) that precede the Shema and the three blessings within it. A small sign nearby says, "Have you greeted the person next to you? Shabbat shalom." "Well," she thinks, "at least I understand that one."

Glancing around the room, Stephanie notices additional signs on the left wall, mostly about Hebrew. A large printed poster demonstrates the vowels of the Hebrew language and the pronunciation of the sounds. Numerous sheets of paper contain each of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet and their English equivalents. Stephanie begins to realize how central Hebrew is here; she wonders if she can catch up and whether it is even worth trying.

Stephanie also looks at the handout, which explains that the service is for those with little or no background and is intended to teach newcomers the...