Ideals & Expectations for Jewish Women in Medieval Ashkenaz

It's Wednesday! And, oh, what a Wednesday it is.

Yesterday I attended my three Tuesday classes (Lab in Social Psych, Women in Jewish Culture, & Women in Society). The lab was full of its usual bizarre/goofy 9am occurrences, made sillier by the addition of donuts and orange juice (my professor's Valentine's day treat. Later in the evening I enjoyed a gluten free/egg free/dairy free/corn free (etc) cake to make up for my lack of ability to consume donuts. Anyway)

Much of Women in Jewish Culture yesterday was spent discussing ideals & expectations of women in Medieval Ashkenaz. Here's what it boils down to:
1. women must sew, spin, and weave (clothing, in addition to fringes and Torah scrolls)
2. women must enable their husbands and sons to study
3. women must marry at a young age and have many babies
4. women must be modest
5. women must maintain ritual purity

We read through commentaries, epitaphs, and a bit of the Sefer Hasidim to glean from the words some ideals for women. This one was my favorite:

"A certain man, leaving on a journey, told his wife: 'On such and such a day, I shall return and be with you.' The woman, knowing the time of her husband's return, prepared for his return by going to the ritual bath. Her husband thereupon said to her: 'Since you bathed in anticipation of my return, I shall present you with a gold piece with which to buy a garment.' The woman replied: 'Allow me, with that gold piece, to purchase a book or to hire a scribe to copy a book for lending to students, enabling them to pursue their studies.' Subsequently the woman became pregnant and gave birth to a boy. While all of the brothers of the boy were devoid of learning, that boy himself was the exception."

Isn't it great? The woman is ideal because she
1. prepares for her husband's return by going to the ritual bath (performing ritual purity)
and then her husband gifts her a gold piece, and rather than being greedy or superficial she chooses to spend her newly acquired wealth by
2. enabling (male, it can be assumed) students to study! What a gal.
And then she is further praised and gives birth to not-only-just-a-boy, but a learned boy! Whee.

In class we discussed the extent to which Gluckel of Hameln met these traditional expectations. First of all, she married at a young age (twelve) and had many children (FOURTEEN). Secondly, she certainly enabled her husband to pray/fast/study, by otherwise taking care of her household. However, her reality was different from these ideals & expectations in that she maintained with her husband a marriage likened to a partnership. Unlike what I gather from the suggestions of these expectations, Gluckel was unique in that she maintained mutuality in her marriage and she took part in her husband's business decisions. Her relationship with him was more complicated than a female role of enabling study; their relationship could be interpreted as more respectful, and more equal.

Another way in which Gluckel appears to be unique is seen through mention of her and (one of) her daughter's regular attendance at the synagogue; this would suggest ritual observance extended beyond the private realm. And public ritual observance for women would seem rather unusual for the time period.

Gluckel was also unique in that she clearly was of a wealthy background - beyond her being learned and literate, her memoirs mention wealth from her family, and additionally from her husbands (though, she remarries after her first husband dies in part to help provide relief from financial burden). But it's significant to take into account that the memoirs of the literate (and thus more wealthy) are those that we have to examine; and their experiences likely differed from those folks with less wealth.

Which moves into the realm of Women in Society, in which the intersections of race/class/gender/ethnicity are frequently mentioned. ! Overlaps are the best.

And now it is time for some readings regarding pastoral care.

Here's Donny Osmond and Rosie O'Donnell serenading Mork and Mindy.

Monday Avoidance of Homework

Today I participated in a quick undergrad-run study for the psych department, and have since then been avoiding my homework by looking through my music library to pick songs for The Omelette Factory's first ROCU show of the semester tomorrow evening. One of our hosts, Heather, will be unable to join us (she has rehearsals for the Clark Vagina Monologues all this week), but you can join Mike and me as we complain about love and other such nauseating things during our Anti-Love We Despise Valentine's Day Special.

In order to avoid homework further, I also spent a bit of my time today working on a short story for the English department's annual poetry/short story/drama/essay contest. I have yet to enter, and it's my last chance to do so (graduationgraduationgraduation)!

Tonight there is a talk, funded by the Office of Student Leadership & Programming, Black Student Union, and a number of other Clark organizations. It's called "Black is... Complicated", and is being presented by Melissa Harris-Perry. I'm a bit bummed to be missing it, but I am scheduled to screen (not one, but!) two movies this evening for SCRN 120. I shall spend some of my time at work examining a few of my readings for classes tomorrow. I have four articles related to linguistics to read for Women in Society, some Gluckel of Hameln review to do for Women in Jewish Culture, and I need to add the finishing touches to my method's section draft for Lab in Social Psych. Additionally, I'm still looking through the copious amounts of books that Prof. Fox has lent to me for my Jewish Studies capstone/independent study. I'll hopefully be posting some relevant/interesting information from my class readings this week.

That's all for now! Happy (almost) Valentine's Day!

Class Updates + Time Travel through Books (sort of)

Movies watched this week: four
(Jaws (for SCRN 114),
Insidious (for "fun"/PURE TERROR), 
Little Miss Sunshine (with CUFS),
North by Northwest (for SCRN 120)
Papers written: one and a half
Books read: one (The Memoirs of Gluckel of Hameln)
Videos of cats watched on youtube: too many to count

Currently I'm working on the method's section draft for my project in Lab in Social Psychology - though we haven't actually started the data collection yet, we are going to be drafting different sections of the paper throughout the semester in order to reduce the overall workload at the end of the semester. Things like data entry and analysis and conclusion-gathering will be a tad frustrating and tedious, so it's nice to get other aspects of the project out of the way early.

For Women in Society, shortly after Spring break, we will have due two half-hour (minimum) interviews with two women of different generations. Likely I'll end up conducting my interviews over Spring break with ladies from Portland (we'll be able to choose the focus for the interview so long as it covers something previously discussed in class). However, we will have to transcribe the interviews. In class yesterday my professor noted that for about every hour of interview, it takes about four hours to transcribe. !!! Goodness, nooo.

Prof. Fox lent to me two more books on Jewish pastoral care to read for my independent study/JS capstone: Jewish Pastoral Care: A Practical handbook for Traditional and Contemporary Sources and Jewish Relational Care A-Z: We are Our Other's Keeper. I'm excited to look through them! Considering they're applicable to what I anticipate as being a field I'd like to enter career-wise. I'm super pumped to have access to all of these interesting books.

For Women in Jewish Culture we've most recently been discussing a book titled The Memoirs of Gluckel of Hameln, the diaries of a German Jewish widow who started writing in the year 1690 when she was forty-four-years-old, following the death of her first husband. Basic timeline: she was betrothed at the age of twelve after her family was expelled from Hamburg, then they moved to Altona, then back to Hamburg (when Altona was "overrun by Swedes in the winter of 1657-1658"). In total she had fourteen children (!!!), remarried once, and died in the year 1724. THAT IS SO LONG AGO. It blows my mind to read the words of someone from so long ago. Gluckel is practically speaking to me from the past! Aaahhhhhh. Time travel through books.

Anyway. Today I'll try to finish up the draft of my method's section and complete my weekly assignment for Lab in Social Psych (weekly papers based on the readings is certainly one way to ensure that students will actually read the assigned articles).

I hope that everyone has a lovely weekend! Supposedly there will be snow, but I haven't seen anything impressive yet.

The Psalms, Prayer, and an Abundance of God

Oh, Monday, Monday. You are the worst sometimes. Specifically when equipment for screenings is discombobulated and the projector is out to get me (stop un-muting yourself, silly picture mute! Stop freezing, blu-ray player!). And when there is no chocolate delivery service that will bring allergy-free chocolate to me in the places where chocolate generally is not allowed (no eating in the projecting booth, shh). 

But beyond faulty equipment and a lack of chocolate, today has been generally alright. Earlier this morning I met with Prof. Fox regarding my independent study/capstone for Jewish Studies. I barraged him with comments concerning the substantial amount that God is mentioned in the Bible passages generally regarded as comforting - mainly, the Psalms. 

Examples of God's mention in verses of various Psalms:
"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me."

- Psalm 23

"The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.

I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies.

The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid."

- Psalm 18

"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;"

- Psalm 46

I borrowed a book from Prof. Fox, 'The Healing Power of Psalms', which discusses the importance of the Psalms in creating comfort. This book's context was the framework in which I was examining the Psalms (that is to say, I was using this book as a guide and wasn't just looking through the Bible and reading various psalms). My main complaint about the book/its viewpoint centered on God. Specifically, why is God a necessary part of feeling comforted? What about folks who do not believe in God? Are these texts, ridden with praises for God, still comforting to those who do not believe in God? 

A woman made a lovely youtube video called "How to be Alone" (it's wonderful, watch here). It's not quite applicable to this situation - regarding God, that is - in the way that I would like it to be, but it does touch on the concept of alonedom, specifically the woman's comment that "society is afraid of alonedom". And I wonder, in the context of death/dying/the Psalms, why feeling alone is not conducive to comfort. I'm assuming that even if one chose to not believe in God, comfort would be drawn from friends, from family, from members of society in some form. But can one be alone and also feel comforted?

'The Healing Power of Psalms' also touched on the concept of poetry as comforting. But why? Prof. Fox suggested that poetic expressions are innately comforting because their expression of emotions is executed in such a succinct and beautiful way. In other words, he suggested, they express how you're feeling, but more accurately than you likely could. 

So, poetry. Poetry as a theme for comfort, in addition to the theme of God/not feeling alone. What else is comforting?

Prayer, apparently. In the introduction to 'The Healing Power of Psalms', the authors wrote of a prayer-study, in which patients with similarly severe heart conditions were broken into two groups; one group was prayed for (by strangers), whereas the other was not. Supposedly, according to the study results, the group that was prayed for had smoother stays in the hospital, with overall fewer complications. 

But is there another explanation for this? 

Newer prayer studies are showing that prayers from strangers had no effect on the recovery of patients.

But regardless, prayer could be comforting in that it allows people to go through the motions of a traditional act, an act done for generations. Which could create comfort regardless of its seeming lack of ability to improve health; simply going through the motions of something you've done (and others have done) many times in the past could create comfort in itself.

I borrowed another book from Prof. Fox, a collection of essays and thoughts regarding death and dying in Jewish tradition. Perhaps I'll find some other Major Themes of comfort inside. 

Here's hoping that everyone has had a more technologically-savvy Monday than the Razzo booth is having currently.

Mostly Movies, and a bit of Social Psychology

Tonight I will be screening 'The Royal Tenenbaums' for SCRN 114: Writing About Film. Over Winter Break a pal told me that he was feeling like an abundance of Roald Dahl characters, and then subsequently asked me what/who I felt like. My response was that I felt like John Cusack's character in the film 'High Fidelity', Audrey Tautou's character from the film 'Amélie', and Gywneth Paltrow's character from 'The Royal Tenenbaums'.

I don't really feel like any of those folks. I certainly only slightly feel like Margot Tenenbaum. She's a bit rebellious, and I am not. On Monday I screened 'Rebel Without a Cause' for SCRN 120, and realized that even though I am not a rebel, I am actually slightly similar to James Dean in that I also have no cause.

Anyway. Today's been a strange day because the weather was so very warm and Spring-like. Half a dozen people were on the green playing Frisbee, and the fourth floor of the library was swamped with students in t-shirts, studying by the windows. I wrote letters to friends and read a bit of 'The Healing Power of Psalms', a book borrowed from Prof. Fox to use for reference in my Jewish Studies capstone/independent study. I haven't gathered any huge concepts yet, but hopefully through more reading I'll find something tangible to focus my paper on.

On Tuesday's Lab in Social Psychology, two graduate students from the psych department, Katie and Joe, came in and gave presentations. In groups of five, the students of my class will be helping with their research projects (collecting/entering/writing about data, whoo-hoo!). My group chose to work with Joe, who is doing his research on emerging adulthood - we'll be examining the time of life between the ages of eighteen and twenty-nine, that Jeffrey Arnett (a Clark professor!) initially conceptualized as a unique period. The other option for research also sounds interesting - Katie is investigating motivating emotions and behaviors.

I'll keep you updated. But not right now, because I'll be listening to the soothing sound of Alec Baldwin's narration in 'The Royal Tenenbaums'.

Oooh, and happy February! I nearly forgot.

The Descendants of Lilith

I've found the majority of my classes to be thought-provoking lately, but SOC 258: Women in Jewish Culture is especially wonderful in that it simultaneously makes me want to yell in frustration (especially regarding the passages which suggest subordination of women (coughTheGenesisAppleStorycough)) and also to laugh so hard that I cry. In our most recent class period the professor began exclaiming a bit about Leah hiring Jacob for mandrakes in a Genesis (chapter 30, verses 14-18) story. I can't exactly express exactly why (unfortunately this feels like a "you had to be there" type of story) it was so funny, but I nearly could not contain myself. Examining the Bible from a feminist perspective and with a bit of humor is the silliest/best way to spend my Tuesday and Thursday mornings.

In addition to the discussion of mandrakes on Thursday, we also talked about the second creation story - that which references Lilith. Yes! There are two! The first:
"So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them" (Genesis 1:27).

And then the second:
"So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man" (Genesis 2:21-22).

As one could imagine, the idea of woman being created from man could be used to suggest subordination; aka, women as being created in a less-than-equal-manner. However, as my professor suggested, Adam, whose name comes from the Hebrew word adamah, ground, is more or less made from dirt. Tsk tsk, because if the woman had been made from dirt, likely the Biblical interpretation would have covered concepts such as women, overall, as dirty.

At this point in time, I'm making a disgruntled face, because women as dirty is certainly expressed in other ways, such as the inability for women and men to touch during & following menstrual cycles (until the women have been cleaned at the mikveh, the ritual bath) and giving birth (impure for longer if you give birth to a female!). But the disgruntled expression won't remain on my face for long, because I've already previously expressed many feelings regarding women as subordinate in Jewish culture; I'll move right along.

Anyway. To explain places where the Bible may be (for lack of a better word) lacking, folks will write Midrash to try to fill in the gaps/explain why things appear the way that they do. Ben Sira wrote a Midrash examining the creation story passages, particularly regarding the first. It is suggested that God messes up the first time when he creates man and woman as equal, so he banishes the first woman (!), Lilith, who reacts less than favorably by patriarchal standards. Following her banishment, he tries again (thus, the second creation story of Eve being made from Adam's rib). But! Going back to Ben Sira's Midrash, Lilith must be punished. Her punishment? That one hundred of her descendants will die each day.

It's an interesting story, and although generally known and embraced (despite the connotation of Lilith as a demon) within the feminist Jewish community (there is a magazine catered towards Jewish women called Lilith Magazine) there is surprisingly little Midrash regarding anything further; mainly, the descendants of Lilith. Who are the descendants of Lilith? Could it be surmised that one hundred of the people who die daily are, in fact, the children of Lilith (this being said from someone who doesn't interpret the Bible as truth, so my suggestions are more of a somewhat silly supposition of metaphor, or something)?

I wonder if I could work in something regarding the descendants of Lilith into my capstone/independent study for my Jewish Studies concentration, especially considering the main topic of study for the paper is death. Once again, I'll stress how neat it feels when my classes overlap a bit.

A brief google search of "the descendants of Lilith" revealed that someone else has already taken my idea for that phrase to be utilized as a totally awesome band name. Bummer.

Today, for SOC 258, I'm planning to begin looking through a book called Four Centuries of Jewish Women's Spirituality: A Sourcebook in order to find a research topic; the proposal isn't due until March 1st, but I don't really want to read about research methods for PSYC 201 right now (I'm sorry, Lab in Social Psyc, but you're just not nearly as interesting as feminism or death).

Monday, Movies, and Breakfast Cereal

Currently I'm half-watching 'Pickup on South Street' with SCRN 120 - my first screening of the semester! For those unaware of what I'm referring to, I lead a double life as a student and also a student projectionist; I project films for screen studies courses at Clark (it's a really neat job, especially because I love films, even more so when I can sit alone in the booth and laugh at the things that, in general, only I find really funny (most things)).

This past weekend was the Official First Weekend Back at Clark (capitalized to stress importance). The CPB clubs (Student Activities Board, Pub Entertainment Committee, Speakers Forum, and the Clark U. Film Society) successfully hosted a "Casino Night" in Higgins University Center. We showed 'Ocean's Eleven' in the cafeteria, had card games in Tilton Hall, and improv performances (by the Clark Peapod Squad) in the Grind. Overall it appeared to be well-attended and full of fun things.

I didn't have any classes today, so I spent some time in the Goddard Library reading for Women in Society (PSYC 249). I definitely have a heavier workload this semester, especially regarding reading, but thus far I have found everything to be interesting. Earlier I was reading a lot about gender roles socially ingrained, and potential ways in which these have become cross-culturally applied (likely a biological basis, as a general beginning?). Super interesting, though I'm only about three-quarters through the article.

Once I'm done projecting in Razzo Hall (easily misinterpreted, if you're fond of Freudian terms), I'll be meeting up with the other (current) co-president of CUFS, in order to discuss some last minute details. I'm officially being phased out as a co-president! During last night's meeting we held elections, and soon my duties will be passed on. This only ascertains for me the inevitability of the Great Big Impending Graduation of 2012.

Soon 'Pickup on South Street' will end, and I'll be left to wander the booth, fiddling with the projector and sound and lights. I hope everyone has had a lovely Monday! Cheerio.