Author: Rishe Groner

Women are usually exempt from time-bound mitzvot. Not so during Hanukkah. But why does this apparently feminist holiday still give the author pause?

We stand today as Dinah’s daughters, and we’re saying Me Too.

The Shechinah lies crying and bloodied, and battered. And today, finally, we’re listening to her voice.

Forgive us
As a society
For telling boys to man up
For criticizing women who are too needy
And boys who are too emotional

May we be blessed this Rosh Hashanah that all our prayers are answered, as Hannah’s were answered, with joy and with gratitude. 

The holiday’s origins are rooted in criticizing conventional beauty norms.

Let us mourn for young men incapable of expressing their emotions and young women objectified for their bodies rather than honored for their inner strength.

Unlike the transcendent nature of the masculine God, Shechinah is about embodiment, embracing the physical to elevate it into the divine.

Perhaps Ruth is here to teach us the strength in vulnerability.