Q. How many Beis Yakov girls does it take to change a light bulb? A. 100. One and 99 to say Tehillim. Women scuttle to each other’s homes during the week to huddle and recite Tehillim (Psalms) in an attempt to ward off illness or death or entreat God’s kindness for a good shidduch or… Read more »
Having referred to myself last week as a burgeoning partisan lunatic, I’ve decided not to endanger Lilith’s non-profit status with a long enraged rant about political issues right now. I’d rather discuss political rhetoric, as that’s a pretty fruitful field of lunacy, too. If one of the downsides to having female candidates in the running… Read more »
To say the words feels equivalent to conjuring fiendish spirits. To write out the significance of this approaching month- this precarious, shifty month- feels equivalent to summoning thieves, to doing rain dances after cyclones. To give words to it feels heedless and irresponsible. If I speak the words, I evoke it, I summon it, I… Read more »
This week, the politics column of the Lilith blog presents a special guest blogger. Laura Matson, the woman who first introduced me to Minnesota and all its charms, was our blogger-on-the-ground for the Republican Convention in St. Paul. She and I spent a lot of prep time discussing one main question: what are the issues… Read more »
1. You can no longer find cherries anywhere, but the first blood-red pomegranates are in all the markets and even on some of the trees (like the one in my backyard). 2. You hear the sound of the shofar! (If you are jogging in the streets at 7am, or, um, attending Shacharit – I guess.)… Read more »
Frum women dangle. Their car keys, usually attached to photos of their children and grandchildren, their house keys, iPod, supermarket card and gym locker tokens are all hanging off them. In one hand they are holding clunky wallets brimming with credit cards, dry cleaning receipts, parking tickets and cash. In the other, they are clutching… Read more »
Before anyone calls partisan bias, let me assure you this blog has some excellent programming planned for the Grand Old Party’s party, too–but the Dems are up first, and I am hooked. Okay, so we’re not going to talk about last night, which was pretty damn pareve, Senator Kennedy aside. I’d much rather talk about… Read more »
“These clever girls,” a friend said to me the other day, “they’re taking it too far now. My son isn’t going to want such a clever one. It’s not going to be so easy for her to settle down, make a home…” “My daughter is doing brilliantly at university,” said another. “But I don’t know… Read more »
Like most everyone with a television set the world over, I too have been watching the Olympics — and getting more excited about sports and my country than I expected to be. When an article mentioning U.S. Fencing Team member Sada Jacobson, who is this year’s silver medalist in the women’s saber competition and who… Read more »
Man, somehow I woke up this morning and walked into the mid ‘80s. That’s how it felt, anyway, after I found a pamphlet from Mother Jones, circa 1981. For the record, 1981 predates me—not by much, but a bit—and so I count reading such material as history, normally. But this time…I don’t know. This little… Read more »
