[Avodah] chanukah candles and women

[T613K at aol.com]

From: "Eli Turkel" _eliturkel at gmail.com_ (mailto:eliturkel at gmail.com) 

>>I still  do not understand why wives generally do not light chanukah candles
according  to the Ashkenazi custom that each person lights separately.... 


2. If  ishto kegufo why can;t the wife light even lechachtila for the husband 
 and
why if he is absent does he need to appoint her as a shaliach?  <<




>>>>>
 
In today's Huffington Post, there is an article, "Religious Enough for You?  
Women Light the Holiday," by Leora Tanenbaum.  She makes an  impassioned plea 
for Orthodox women to take control of their own lives and  light Chanuka 
candles.   
"Most Jewish women in the liberal denominations (Conservative, Reform,  
Reconstructionist), as well as in modern Orthodox communities, are delighted to  
light the candles (even though this means more melted wax to contend with  
later). But there remain too many holdouts who prefer to have a man or even a  boy 
over the age of 13 light on their behalf. " 

_http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leora-tanenbaum/religious-enough-for-you_b_1521
46.html_ 
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leora-tanenbaum/religious-enough-for-you_b_152146.html) 
 
Read her arguments and you will see that in today's day and age,  for  women 
to take upon themselves the lighting of Chanuka lights -- if  they do not 
already have a family mesorah to do so -- is a symbol of leftist  politics rather 
than religious devotion, and should be studiously avoided  by Torah-loyal 
women.  When she sees a picture of a woman lighting the  menorah, Leora thinks, 
"There goes a strong, brave woman who refuses to be  subjugated to the 
patriarchy anymore and will not allow her husband to be the  boss of her."
 
Beware of buying into the feminist critique of Judaism, which makes a  
traditional Jewish home a place of oppression for women and turns Jewish men  into 
bullies and thugs.  If you -- any woman -- have in your heart  even a little 
bit of a feeling that the Torah is not fair to women or that  different roles 
for men and women imply that G-d is unjust to women or that  Chazal were unjust, 
you should davka avoid taking a mitzva and using it to make  a political 
statement.  If you want to be closer to Hashem, do something  that does not have 
political implications.  There is no shortage of mitzvos  and acts of chessed 
for women to do.
 
As for a woman lechatchila lighting the menorah on behalf of the whole  
family, /instead/ of the husband, that would up-end the natural assumption that  a 
husband in the home is primus inter pares.  It would be a denigration of  the 
husband's position.  Jockeying for power between husbands and wives is  
definitely not a recipe for sholom bayis.  

 

--Toby Katz
=============
"If you  don't read the newspaper you are uninformed; 
if you do read the newspaper  you are misinformed."
--Mark Twain

Read *Jewish World Review* at _http://jewishworldreview.com/_ 
(http://jewishworldreview.com/) 




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