the rebellious women of damascus
"The women of Damascus went to the miqweh, by day as a matter of course. When rabbis joseph ibn tzayyah and Rabbi Moses Barukh realized what was going on, they had a lock installed on the miqwe door. The key was handed over for safekeeping to a few trustworthy women who were responsible for ensuring no one entered before sundown. Undaunted some women broke the lock to the door and continued immersing themselves by day." - Ruth Lamdan, A Separate People: Jewish Women in Palestine, Syria and Egypt
This snippet is based on a teshuva from Avkat Rochel by Joseph Caro ,author of the shulhan arukh, who elsewhere states ver certainly that women may not immerse in the daytime. Caro refers to them as Mordot. I rather think of them as poskot. To paraphrase AJH, poskot with their feet.
The Rebellious Women of Damascus were merely following in the footsteps of their illustrious aunts, The Rebellious Women of Cairo, castigated by Maimonides for going to the Miqweh 7 days after their periods began; instead of 11-15, and for being showered down by another woman; instead of dipping in the Rabbinically endorsed immersion pool.
These women are described as "rebellious" and not as non-observant; because we clearly see they were observant. The mitzva was important to them; otherwise they could have merely not gone at all and say they did. One could even say that the lock-breakers were extremely determined and devoted beyond the norm.
Ironically, we are in luck that the halachic decisors opposed them so fiercely; because otherwise we may not have known about them at all. You know we are often guilted into mikveh observance by "look at the great sacrifices your grandmothers made." Well excuse me but how do y'all know what MY grandmother actually did? Nowadays, I bet most girls don't even know what their mothers do. They are taught about niddah secretly, by a professional "Kallah Teacher," a woman whose job it is to convey the halacha as the books say it should be. How many mothers even get a chance to tell their daughter about this or that requirement, "hey I never bothered with that one."
Who decides what halacha is? Is it Rabbis and books, or is it the lived experience of the people actually performing those mitzvas?
This snippet is based on a teshuva from Avkat Rochel by Joseph Caro ,author of the shulhan arukh, who elsewhere states ver certainly that women may not immerse in the daytime. Caro refers to them as Mordot. I rather think of them as poskot. To paraphrase AJH, poskot with their feet.
The Rebellious Women of Damascus were merely following in the footsteps of their illustrious aunts, The Rebellious Women of Cairo, castigated by Maimonides for going to the Miqweh 7 days after their periods began; instead of 11-15, and for being showered down by another woman; instead of dipping in the Rabbinically endorsed immersion pool.
These women are described as "rebellious" and not as non-observant; because we clearly see they were observant. The mitzva was important to them; otherwise they could have merely not gone at all and say they did. One could even say that the lock-breakers were extremely determined and devoted beyond the norm.
Ironically, we are in luck that the halachic decisors opposed them so fiercely; because otherwise we may not have known about them at all. You know we are often guilted into mikveh observance by "look at the great sacrifices your grandmothers made." Well excuse me but how do y'all know what MY grandmother actually did? Nowadays, I bet most girls don't even know what their mothers do. They are taught about niddah secretly, by a professional "Kallah Teacher," a woman whose job it is to convey the halacha as the books say it should be. How many mothers even get a chance to tell their daughter about this or that requirement, "hey I never bothered with that one."
Who decides what halacha is? Is it Rabbis and books, or is it the lived experience of the people actually performing those mitzvas?
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