Jewish Musings Wednesday, April 26

[hollygail]

What’s on your mind — how to make kugel? This week’s Torah reading? Life goals? Prayer? We are all engaged in weight loss/weight maintenance journeys and we are all Jewish or at least interested in Judaism. We like to eat, we like to discuss. It is our goal here to provide each other support on our journeys, to share experiences, to call on our rich cultural heritage and texts, and to help each other grow spiritually.

Some of us take weekly turns starting the thread:

Angelika

Holly

Lee

Louise

Lynne

Peachy

And for those of you that stop by to read this thread without posting — you are welcome to do that but you are also welcome to chime in.

[hollygail]

Here’s a partial quote from an article by Rabbi Elyse Goldstein on this week’s portion of the week (http://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/reappropriating-the-taboo/)

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…

Making Women’s Bodies a Blessing

... We who are often uninspired and unaffected by our bodies should reject the negative connotation of taboo — and explore, instead, the positive and sacred aspect. Surely a religion that has a blessing for an activity as mundane as going to the bathroom should have a blessing for the coming and going of menstruation. Since the male composers of the liturgy, living in a world where modesty was central and women’s bodies were a mystery at best, were not able — or more likely, not willing — to imagine such a blessing, we must be the first generation to do so. 

…

Menstruation and Covenant

We can also consider a connection between menstruation and covenant. The prophet Zechariah speaks to “daughter Jerusalem” and “daughter Zion” about “your covenant of blood” as that which releases prisoners from the dry pit (9:9–11). It does not say “the covenant of blood,” as most translations render it, but rather emphasizes that blood is the focus of the covenant. The address to the feminine persona suggests that all “daughters of Zion” have that covenant of blood. It is through menstruation—from puberty when we accept our responsibilities as Jews, through the elder years when bleeding stops and deep wisdom starts—that the entire world is saved from the dry pit of death, in which there is no water, no womb, no regeneration, no rebirth. 

See menstrual blood, then, as women’s covenantal blood—just as the blood of b’rit milah (ritual circumcision) is men’s. The possibilities for rituals around this abound. For women too have a b’rit (covenant) inscribed in our flesh as an “everlasting covenant” (Gen 17:19); not just once, at eight days old, but every single month. And Metzora, in its ancient and perhaps awkward way, attempts to remind us.

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Have you ever thought of menstrual blood as other than something to put up with monthly? Have you ever considered it as a gateway to the holy? And do you have any experience with the mikvah? And if so, did you experience some connection with the holy as a result?

I went to the mikvah before my (last) wedding (I was already in menopause). I looked forward to it as an experience of holiness; unfortunately, regarding my expectations, I found more personal connection when tying the tzitzit on the tallit I made as a wedding gift for my groom, but that’s another story…

[lee058]

Good morning everybody. Hope you are all well. Holly, today's topic is making me say WOW! I will need to think about this before I comment.

I'm waiting for the repair tech to call me. He said that he would do so when the parts for my stove arrive from the warehouse, so we can set up a time for the repair. It will probably be tomorrow, but maybe today. Since it's already 11AM, I think it will be tomorrow, but I'll wait and see.

I will try to comment later. Have a peaceful day, Lee

[gazelle18]

As many of you know, I went to the mikveh for the first, and so far only, time, a couple of years ago. It was an amazingly spiritual experience for me. I loved the entire experience and look forward to repeating it one day.

In all honesty, I never thought of menstruation as anything other than an inconvenience. When I had a hysterectomy many years ago,I never mourned the loss of my uterus, as my doc had predicted I would.