HBI SERIES ON JEWISH WOMEN
Shulamit Reinharz, General Editor | Sylvia Barack Fishman, Associate Editor
The HBI Series on Jewish Women, created by the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, publishes a wide range of books by and about Jewish women in diverse contexts and time periods. Of interest to scholars and the educated public, the HBI Series on Jewish Women fills major gaps in Jewish Studies and in Women and Gender Studies as well as their intersection.
The HBI Series on Jewish Women is supported by a generous gift from Dr. Laura S. Schor.
For the complete list of books that are available in this series, please see www.upne.com
Sharon R. Siegel, A Jewish Ceremony for Newborn Girls: The Torahs Covenant Affirmed
Laura S. Schor, The Best School in Jerusalem: Annie Landaus School for Girls, 19001960
Federica K. Clementi, Holocaust Mothers and Daughters: Family, History, and Trauma
Elana Maryles Sztokman and Chaya Rosenfeld Gorsetman, Educating in the Divine Image: Gender Issues in Orthodox Jewish Day Schools
Ilana Szobel, A Poetics of Trauma: The Work of Dahlia Ravikovitch
Susan M. Weiss and Netty C. Gross-Horowitz, Marriage and Divorce in the Jewish State: Israels Civil War
Ronit Irshai, Fertility and Jewish Law: Feminist Perspectives on Orthodox Responsa Literature
Elana Maryles Sztokman, The Mens Section: Orthodox Jewish Men in an Egalitarian World
Sharon Faye Koren, Forsaken: The Menstruant in Medieval Jewish Mysticism
Sonja M. Hedgepeth and Rochelle G. Saidel, editors, Sexual Violence against Jewish Women during the Holocaust
Julia R. Lieberman, editor, Sephardi Family Life in the Early Modern Diaspora
Derek Rubin, editor, Promised Lands: New Jewish American Fiction on Longing and Belonging
Carol K. Ingall, editor, The Women Who Reconstructed American Jewish Education: 19101965
Gaby Brimmer and Elena Poniatowska, Gaby Brimmer: An Autobiography in Three Voices
Harriet Hartman and Moshe Hartman, Gender and American Jews: Patterns in Work, Education, and Family in Contemporary Life
Dvora E. Weisberg, Levirate Marriage and the Family in Ancient Judaism
Ellen M. Umansky and Dianne Ashton, editors, Four Centuries of Jewish Womens Spirituality: A Sourcebook
Carole S. Kessner, Marie Syrkin: Values Beyond the Self
Ruth Kark, Margalit Shilo, and Galit Hasan-Rokem, editors, Jewish Women in Pre-State Israel: Life History, Politics, and Culture
Tova Hartman, Feminism Encounters Traditional Judaism: Resistance and Accommodation
Anne Lapidus Lerner, Eternally Eve: Images of Eve in the Hebrew Bible, Midrash, and Modern Jewish Poetry
THE TORAHS COVENANT AFFIRMED
Sharon R. Siegel
BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY PRESS | WALTHAM, MASSACHUSETTS
Brandeis University Press
An imprint of University Press of New England
www.upne.com
2014 Brandeis University
All rights reserved
For permission to reproduce any of the material in this book, contact Permissions, University Press of New England, One Court Street, Suite 250, Lebanon NH 03766; or visit www.upne.com
Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School grants permission to reprint Covenant, Women, and Circumcision: Formulating a Covenantal Simhat Bat Ceremony, or parts thereof, which originally appeared in Meorot: A Forum of Modern Orthodox Discourse in Tishrei 5772 (September 2011).
Oxford University Press grants permission to reprint Jewish Welcoming Ceremonies for Newborn Girls: The Modern Development of a Feminist Ritual, or parts thereof, which originally appeared in Modern Judaism: A Journal of Jewish Ideas and Experience in October 2012.
The editorial board of the New York Jewish Week grants permission to reprint A Covenant of Love, or parts thereof, which originally appeared in the New York Jewish Week on December 9, 2011.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Siegel, Sharon R.
A Jewish ceremony for newborn girls : the Torahs covenant affirmed / Sharon R. Siegel.
pages cm. (HBI series on Jewish women)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 9781611684735 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 9781611684179 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN 9781611684056 (ebook)
1. Brit bat History. I. Title.
BM706.S54 2013
296.443dc23 2013017429
To Dan, Dafna, Nurit, Yakir, Tamar, and my parents
In loving memory of my grandparents, Samuel and Senta Okolica
Contents
Preface
Nine years ago, I was pregnant for the first time, and my husband, Dan, and I chose not to find out the babys sex. I knew that Judaism provided a circumcision ceremony for newborn boys, but was uncertain what ceremony, if any, was available for newborn girls. Always fascinated with the development of Jewish rituals, I was determined to have a meaningful, yet traditional, ceremony for our newborn child, whether boy or girl.
One Friday evening, after Shabbat (Sabbath) dinner, Dan and I were relaxing and talking in our living room. I had been reading some basic introductions on how to celebrate a daughters birth and reviewing the Biblical chapters relating to Gods communications to Abraham. I shared with Dan my observation that the episode where God mandates the circumcision of Jewish men is the fourth recorded interaction between God and Abraham. I therefore suggested viewing this episode in the context of the preceding interactions between God and Abraham, which make no mention of gender distinctions. I also noted that, elsewhere in the Torah, women are included in the covenant between God and Israel. Like me, Dan was intrigued, and he encouraged me to continue studying this subject.
I am an attorney, and, at that time, was working long hours at my law firm, as is customary for junior associates. Nonetheless, I continued in my off-hours to research, think, and consult about the ceremonies Dan and I would conduct for our soon-to-be-born child. I typed out two parallel ceremonies, one for a boy (which included circumcision) and one for a girl. Dan and I performed the latter ceremony with our daughter, Dafna Eliana, on the eighth day following her birth, in the presence of our family and friends. We did so notwithstanding the amazement of a number of our friends that we had made up something ourselves.
I continued to develop a profound interest in this new type of ritual for newborn Jewish girls. As my curiosity grew, I read more on the topic and decided to write a short article about it. I began to think more critically and broadly about the evolution of Jewish rituals and the interplay between halacha (Jewish law) and popular customs. Drawing on my professional legal training and my Jewish education, I began traveling in my meager spare time to the world-class library at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City to conduct more extensive research. The librarians began to recognize me as my trips became more frequent. Soon, I was taking sporadic vacation days from my law firm to sit in my basement reviewing my library research and writing. I also slowly began calling and e-mailing professors with questions about their publications, as well as rabbis with questions about their communities practices.
