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Pragmatics and Gender in Orthodox Judaism

Knowing that I was new to the congregation she offered me the seat next to her. Before the service began I was able to speak with her about her feelings about being separate from the men. She had recognized the look of surprise on my face when I walked in having been separated from Evan and was happy to share her thoughts. In the Orthodox practices men and women are separated so they are not distracted during prayer. Men and women she said should be able to focus solely on prayer and nothing else. It is for this reason that many women were wearing conservative clothing and had their hair covered. "Prayer is of upmost importance and to be distracted lessens a person's connection to G-d, " the woman told me. Never before had I though about prayer this way. I was curious to see whether or not the Rabbi when delivering his sermon would interact with the entire congregation or just the males on the floor with him since we were all so separate. .
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             Not only were the men and women treated differently in the physical environment of the sanctuary, but also the way in which prayer was conducted. In the Hebrew language, unlike Standard English, words are recited differently for men and women. I knew this going into the service and was expecting to see this in the Siddur but instead the version Kedesh used did not have the female way to pronounce words written within. Why was the feminine language eliminated? Was it because in the Orthodox practice women did not have the right to participate? I thought that this was an interesting parallel to the Siddur that I use at home. If there were not a written form of Hebrew for the women to follow how would it be possible for them to truly participate? Should women give up their sexuality and conform to the traditional language of the males? It was this difference where I felt as though the development of the conservative and reform movements were more accepting of changing times and a woman's role in society.


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