Avoiding Male-Domination Language in Davvenen

Avoiding Male-Domination Language in Davvenen (services) At this point most of us in Jewish Renewal prayer services use the ancient Hebrew which is male-centered. In our translations, however, we are pointedly egalitarian, replacing the male pronoun in many ways, searching out the deeper meanings, the originating experience of the prayers which is non-gender specific. Ellen Frankel in her books "The Classic Tales" and "Encyclopedia of Jewish Symbols" has begun a quiet restatement of the tradition in an egalitarian mode. The following are a few preliminary guidelines which may be helpful to this retraining. 1. We can maintain the stance of critic and worshipper at the same time. We are critic to the parts of the tradition that aren't egalitarian while we guard. against losing the sacred towards which most of the tradition directs us. Maslow called this being able to "de-sacralize" and also to "resacralize". There are guerilla techniques we can use, aimed at creating an inclusionary atmosphere in our gatherings such as the following. 6. Learn the female form of the traditional Hebrew prayers. Hebrew language in the feminine has a softer sound than the maletr aditional. We need to retrain our habituated ears to hear the mellifluosity in Hebrew in the feminine form. We must search out the books that teach these forms and sound out the prayers as we rewrite them in the feminine. If we do this work the next generation will have less of an auditory sense of discrepancy 2. Don't perpetuate the errors of exclusionary language. Never let pass from your lips descriptions of God as "He", even when actually quoting written material which uses "he" as the universal pronoun. 7. Seek out stories with women in the major roles. Follow the ongoing research which incorporates the female heroes of the past and the forgotten names (Noah's wife was Na'amah. Lot's wife was Edith. Abraham's mother was Amitlai.) 3. Always change "He" to "He/She"," or "The One." Use the passive voice, repeat the word God (in English) and some of the various Hebrew names for God. Be responsible to insert language that reflects God as the source of both male and female, as well as God as being explicitly Female into the text and translations of the prayers. S. Leading a service that carries out these points will already do much towards creating an atmosphere of inclusion and avoiding an imbalanced atmosphere of male domination and female exclusion. The Talmud (Megillah 14a) teaches that there were seven female prophets. Learn the stories of the seven female prophets Sarah, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Abigail, Hulda and Esther. What were the prophecies of each? 9. Exclude blatantly misogynistic stories from the repertoire. While every tradition has them, we don't have to underscore and repeat them. Our tradition is rich with many strains and strands, as Ben Bag-Bag says (and Bat Bag-Bag affirms:) keep turning the Torah over and over until you find everything there. (Perek, Chapter 5, Mishnah 21.) INon-Male LanguagedCandle Blessing for Yorn Tov I B rukha at Yah, rukhaynu khay ha-olamim asher kid shatanu b mitzvot vitziv'tanu l'hadlik nayr she! Yorn Tov. Blessed are you, Yah, our spirit, life of the universe, who have sanctified us prescribing ways of joining with You, and have directed us to unite with You through lighting these festival candles.