Tag Archive: women

Vidui for Women Approved by Rav Shternbuch

When saying Vidui, there is a special merit to be as detailed as possible (see, for example, Rambam, Teshuva 1:1). It follows that there is a proliferation of popular Seforim that are purchased such as Pathway to Prayer that help enhance ones personal Shemonie Esrei—let alone Vidui! In our contemporary times, Rav Moshe Shternbuch shlit”a rewrote the Vidui in a simplified and “immediately accessible” form that will help us relate, and by extension, enhance our Vidui experience. Nonetheless, the verbiage of the Vidui remains male-centric (transgressions with women, wasting time when studying Torah etc.). As such, for years I have had seminary students ask me if there was anything that they could use to enhance their Vidui and make it just a bit more personal. They were looking for a text that would meaningfully speak to them.

Enter the following text entitled: Vidui for Women!

I’m pleased to share the following PDF that I received from Rabbi Menachem Nissel, author of Rigshei Lev. With the consent and guidance of Rav Shternbuch, he painstakingly wrote this Vidui for Women pamphlet. He has designed it so that it can be printed on two sides of one A4 paper. It should then be folded along the columns concertina style for easy use.

Gmar Chasima Tova!

Viduyforwomen

October 2, 2011 | Tags: , , | Leave a Comment 

Pesach and The Octomom

The Sefat Emet (see Naso 5651 and Vaeira 56) reveals that one of the underlying reasons for the Egyptian exile was to rectify the sin of eating from the forbidden fruit, and by extension, return the world to its original state.

Consequently,we find the midwives described the Hebrew women to Pharaoh saying, “Ki chayot heinah.” The simple meaning of this expression is that the women were like chayot, animals, because according to the Talmud (Berachot 63b), they were all miraculously giving birth to six children at a time!

However, Tiferet Shlomo, explaining this verse from an esoteric perspective, reveals that they had now reached the level of “Chayah,” the level of Chavah (Eve) prior to the sin, and so the curse or difficulty in childbirth no longer existed for them. Accordingly, Tiferet Shlomo (Ki Sisa, p. 71a) says, if not for the sin of the Golden Calf, the world would have reached a perfect state of rectification(also see Shnei Luchot HaBrit 74a and Pirkei D’Rabbi Eliezer, Chap. 45, 107a for further analysis on this topic).

In light of the above, when you think of the leaders of the Exodus, the first names that probably come to your mind are that of Moses and his brother Aaron. And yet, The Talmud (Sotah 11b) relates: “In the merit of the righteous women of that generation, the Jewish people were redeemed from Egypt!” In other words , the driving force towards God performing the plethora of miracles and splitting the Red Sea were none other than the Jewish women and the feminine leadership of the time.

To that end, I found it appropriate that on the Shabbat that proceeds Pesach,the weekly Torah Tidbits had an entire article dedicated to discussing the halachic ramifications of a women who recently birthed many children at one time: The Octomom.

Check out the entire article from The Puah Institute, titled: The Octomom and Halacha here (scroll down to the highlighted section).

April 6, 2009 | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment 


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