Lori, this one's for you....

I know all of you in the states are still celebrating yom tov. For us the chagim are officially over. Hakafot were....okay. It's kind of hard to sit in shul, with very few friendly faces. That's why today I decided to go to the women's tefillah a few blocks from the house. I knew a friend of mine would be going and I wanted to have a friend in shul....

Here's how I feel about women's tefilla groups: I think that if they are done within the framework of halacha (and this one was), why not? These are women who want to be more connected to their Judaism, and feel something lacking in our traditional davening. They want to participate more, and to serve Hashem, B'simcha. I won't judge them. I think its great. My davening, especially b'tzibur (in public, in shul) is sorely lacking, and I respect these women for wanting more out of their spiritual lives. These women were inspiring. They were not hippy-looking, vegan-eating, kumbaya-singing women. These were seemingly normal, well-educated, well-dressed women who wanted a hands-on tefilah. One woman I knew because her daughter and Orli are in school together chanted Beraishit. She has a beatiful voice, and I asked her where she learned how to lain. She said that Beraishit was her bat mitzvah parsha, so she volunteers every year to lain it at this minyan. This group is only held at Simchat Torah and for Megillat Ester. There is always talk (from what I heard) of doing it monthly, but lining up enough women to participate (actually learn and do the laining, give divrei Torah--of which there a few at davening--etc.) is always a challenge. I don't think I'd be interested in participating monthly, but I'd attend the Simchat Torah minyan again. Otherwise Simchat Torah is a holiday for men--watching them dance, waiting for them to get their aliyahs so they can make kiddush so we can eat....