Superfluous Judaica Post

[debka_notion]

Anyone else ever notice how petikha and glilah seem like they're in their own category of honors? Especially petikha. I'm not sure why (it often scares me stiff- especially if I'm not terribly familiar with that particular ark- finding the cords, dealing with the idiosyncracies that may have crept in, etc is rather nervewrackign with All Those People watching you), but petikha seems to be given out as one of those honors that doesn't quite live up to the others- it seems to be a favorite, at least around here, to be given to women who don't count themselves in the minyan, folks who may not know how to do other things, or only show up on occasion. Somehow this strategy seems a little odd- it's frightening, especially when your siddur doesn't have exact directions on when to open and close the ark, and for the second or third category of folks, they may not know when that's supposed to happen. But since it isn't a speaking role, it seems less significant somehow. Or maybe that's just my misconception- quite likely.

And yes, I am aware that petikha in some contexts is given to the husbands of pregnant women as a charm of some sort for a safe delivery. One wonders if in egalitarian contexts it is given to the pregnant women themselves? Or is egalitarianism associated too strongly with modernity and a lack of such superstitions in the synagogue? It seems like an odd concept to me, but well- superstitions are fun to play with... I'm rarely in contexts where that's an issue, at this point in my life, but well- just a thought.

Similarly, someone doing glilah (the golel or golelet) seems less likely to put on a tallit (assuming that they wear one in general) than someone doing hagbah. Not sure the relevance of that, but there seems to be one, if only that people tend to put on a tallit for honors in general- so if they would for others, but not for this, it seems like a natural lack of empahsis on the behavior at hand. Of course, there's a gender imbalance here, since few women want to lift a torah in the air. Most of us believe that we can't, although I've seen women prove otherwise- I'd do it myself, I think, if I had any upper body strength at all. (Maybe someday when I've graduated to real pushups rather than the easy variety, plus learning to work on all those other arm muscles.) But even disregarding that- glilah seems to somehow be an honor-light: often given out sort of last-minutely, or, in some contexts, because one is paired in some way (spouse, sibling, close friend, SO) with the magbiah/magbihah. It's a much nicer one for the beginner- there's generally gabbay-assistance, and people aren't paying so much attention, although the first few times one doesn't notice that. (or at least, I didn't: I was convinced people were staring at me, and laughing when I was kind of confused about what went where. But that's general confusion-generated-paranoia.) Possibly for that reason, it seems to have gotten relegated, at least around here, to honor-light status.

Dunno, just a thought that came to mind.

Comments

[shirei-shibolim.livejournal.com]

Yesterday, a woman who was visiting the Yeshiva for a week actually declined g'lillah on the grounds that it's too hard to do.

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

I remember being utterly, intensely grateful when you stopped asking me if I wanted petikha, probably since I'd said no thanks, it scares me for several weeks in a row. I do remember feeling like the honors I was given were slowly warming me up and relaxing me to deal with the crowd- thank you: I don't know if that was what you folks were going for, but it worked.

Of course, the first time I did glilah, I got the red torah cover, the one that lacks a slit in the back...