Tfillin and Marriage Symbols

Just noticed this morning that not only do we recite psukim (verses) about being bethrothed to G-d while wrapping tfillin straps around our fingers, we then go on to wrap the strap around the ring where people contemporarily wear wedding rings. I wonder if there was some influence, although I very much doubt it. But it was a striking sort of coincidence.

I wonder if that affects how married Jews feel about their rings and/or about their tfillin. (Input, anyone?)

Tfillin and Marriage Symbols

Just noticed this morning that not only do we recite psukim (verses) about being bethrothed to G-d while wrapping tfillin straps around our fingers, we then go on to wrap the strap around the ring where people contemporarily wear wedding rings. I wonder if there was some influence, although I very much doubt it. But it was a striking sort of coincidence.

I wonder if that affects how married Jews feel about their rings and/or about their tfillin. (Input, anyone?)

Really Weird Ritual Ideas

So I'm reading a book about women's lifecycle ritual in modern Judaism (Lifecycled, ed. Debra Orenstein), and there's this quote about a suggestion for a parallel to Brit Milah for baby girls: "IN the early 1970s, Mary Gendler proposed that the parallel to Brit Milah ought to involve the irtual breaking of the infant girl's hymen. THis would incorporate the blood ritual and genital elements of Brit MIlah and, at the same time, free the baby girl from teh strictures of virginity. Here, as in Brit Milah, the sign of the covenant would be located in connection to the organ of generation." Thankfully, it follows with this "Gendler's suggestion, while provocative, has not been followed." Thank G-d. Talk about Weirdness. (The book otherwise makes some very interesting and useful interpretations of Brit Milah for the parents, although I think some might push the gender issue stuff a little too far.) It was just a reminder of how weird ideas can get when you're not thinking realistically, and how odd people's values get in relation to ritual sometimes...

(I tend to be uncomfortable with a lot of really innovative ritual: it feels silly and fluffy to me most of the time. Occassionally I can get into some of it and find it spiritually useful and meaningful- but unless I'm in a very secure place and the other people are also willing to get into it, I just feel silly, and that makes the whole thing useless. This is less in relation to this sort of ridiculousness, and more in relation to all this new women's ritual in general. Besides my taking issue with all these physically-related rituals which Judaism as a general trend has moved away from and has generalized things to age, so that these things can be more private and because they have less to do with one's self in public. More on this topic will probably come up as I keep reading this stuff.)

Really Weird Ritual Ideas

So I'm reading a book about women's lifecycle ritual in modern Judaism (Lifecycled, ed. Debra Orenstein), and there's this quote about a suggestion for a parallel to Brit Milah for baby girls: "IN the early 1970s, Mary Gendler proposed that the parallel to Brit Milah ought to involve the irtual breaking of the infant girl's hymen. THis would incorporate the blood ritual and genital elements of Brit MIlah and, at the same time, free the baby girl from teh strictures of virginity. Here, as in Brit Milah, the sign of the covenant would be located in connection to the organ of generation." Thankfully, it follows with this "Gendler's suggestion, while provocative, has not been followed." Thank G-d. Talk about Weirdness. (The book otherwise makes some very interesting and useful interpretations of Brit Milah for the parents, although I think some might push the gender issue stuff a little too far.) It was just a reminder of how weird ideas can get when you're not thinking realistically, and how odd people's values get in relation to ritual sometimes...

(I tend to be uncomfortable with a lot of really innovative ritual: it feels silly and fluffy to me most of the time. Occassionally I can get into some of it and find it spiritually useful and meaningful- but unless I'm in a very secure place and the other people are also willing to get into it, I just feel silly, and that makes the whole thing useless. This is less in relation to this sort of ridiculousness, and more in relation to all this new women's ritual in general. Besides my taking issue with all these physically-related rituals which Judaism as a general trend has moved away from and has generalized things to age, so that these things can be more private and because they have less to do with one's self in public. More on this topic will probably come up as I keep reading this stuff.)