Sample Paper of the Religious World of the Ashkenaz Jews

This paper will try to discuss the religious world of the Ashkenaz jews. It will specifically compare state and describe the religious practices that is being practiced by Ashkenaz men and women. This paper will highlight the differences and distinction between male and female Ashkenaz individuals with regards to the religious traditions that they practice. Although this paper will express the religious practices of the Ashkenaz Jewish society, it must be clear that the scope of this study is the medieval and the early modern period only.

The Ashkenaz Jews are Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities of the Rhineland. Many of them later migrated, largely eastward, forming communities in Germany, Poland, Austria, Eastern Europe and elsewhere between the 10th and 19th centuries. From medieval times until the mid-20th century, the lingua franca among Ashkenazi Jews was Yiddish or Slavic languages such as the now extinct Knaanic.[1] They also developed a distinct culture and liturgy influenced by interaction with surrounding nations.

The religious world of the men and women of the Ashkenaz society is different and diverse because of cultural, sociological and religious factors. The jewish society is a patriarchal society and therefore the men have the prime role in family, societal matters as well as in religious affairs.[2] Men are the major characters in worship services and other decision making processes in the community and inside the family. The women, mother, daughter, sister are merely delegated to do household task and works like cleaning the house, taking care of the baby and cooking food.

In religious matters and worships, there is an apparent neglect on the condition of Ashkenaz women. Few women learn Hebrew as the language of scholarly communication and this is the main reason why there is no comprehensive history and literacy legacy describing the role and importance of women. Women are also excluded from the arenas of public religious services like the Hassidic gatherings. Women also do not count as one of the minimum numbers of ten adults required as a quorum for public prayer.[3] Women cannot also lead a service and sat behind a partition. Because of these myriad of restrictions, a look at the religious world of the Ashkenaz women would require a different medium and a different approach to probe and to study the concept.

One of the prime tools to study and to probe the religious world of the Ashkenaz women is the tkhines. Tkhines are prayers that women recite and memorize and because they are commonly used by women, this offers us an inside insight on the nature of religion and worship when viewed from a feminist perspective. There are specific tkhines describing customs making memorial candles for the dead and references to the matriarchs of Jewish history like Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Leah and other women of the Bible.[4]

Tkhines also describes and illustrates ordinary events in a day. Some of these tkhines are hallah which is a tkhines in separating a small portion of dough for priestly tithes, middah, for marital separation during and after menstration. Tkhines are also used with events such as pregnancy, birth, recovery from illness, drought and livelihood.

Unlike men, women upon entering the synagogues recite a tkhines since she cannot understand the Hebrew liturgy. By carefully studying the tkhines, we can see that the main subject of these prayers is connected with the family and private domain of the women while men predominantly adhere to the social and public aspect of worship since men pray and worship together while tkhines are often recited inside the houses, bathhouses, cemetery with specific connotations to important family events such as birth, pregnancy and menstruation. We cam also say that Jewish Ashkenaz women perform a double religious service, they practice the Sabbath, fasts, holidays, prayed from the prayer book and maintained a holy marital life while performing another religious celebration centered on their family life and the events that occur inside the household.[5]

Although both men and women Ashkenaz Jews observe and practice the Sabbath, women are more burdened in preparing and organizing this religious event. Men only perform Sabbath by praying in the synagogues while women are laden with the responsibility lighting candles, baking the Sabbath loaf and making the Sabbathic kugel or pudding. The religious practices of the women therefore are centered on the area that they spend most of their time, which is inside the family.

A specific example of this hypothesis is the hallah which is a tkhines that is uttered in separating a small portion of dough. The first part of the hallah is taken from a Biblical verse in Numbers 15:20 and an interpretation of a text that came from Proverbs 8:21.[6] The hallah also narrated the history, biblical tithes and states of Israel since the destruction of the Temple. The hallah is also important since it contains instructions and descriptions on how to prepare the dough. It provides instructions such as using forty-three eggs and two quartz of flour in making a dough. The hallah and the separation of a small portion of the dough is accompanied by a prayer that went like this:

…thus may my mizwah of hallah be accepted; that my children be feed by the dear God, be blessed with great mercy and comapssion. May this mizwah of hallah be accounted as if I had given the tithe.[7]

This tkhines further stated other themes like the desire to perform hallah properly, the continued association of hallah with receiving adequate nourishment and the desire for the forgiveness of sin. The tkhines can also be a vehicle for the Jewish Ashkenaz woman to actually say and to internalize what she feels with regards to religion and worship. A tkhines for candle lighting illustrates this point when a woman utters:

…Lord of the world, may my mizwah of kindling the light be accepted like the mizwah of the high priest who kindled the light in the dear temple.[8]

The woman who is uttering this tkhines when lighting candles does not present herself as an ordinary woman but as a high priest in a temple doing his duty. This part of the tkhines therefore illustrates that because of the lack of voice and power of the women with regards to religious matters, they use these prayers and tkhines to implicitly state what they feel during religious services. Tkhines are also used to commemorate and describe ordinary task such as putting a loaf of bread in the oven. In this prayer, the woman uttering the prayer is asking God to bless and guard the bread from overcooking. This act illustrates how ordinary Ashkenaz women merge ordinary work inside the household with religion and worship. Women also developed tkhines and prayers that speak of the humble attitude of women with regards to Sabbath preparation.

Another tkhines that gives emphasis to the role of women in Ashkenazi society are prayer that touches the subject of menstruation. These tkhines deals with the observance of menstrual avoidance, menstrual inspection and ritual immersions.[9] This tkhines dealing with the subject of menstrual separation are important since it illustrates the meticulous observance of this practice thru songs. These tkhines are also important since it provides the women of an avenue to share and to transmit their oral histories and traditions thru the use of prayers and songs. Tkhines that deals with menstruation and avoidance are also significant since it illustrates that prayers and religion is a ready vehicle in transmitting cultures and tradition in the absence of literature and writing among Ashkenazi women.

Aside from the reference materials, another source consulted is the book Jewish Liturgy written by Ismar Elbogen. Basically it describes the same conditions and characteristics of women inside the Ashkenazi society. Women were excluded from reading the Torah and other religious materials since they are not taught to read.[10] Because of this problem, the Ashkenazi society decided to translate the Scriptures into phrases and words that can be easily understood by the women. This translation was flawed since only a select few verses and stories from the Scriptures are translated, other stories such as the story of Reuben and the story of the golden calf found in Exodus are excluded since these stories highlighted the negative actions of the Jewish people.[11] It is safe to assume therefore that even if the society offers help to women in understanding and reading the Scripture, this help is incomplete and lacking in its totality.