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the MOON also RISES: Contemporary Jews Rediscover Rosh Chodesh.
RABBI SUSAN SCHNUR
SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH TIMES
In a darkened living room near Greenspring Avenue, 12 Jewish women sprawl quietly in an informal circle on chairs, sofas, the rug. In the center of the circle, on a low coffee table, sits a wine goblet, a guitar, prayer books, Bibles -- and a beautiful cotton cloth sent by a similar group of women in Ranana, Israel. On the cloth, each Israeli woman embroidered her name.
Wine poured, the women begin chanting in Hebrew, kiddush levana, the traditional blessing for the new moon. It has been set to music for the group by Baltimore songwriter Judi Tal: "God promised the moon that she would always be renewed, a crown of radiance to all who have been carried in wombs. We are all destined for renewal like the moon."
The dozen voices rise sweetly and soothingly as they move into the blessing for wine: "Blessed is God who creates the fruit of the vine. Amen." The women smile, sip the wine, and soon they are chatting informally, "catching up," as Cantor Beth Weiner of Beth Am Congregation puts it, "on a month's worth of news."
Some women wear kippot (skull-caps), some don't. A nurse arrives late (from leading a Brownie troop) in a sweat suit; a physician arrives late (from work) in a business suit. The group includes two teachers from Krieger Schechter Day School, two rabbis, a cantor. The group's religious spectrum ranges from Orthodox to unaffiliated; ages range from around 30 to 50.
Bibles opened, a roundtable discussion begins on the evening's theme: the women of Genesis. "Sarah's life was full of opposites," says one woman. "She laughed, but on the other hand, her son was almost sacrificed."
Another woman says: "Abraham gives Sarah to Pharaoh. My husband just gave me to another man! What is that about?"
Later, the question is posed to all: "What do you think it was like to be married to a man preoccupied with the idea that he was on a mission from God?"
One-part scholarship, one-part Midrash from the women's own lives, the conversation moves seamlessly from biblical woman to Baltimore woman -- and back. Around 9:30, there...