Anyone else reading Megillah this year?

Mrs Bissli

Sun, Jan 19 2014, 7:47 pm

I'm "back in business" after being out of the loop for the last several years.
Is this strictly within MO communities? Are there women's megillah readings in yeshivish or other non-MO communities?

doctorima

Sun, Jan 19 2014, 8:49 pm

I don't know of any women's Megillah readings in my area. I'm not saying there aren't any, but in Brooklyn I would think it would be a strictly MO thing, and even the Young Israels around here don't have them AFAIK.

zaq

Sun, Jan 19 2014, 9:09 pm

I would be VERY surprised to find one in a yeshivish community, unless there's a cadre of secret MO-sympathizer rebel amothers meeting in someone's basement under guise of being a La Leche League meeting or something.

Does an independent women's tefillah-and-megillah group sound like anything further right than Modern Orthodoxy?

PinkFridge

Sun, Jan 19 2014, 9:12 pm

zaq wrote:

Yes, an emergency, crucial LLL meeting for me to go to. On Purim. 13 years after weaning my last.
(I guess teenagers will assume their mothers are going to the mikvah. At least for the night reading.)
But thanks, that was a good, needed line.

amother

Sun, Jan 19 2014, 9:21 pm

amother wrote:

Do you mean that women listen to the megilla being read or that a woman reads the megilla for other women?

She means a women reading it for other ladies

I have only heard of this in MO communities. Unheard of in yeshivaish circles

amother

Mon, Mar 17 2014, 12:24 am

Did it myself this year, just for myself. Too tired to get up for shul.
Yeshivish.
Nothing wrong w a woman reading for other women. I may do it again next year! I felt empowered. This might be dangerous.

Although DD said one year her MIL said she had fallen asleep & missed some in shul. It was 12 am & I think they asked, since DD could do it better then her own DH. So she read for her MIL. Wish I'd been there...

amother

Mon, Mar 17 2014, 12:34 am

amother wrote:

You read it from klaf, out loud with trop? What are the requirements?

Ruchel

Mon, Mar 17 2014, 9:44 am

My dh has done (not this year). lol

My MO velt is not progressive that way. But a group of anglo and anglo israeli women wanted to do a reading somewhere in Paris. In the end I don't know if the did it, and where, and how it went.

Isramom8

Mon, Mar 17 2014, 11:10 am

Only MO does this.

But last year I was "listening" every day online to the Daf Yomi in Gemara Niddah. One day an avreich in our kollel said that he couldn't give Daf Yomi the next day and asked my husband to take over. My husband said that he also couldn't do it that day. The avreich said, "Well, maybe your wife can do it?" LOL

DrMom

Mon, Mar 17 2014, 11:12 am

amother wrote:

You read it from klaf, out loud with trop? What are the requirements?

We have a by-women-for-women reading in our shul. Yes, from a klaf with trope.

This is in a DL shul in Israel.

amother

Mon, Mar 17 2014, 12:08 pm

Quote:

You read it from klaf, out loud with trop? What are the requirements?

I know the trop, more or less. That is, I don't know how to use trop marks, but I've heard it enough times that I know how most of the pesukim should sound.

I read it out loud from a klaf.

I had a regular(?) megillah with vowels next to me in case I came to a word I wasn't sure of.

Next year I think I'm going to practice with dh. (He walked in at the end when I said "tokfo" & told me it's tokpo. But most of that type of mistake would not invalidate the reading.

But I would not read for others, I am just too shy? reserved?

I should have read for my mother, but she doesn't hear very well, and I would have had to raise my voice & lost it (my voice) in the middle....

amother

Mon, Mar 17 2014, 12:10 pm

Quote:

Only MO does this.

- publicly - I would say. There's nothing wrong, lehalacha, with a lady reading for herself.

True, I would not read for others bec. it would be like making a feminist statement....

chani8

Mon, Mar 17 2014, 1:17 pm

We went to a mixed reading where young men and women took turns reading, by perek. It was so nice.

During the day, a Chabad bochur came to our home and read for our family.

I wish one of my kids would learn how to do it.

Peanut2

Mon, Mar 17 2014, 5:23 pm

If you are reading it is a good idea to study the relevant halachot.

I haven't participated in a women's reading in a looong time, sadly.

IIRC it still 'counts' even without trope, but the words should be read correctly. It should be read from the megillah, I believe.

When I've participated (or attended readings where I could see what was going on) - there is generally a gabbi/gabbait who checks to make sure everything is pronounced correctly. I imagine they do this when men read as well, if possible. Mistakes in trope are skipped since they are, again IIRC, not halachically significant. (IIRC when reading the Torah this is not the case.)

Women can also read for men, technically, as the level of obligation is the same.

Mrs Bissli

Mon, Mar 17 2014, 7:35 pm

Yeah, thank goodness it went well. Despite some hairly moments that a number of readers seem to be coming down with cold including yours truly. I must say I definitely paid far more attention, and the megillah my friend brought was truly beautiful to read from. Our reading got more audience (only ladies) than late afternoon reading DH did.

We had a study session on relevant halachot. As usual, JOFA had published practical guides though I didn't use their apps.

Now I happen to know one synagogue where pre-bat mitzvah girls read Megillat Ruth for Shavuoth. Has anyone heard of this?

someoneoutthere

Mon, Mar 17 2014, 8:31 pm

I would say you would only find this in an official manner in a MO community, and even then it would depend. A woman reading for a man is a much bigger complexity than a woman reading for women, due to all kinds of relevant issues, including that a man must make the brachos to be motzie others because his obligation "asher kidishanu...VTZIVANU" is a stronger obligation than that of a woman's, ie technically we're patur but for reasons of being the main part of the nes we're chayav...and since the bracha is al MIKRA megilla, lechatchila the reader should make the bracha to be motzie others and only in the case where the reader has already said the bracha/done the mitzva does someone else make the bracha, like with shofar.

All that aside, I'm the "spotter" and have been for many many years for male relatives that read in various (non regular shul) settings. I know how to lein megilla but have no interest in doing so. My husband can read faster, smoother, clearer and more pleasantly than I can.

As with all things like this, it becomes a discussion of just because I can, does it mean I should. But let's not take this thread down that road....