I loved Mahzor Lev Shalem, and I look forward to the siddur.
I have appreciated the increasing egalitarianism in each new siddur -- particularly the emendation of "the members of this congregation, them, their wives...." Hard to believe that even when the old Silverman was published, that didn't look odd to anyone.
So I have been surprised and disappointed that our prayers listing the matriarchs continue to list Rachel before Leah. I get it that that is the traditional order in the few traditional prayers that include matriarchs. But why continue to do it, at least in our new alternative formulations? We added the matriarchs and a few other words; is there some reason that reversing their order would be harder than that? I keep trying to find out if there is any other basis for the traditional reversing the natural order to give Rachel primacy other than that Jacob preferred her, but that seems to be it. In our day, surely we are no longer okay with saying women's value is determined by what some guy prefers. I am uncomfortable continuing that disrespect -- she is our matriarch as much as he is our patriarch, after all -- in our prayers.
I realize that the next step in this logic is to ask why Bilhah and Zilpah are not treated as matriarchs at all (some people do, I believe). That's an even more extreme example of the same problem. The traditional explanations are embarrassing -- that Leah and Rachel were more "spiritually lofty" and such. What is ours?
Was there ever any discussion of any of this? I would really like to hear about it; there may well be good reasons that haven't occured to me or to those I have asked.
I loved Mahzor Lev Shalem, and I look forward to the siddur.
I have appreciated the increasing egalitarianism in each new siddur -- particularly the emendation of "the members of this congregation, them, their wives...." Hard to believe that even when the old Silverman was published, that didn't look odd to anyone.
So I have been surprised and disappointed that our prayers listing the matriarchs continue to list Rachel before Leah. I get it that that is the traditional order in the few traditional prayers that include matriarchs. But why continue to do it, at least in our new alternative formulations? We added the matriarchs and a few other words; is there some reason that reversing their order would be harder than that? I keep trying to find out if there is any other basis for the traditional reversing the natural order to give Rachel primacy other than that Jacob preferred her, but that seems to be it. In our day, surely we are no longer okay with saying women's value is determined by what some guy prefers. I am uncomfortable continuing that disrespect -- she is our matriarch as much as he is our patriarch, after all -- in our prayers.
I realize that the next step in this logic is to ask why Bilhah and Zilpah are not treated as matriarchs at all (some people do, I believe). That's an even more extreme example of the same problem. The traditional explanations are embarrassing -- that Leah and Rachel were more "spiritually lofty" and such. What is ours?
Was there ever any discussion of any of this? I would really like to hear about it; there may well be good reasons that haven't occured to me or to those I have asked.