I find it a amusing that this article crying out for women's rights amidst a world of anti-women religious discrimination was surrounded by at least 3 advertisements featuring large breasted women in bikinis... just sayin

This author took a beautiful experience, a wedding, where all the guests were full of joy and spirit and reduced it something ugly and banal. When guests dance at a Jewish wedding it is about making the bride and groom B'Simcha- happy in the spiritual sense. To turn into something sexual, discriminatory shows that this author is stuck in the physical aspects of the world in lieu of the spiritual world. SO SAD!

We must love her regardless. I wish Dr. Ruchama Weiss a loving mishpoeche and a healthy life. Shabbat Shalom

men,i guess

while i don't entirely subscribe to the author's interpretation of the parsha, i suggest that you ask yourself, if a hareidi wedding is about celebrating the bride and groom spiritually, would it hurt if the men and women traded places for once? because that's my test for whether it's "separation" or "discrimination"; if the men agree to sit at the back if the bus, we can talk, otherwise it's just oppression masquerading as yiddishkeit.

Perhaps every place is different, but here in London Haredi weddings tend to have equal space for men and women to dance. My wife has never felt she was in a cage. People arranging weddings should choose halls where there is enough room for men and women to dance.

It's widely recognised that in Tanach it is women who resolve problems. Moses was rescued and saved by three women -- Pharaoh's daughter Bat-El, Yocheved and Miriam. The Jews survived the slavery by the merit of the Jewish women who made themselves attractive and insisted on procreating. Earlier on Sarah makes the decision to send away Hagar and Ishmael. Rebekkah sends Jacob to receive the blessing instead of Esau. Later in Tanach, Esther resolves a major crisis. Naomi and Ruth arrange for Boaz to marry Ruth. Deborah leads the army of Israel out to war. Judith disposes of Holfernes. Bathsheva pushes to make Solomon king etc

dancing in a trendy nightclub might look, caged like animals, while, to others , they appear a noisy but energetic youth. In the case cited in this article, the author might be frustrated, because she can not be part of the magic emanating from Haredi men,singing and dancing with burning love to G-D. Anyway,it is mostly the women who organise marriages and they give the best places to their husband and boys ,so honouring those who share the burden of the Tora.

"To turn into something sexual, discriminatory shows that this author is stuck in the physical aspects of the world in lieu of the spiritual world. SO SAD!" Translation: "The author is forcing me to confront a challenge to my worldview, so I must invalidate her." I say it all the time; no one does condescension like the frum.

I pray in an orthodox synagogue here where I live. We, the women, pray on the gallery. Coming to synagogues in Israel is terrible: I must sit behind walls and more: there is hardly place for all the women! Several times I have experienced that there was not room for both me and my daughter to pray inside the synagogue. Once I went to a beautiful synagogue - With place for 300 men, but only place for 30 women. What is the Israeli attitude towards women, actually? I wonder. I am upset. After all, this is year 2014? Are we not more modern?

in case you haven't figured it out yet, the majority of israelis are secular, have no problem with women, and want nothing to do with synagogues. so israeli synagogues, for the most part, are run by the religious, who have been drifting towards excessive fanaticism in recent years. for political reasons as much as anything else, the hareidim dominate the rabbinate and the government's religious budgets. your only option is to start your own synagogue and your own political party. just like everybody else in israel.