ish Law on Women forced to me, and 1 probably would opt for leaving that open to both genders at all times on a totally random basis. I can imagine, though, that if designating specific Sabbaths each month in the way I described were the practice in my synagogue, I would not only get used to it, but actually prize it after awhile as a further way of distinguishing men and women without impugning their equality. Alternatively, a synagogue might designate one Sabbath a month in that there would be, at least as an option, separate minyanim for men and women in order to accomplish the same purpose.
(3) Along with this toleration of varying degrees of adaptation
of the customs of our past, I hope that we will develop new cus
toms now that express both the equality and the distinctiveness that 1, for one, seek. We have already begun, whether intentionally or not, to do this. This is especially evident in our emerging life-cycle rites.
arents justifiably feel that their joy is no less for having a girl than it would be if they had had a boy, and the community's joy ought not be any less either. Traditionally, the birth of a girl is Marked by an aliyah for the father(and now often the mother), accompanied by a blessing for the mother’s health and naming the newborn girl. Even if these ceremonies are done nicely and even if a festive kiddush is held in celebration of the newborn afterward, modern couples have increasingly felt that these rites are not enough. They have consequently created new ceremonies that usually take place at their home, just as a boy’s brit milah (ritual circumcision) often does.
Sometimes the ceremony is called brit banot,“the covenant of the daughters,” thereby emphasizing the parallelism between the New ceremonies for girls with the traditional one for boys. Sometimes they are called simhat bat,“the joy of a daughter,” thereby "ndicating the differences between this rite and the one for boys.
nder either title, the ceremony itself may incorporate some of the Same elements and language as the one for boys and may even be Scheduled for the eighth day after birth as a boy’s circumcision Would be; or it may veer markedly from the ritual for boys. The Point is that both the equal significance and the distinctiveness of
Ving a girl are being symbolized by these new ceremonies.