"The Minyan for Shacharit will shortly be departing from platform 1, stopping for the Minyan men at Beit Shemesh and then at Ramle, Lod and Tel Aviv. Passengers should take care when putting on their Tefillin. The service will be followed by a Kiddush in the Buffet Car".
I had heard about the train minyan but today was the first time that I'd experienced it - rather than spending the 20 or so minutes davening at home before heading for my meetings in Tel Aviv, I decided to take my tefillin and tallit along for the ride - a clear advantage of taking the train. As I took my tefillin out of their bag, my neighbour advised me to wait until we hit Beit Shemesh where we'd be joined by enough men to make up a minyan (prayer quorum).
As the train swayed, so did we, caught up in the rhythms of prayer. The rumour that a breakaway minyan was forming in carriage 3 proved to be untrue but as all Jews have to have a place that they won't pray in, it's surely just a matter of time?
Apparently their has been some discussion as to the possibility of arranging for a Sefer Torah to be kept permanently on the train so that the Monday and Thursday minyanim can have Torah reading.
Is the following ad really so far fetched?
"Message: 2
Date: Sun, 03 Jul 2005 17:38:45 -0000
From: "IsRail" <jobs@israilways.com>
Subject: JOBOPPS + 02/03 + Ticket collector / Gabbai
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Anyway, we finished davening with a few minutes to spare; once the fast train starts running between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv (Ani Ma'amin Be'Emunah Shleima...) the possibility of a minyan will go out of the window as by the time you put on your Tallit you'll be at Arlozorov. I'm not aware of anyone arranging a Bar Mitzva on board but it would be a great PR stunt!
The Minyan Express leaves Jerusalem at 7:09 and passes through Beit Shemesh about 30 minutes later. The Minyan is at the back of the train - there is no women's section but who would bet against an enraged feminist starting up "women of the train"?
Gilly
Cross-posted to Israelity
10 comments:
why an enraged feminist?
why do you assume that all feminists are just angry women who want to get even?
have you ever studied any feminist history...? like, perhaps there is a good point to be made - that women are discriminated against in many many ways and that perhaps it should stop?
Heartily seconding the above comment by anonymous. But as a feminist (not an enraged one) who is also your friend, wanted to congratulate you on writing for Israelity!
It's an adjective which seems to go together with feminist - like "canny Scotsman". In the context that I've writted it, I don't think that it's out of place - there's no women's section - therefore someone might get pissed off. Oh, and I don't think it's discrimination in this case - just that not many women daven in a minyan in the morning.
So if not many women daven with a minyan in the morning and the lack of a womens section is, in your opinion, unlikely to actually be an issue, the point of your last line is what?
The use of terms like "Enraged Feminist" and your claim that it 'just goes together' is a dissmissive way of avoiding engaging seriously with the issues other people raise. "Oh you know what those Jews are like", "He's just one of those bleedin' heart lefties", "you can just ignore the right wing fascist".
Yellow Boy
It's called humour - get a life.
yellow boy..
not sure how your last comment helps...
gilly makes a common mistake of thinking all feminists are enraged.. but that doesn't mean you can tarnish with him with making lots of other mistakes. He is facing up to the discrimination - he raised it in the first place. You just don't like how he responds to it.
Gilly's comment would have been spot on if not for his first comment.
Feminists are not all enraged (although perhaps they should be considering all the cruddy discrimination in this world).
Lack of space for them to pray is a small problem considering all the other crap women face.
Okay - I could have used "pissed off", "angry", "frustrated" or any one of a hundred other adjectives - I used enraged because for whatever reason it tends to get paired with feminist quite a lot.
I'm not assuming that "all feminists are just angry women who want to get even" I haven't generalised here - I have described a particular situation in which a feminist could become enraged (rightly so from her point of view).
You have taken a specific and extrapolated a generalisation. My dog is wet therefore all dogs are wet?
Gilly
If your wife happens to read your post, Gil, hope you are ready to
1)Duck and dodge various objects being thrown at you;
2)Eat at fast food places &
3)Sleep on the Sofa!
(Just Joking)
boy oh boy gilly...
yeah, they could get enraged...
yeah, you have a sense of humour (an odd one all the same... but let that pass...)
but it is your constant rehashing of the idea that "enraged" and "feminist" going together is out of order.
The two go together becoz it is a convenient way to dismiss their claims rather than take them seriously.
Why not re-write your original post to read 'there is no mechitza but who would bet against some feminist starting up "women of the train"?' and it all looks much funnier!
No I'm not going to rewrite my post thank you very much. I'll stand by what I wrote and if you don't like it then that's just tough.
I have no clue why the adjective "enraged" tends to be applied to "Feminist" - maybe they do have a lot to be enraged about in this oh so unfair word.
The context that I have written the phrase in they would also feel that they have something to be pissed off about - I think you'd probably agree to that - so what's your problem here?
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