Written by Shayna Abramson. Shayna is a frequent Jewrotica contributor. To read Shayna’s essay on the the practice of shomer negiah within the Orthodox Jewish community, check out her article in the Jewrotica Reflections section. For those unfamiliar with Jewish terms, please consult the Jewrotica Glossary.
As a pants-wearing Orthodox Jew, my heretical jeans-wearing ways often become the topic of conversation. I admit, this might be because somewhere between the kiddush wine and the challah, I start fishing for controversy. So here I am, in the minutes between my coffee and my bagel, casting my net:
The rabbinic consensus is that pants do not violate the Biblical prohibition against cross-dressing, but that there is a modesty issue in terms of exposing the shape of the leg. A traditional rabbinic source* explains that women’s pants look different from men’s, and that a woman who wears them has no intention of resembling a man. He also adds that “even pious, modest women have long practiced” pant-wearing. What a shande!
Now that the licentious ways of my foremothers have been revealed, I have to ask: Does this rabbi’s statement apply to my skinny jeans? I often ponder that question, especially when I pass the Castro store on my way to the Kotel – after all, how will I pray to God if I’m not full of guilt about having just spent 250 shekels on denim?
At the end of the day, I feel that a large part of skirt-wearing is societal. A skirt-clad Jewish educator once admitted to me, “If I were hiking in China, maybe I’d wear pants. But I’m in Israel, in a society where Orthodox women wear skirts, and I want to identify with that group.”
Rabbi Getsel Ellinson, whose compendium “Women and the Mitzvot: The Modest Way,” is a seminary classic, says, “By wearing a skirt, a Jewish girl identifies with this group and separates herself from more permissive circles. To a certain extent, in the last few decades the skirt has become a sort of yarmulka for the scrupulously observant girl…By her refusal to wear trousers, she demonstrably declares that she is unwilling to resign herself to the dictates of modern style and that she takes exception to the immorality so rampant these days in society at large.”
Celebrating 10 Years & Marking the End of An Amazing Project
Celebrating 10 Years & Marking the End of An Amazing Project
Jewrotica is inspiring Jews and erotica with holiness and coolness, and is the pride of progressive Judaism. Jewrotica – awesome!
I attended and participated in last month’s Jewrotica event. The engaging performers and Ayo, our inviting host, inspired the audience to feel like one big community. What a great way to inspire our community to embrace sex as a beautiful thing that can be fun, exciting, sacred, sensual, ridiculous, scary and everything in between!
Jewrotica was everything I had dreamed of and more: sexy attendees, tantalizing confessions, and well-written literature to boot! More importantly, it empowers us Jews to reach inside and own our sexy selves and heritage!
The Jewrotica event “Evening of Jewrotica: Bedside Reading” was awesome. As Master of Confessions, I got to read the deepest, darkest secrets of people in the room out loud… It was scintillating, titillating, and – yes – even educational!
I’m so glad that Jewrotica is represented here at Jewlicious! It’s bringing voices that need to be heard in the Jewish discussion and Jewish climate environment.
Such an amazing experience! The Sarah Lawrence Jewrotica workshop was more than I could have ever expected – a comfortable, safe, sultry environment where participants clearly felt good about sharing or listening to each other’s intimate experiences and relating them to sexy stories from the Torah. From the moment the workshop began, Ayo had a sweet presence that was kinetic and spread around the room; her storytelling abilities had everyone enraptured and made the conversation topics relata… Read more
Jewrotica is a great way to ask interesting questions about the interplay between sensuality and Jewish wisdom. Check it out.
I stepped out of my comfort zone to be a part of this. I was glad to open up the topic of sexuality in my community. We are trying to build a safe space to talk about sex. The result I am most happy about coming from this event is that hopefully now my friends know they can come and talk to me, that I can be their ‘safe space’.
The people behind Jewrotica are quite quality! I have confidence that any project these folks take on will be equally quality.
Learning about sex and what’s right and wrong when it comes to sex from a Biblical standpoint was an eye opening experience. I completely enjoyed it and think something like this could be a very cool thing to bring to even high school aged Jewish youth groups.
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