What they didn't teach you in school: Jewish intimacy and pre-wed classes (part 5)

What they didn't teach you in school: Jewish intimacy and pre-wed classes (part 5)

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Lion of Zion said…
thanks. interesting review of what seems like an interesting book. i wish it were around when we were going to choson/kalah classes (complete waste of time, for me at least).

although i assume from some of the things you wrote about the book, as well as the mere fact that he is associated with yeshivat hakibbutz hadati, that it will not be popular here.

"separately wrapped"

in an unmarked brown paper bag?
Ariella's blog said…
Thanks for commenting, LOZ, I get the feeling there should be an echo of some of my posts published into an empty room. I also wish that book were around 17 years ago. All my kallah instructor offered was Tehila Abramov's The Secret of Jewish Femininity, which offers very little nitty gritty halacha, and is clearly meant to be more inspirational than instructional.

When you say, "here," you mean the US or the NY Jewish community? It actually was difficult for us to obtain. My husband's chavrusa picked it up for him on a trip to Israel, where he said many copies were available in Mea Shearim. So even the ultimate in chareidi neighborhoods had no objection to stocking it. Look, the Gemara is far from Bowlderized, and there is a definite feed for a frank presentation on the subject. I don't know if the "separately wrapped" (that was in plastic, though the brown paper would have been a nice ironic touch) section remains so in the English version. I have not seen it anywhere in the flesh, though I know it is available on the site I link to.
Chaim B. said…
>>>it will not be popular here.

The problem is that in the US there is no equivalent to the dati-leumi or chardal community. For those committed to halacha there are the traditional sources; those less committed I don't think feel a need for a book like Knoll's that deals with technical halachic details. There is very little middle ground of voices who take halacha seriously but also take the needs of a modern community seriously. In America, a shayla on an eid (a bedika cloth) is either going to be addressed to a Rav by those who care or ignored by those who don't; there is little demand for an institution like the yoatzot (for example) because it services only the narrow segment of those who both take halacha seriously but at the same time want a different/better way to do things. (Rav Knoll gives the yoatzot hotline # in the book. Many if not most Rabbanim in the US I think would be wary of doing so.)
Lion of Zion said…
my wife's teacher also used tehilla abramov.

i meant here in new york. i haven't really been to other (jewish) parts of the country and comment on them.
Ariella's blog said…
LOZ, your wife's kallah instructor was most likely trained through the Abramov or JME approach. NO doubt the training includes directions to give the Abramov book to each kallah. They regard it as the kallah class equivalent of What to Expect When You're Expecting for pregnancy. But it lacks the technical, biological, and halachic explanations that are really needed for adequate reference. Did your wife like the book, LOZ? It's meant to be more inspirational than informative.

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