After all, to observe was to be accepted and to be accepted was to be loved. Value, that value is our right to choose how we want to live or die, andĬhoice does not come cheaply, but it's what we've foughtįor and continue to hold dear.The memoir of a woman who leaves her faith and her marriage and sets out to navigate the terrifying, liberating terrain of a newly mapless worldīorn and raised in a tight-knit Orthodox Jewish family, Tova Mirvis committed herself to observing the rules and rituals prescribed by this way of life. But if feminism has left us with one clear There are no guarantees of happiness when we refuse accepted norms and The broader question for feminists is the challenge of choice. Progressive Except Palestine (PEP) Jewish renewal synagogue. To challenge the presence of the elephant in the room, and I wasĪstonished to be shunned by former friends and even co-congregants in my When I came out in support of Palestinian rights and, later, the Boycottĭivestment, Sanctions movement. The unknown possibilities of choice, which include failure andĪs a non-Orthodox Jew, I experienced my own version of separation The ties of belonging to a community where being good assuresĪcceptance, love, predictability and other rewards, are stronger than Illustrate the struggle between feminism and Orthodoxy that weĪcknowledge in Judaism and its cousin religions, especially CatholicismĪnd Islam. Her baby steps towards her own truth, as she admits her doubts, To bring to the rabbi for inspection of potential menstrual stainsīefore being deemed kosher, like ritually slaughtered meat. Ritual, women are made to insert a clean piece of cloth in their vagina Like refusing to let down her hair in the mikvah, a Jewish cleansingīath to demarcate her days of 'impurity.' In a humiliating

Her compromising the on-again, off-again ritual wig or hair covering,Īnd her elaborate choreography to avoid being seen by a member of theĬommunity while driving a car on Shabbat. As a Jewish feminist, I was impatient with her fears, Increments as Mirvis punctures loopholes in the intricate fabric of This journey happens in excruciatingly slow and painful A brave tale of feminist liberation, right? Raised and leave her marriage with three children in order to becomeĬloser to her true self. In fact -decides to give up the Orthodox Judaism in which she has been Tova Mirvis, a privileged 40-year-old woman-an acclaimed novelist, APA style: THE BOOK OF SEPARATION: A Memoir: TOVA MIRVIS.THE BOOK OF SEPARATION: A Memoir: TOVA MIRVIS.' Retrieved from MLA style: 'THE BOOK OF SEPARATION: A Memoir: TOVA MIRVIS.' The Free Library.

The book of separation by tova mirvis