Check out that teeny tiny Steinsaltz!! I wonder where her teeny tiny Jastrow is.
Coming soon: outfits for davvening with Women at the Wall and staffing the agunah help hotline, as well as a yad for kriyat Torah and a couple of Boyarin titles. As far as I understand, Skipper’s the one who runs the Rosh Chodesh group and comes accessorized with a Miriam’s Cup.
(Jen of Geniza.net is the Barbie stylist and photographer, she gets all the credit here.)
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that is AWESOME … see also: suicide bomber barbie and burka barbie
—Mobius · October 17th, 2006 at 8:04 am
What’s this with Steinsaltz? Everyone knows that Real Jewish Feminist Barbie learns from her Vilna shas…
—Avigail · October 17th, 2006 at 8:18 am
She doesn’t NEED Jastrow!
—tzachi · October 17th, 2006 at 8:20 am
first, one should notice the set of ritva in the background. and if she still needs steinzaltz, then she definitely could use jastrow.
—Amit · October 17th, 2006 at 9:31 am
Not to mention the fabulous hipster-frum jean skirt…
—Marisa · October 17th, 2006 at 10:53 am
When do you wear a talis and tefillin? Chol hamoed?
—shep · October 17th, 2006 at 11:38 am
shep, weekday shacharit. i suppose the minhag vis a vis tallit gadol/katan varies by community but it is quite common to wear tallitot gedolot.
—zt · October 17th, 2006 at 12:35 pm
shep– most of my yekke friends who say shacharit regularaly also wear a tallit for it. plus lots of other folks who really like tallitot.
—rebecca m · October 17th, 2006 at 2:31 pm
anyone else think (single) egal minyan ken is in short supply these days?
—jewess · October 17th, 2006 at 2:34 pm
so i’ll be the one to say it–there’s nothing revolutionary about barbie–
—Cole Krawitz · October 17th, 2006 at 9:49 pm
how disgusting! how perverted! what’s up with the chatzitzah?!
—jabotinsky · October 18th, 2006 at 10:35 pm
no different then maddona’s tefilin! ha-yinu hach!
—jabotinsky · October 18th, 2006 at 10:38 pm
no different than madonna’s laying of the tefilin.
—jabotinsky · October 18th, 2006 at 10:42 pm
No, no no! Barbie studied seriously for several years, and then when she was ready, did beit din and mikveh. She’s totally kosher.
—Danya · October 19th, 2006 at 2:05 am
It just doesn’t look right. Even with the tallis and the tefillin. As my mother would say: “She’s too pretty to be Jewish!” So for a more authentically Jewish appearance, put some braces on her teeth, get her a pair of red Sally Jessy Raphael-type glasses and a 1950’s style Hasidic skirt down to her ankles with matching long-sleeved jacket and pillbox hat. Shave off the long, blonde shiksa hair and top it all off with a dark brown sheitel, and voila! You’re in business!
—rm · October 20th, 2006 at 5:15 am
BS”D
I’m going to have to agree with Cole, Jabotinsky & RM.
I welcome any opportunity for discussion about women in non-trad roles.
Although this took a great deal of time & skill to make, I find it offensive.
My concern is Jen’s deliberate choice of Barbie iconography, given the associations. Most women of our generation (the over-30s) find Barbie to denote “trivial”. Barbie is a cultural shorthand for plastic, superficial, brainless, and demeaning. It’s the ultimate non-feminist icon.
This image says to me that basically feminist Jx women are bimbos just “playing” real Jews & that feminist Jx women who CHALLENGE tradition for the love of torah, are really playthings. Either the women or the traditions.
So since I’m sure that Jen’s intention here was NOT to trivialize feminist women in Judaism, perhaps it could have been better thought out.
—Soferet · October 20th, 2006 at 3:43 pm
[...] Jen’s friends of course love Tefillin Barbie, as do the usual suspects. DovBear I guess took a more neutral approach, but his commentors mixed it up a bit. My take? There’s nothing wrong with women wearing tefillin. Women are not obligated to wear them - they are excused from all mitzvas that are time based and since tefillin have to be worn on weekday mornings at specific times then the mitzva of wearing them isn’t imposed on women. However, should a woman decide to start wearing tefillin and a talit then she has to do so always - thus rabbis generally advise against it. [...]
—Jewlicious » Indie Minyan Barbie? · October 23rd, 2006 at 4:08 am
(I’ve said this over on Soferet’s blog, but I’ll say it here too:)
This over-30 woman doesn’t find Barbie to universally denote “trivial,” and is anything but offended by the playful–even, to me, empowering–image of Davening Barbie (as my husband & I call her: she’s got a tallis as well as tefillin, so she’s more than just Tefillin Barbie by me! Weekday Shacharit Davening Barbie, in fact, as zt and RM have pointed out…).
Not all feminists are anti-Barbie, nor is Barbie or her history necessarily anti-feminist. Barbie was created by a Jewish businesswoman, Ruth Handler, who named Barbie and Ken after her daughter and son; after undergoing a mastectomy for breast cancer, Handler developed a better type of breast prosthesis (along with post-mastectomy swimwear) as the “Nearly Me” line. (See her entry on the PBS “They Made America” site, where she’s honored among the Innovators.)
Barbie need not be a bimbo, and the woman who created her certainly wasn’t one. I’d definitely allow (even encourage!) any daughter (or son) of mine to play with Davening Barbie as well as the proposed Egal Minyan Ken.
—Becca · October 24th, 2006 at 2:01 am
women do not wear taleisim nor tefillin nor they need a minyan nor they count in minyan…. this is not Judaism, sorry. no matter how many people will be ready to stone me for it…
Moshiach now!!!
—a yid · November 7th, 2006 at 11:10 am
No, yid, it is not us who stone people. We are not fond of experimenting with proyectile physics with sundry materials whether it be to protest a march or to “defend” the Sanctity of the Koisel.
Btw, we also want Moshiach Now! She will straighten your opinions!
—Bloom · November 14th, 2006 at 1:20 pm
Guys, this is a perfect example of ludicrous feminism. Women have their own role in Judaism - they needn’t adopt the role of men. You don’t see men lighting Shabbos candles every week, so we shouldn’t see women wearing tefillin and tallises.
—Eisan · November 27th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
You don’t see men lighting Shabbos candles every week
You don’t?
—BZ · November 28th, 2008 at 5:20 am
pshita, that’s because his eyes are closed while he’s lighting. he doesn’t see any other men lighting either.
—Ruby K · November 28th, 2008 at 6:15 am
For women to adopt the role of men in Judaism is to say that their given role is inadequate. People consider the woman’s place in Judaism to be lesser because so many women treat it as such, not because it theologically is.
—Eisan · December 29th, 2008 at 11:52 pm
[...] we’re ecumenical folks around here, and since Tefillin Barbie is such an old friend of [...]
—Just In Time For Easter | Jewschool · April 1st, 2010 at 8:07 pm