Lost in prayer Photo

Photographer’s Note

Lezajsk. Jewish cemetery, close to "ohel" hosting Rabbi Elimelech's grave.

Men and women are traditionally separated in synagouge, house of prayers, ohel.
In result of limited space in female part, that, young, Hassid woman stayed outside, soon compeletely overwhelmed by her praying

TO CLAIREDELUNE who was asking about Hassid women and JASMIS who has some interest in extasy subject.. with warm thanks for your support in showing of this series.

"To understand the limited role of women in synagogue life, it is important to understand that women are not obligated to perform certain commandments, their observance of those commandments does not "count" for group purposes.

Thus, a woman's voluntary attendance at daily worship services does not count toward a minyan (the 10 people necessary to recite certain prayers), a woman's voluntary recitation of certain prayers does not count on behalf of the group (thus women cannot lead services), and a woman's voluntary reading from the Torah does not count towards the community's obligation to read from the Torah.

In addition, because women are not obligated to perform as many commandments as men are, women are regarded as less privileged. It is in this light that one must understand the man's prayer thanking G-d for "not making me a woman." The prayer does not indicate that it is bad to be a woman, but only that men are fortunate to be privileged to have more obligations. The corresponding women's prayer, thanking G-d for making me "according to his will," is not a statement of resignation to a lower status (hardly an appropriate sentiment for prayer!) On the contrary, this prayer should be understood as thanking G-d for giving women greater binah, for making women closer to G-d's idea of spiritual perfection, and for all the joys of being a woman generally."

www.Judaism 101

ninaL, jasmis, Clairedelune, pgorod, mortijo, MrCairo has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

faubry (32974) 2007-03-20 6:43

bonjour Agnieszka , great image with this woman compeletely overwhelmed by prayers, good choice bW, a little bit too noise/?
thanks for yout note
soon
francine

rajiv_077 (1355) 2007-03-20 7:29

Hi

What a great photo of this lovel moment, good framing, lights and B & W is looking good, That girl reading or prayer is so great.

cheers

rajiv

lasscor (7637) 2007-03-20 8:03

Hi Agnieszka,
Lovely B&W composition.
Lovely scene, lovely portrait, full of concentration and faith.
TFS,
Corinne

ninaL (19689) 2007-03-20 8:49

Witaj, Agnieszko.
Claire prosila Cie o kobiete ?
Tez chcialam Cie poprosic, a raczej zapytac, czy masz zdjecia kobiet stamtad...
Ladne zdjecie, i ladna kompozycja. Dobre opracowanie graficzne.
Dziwi mnie tylko odleglosc, z jakiej ta dziewczyna czyta-tak blisko oczu ma ten modlitewnik, jakby sobie nim chciala zaslonic twarz...a moze tak bylo ?
Pozdrawiam. Grazyna.

jasmis (52354) 2007-03-20 10:42

Wpędzasz mnie w kompleksy Agnieszko. Uchwyciłaś intymny moment w sposób niezwykle mocny i zdecydowany. Nie wiem czy bym tak potrafił... To duża sztuka.
Podziwiam i pozdrawiam.
PS. I dziękuję za dedykację...

marmur82 (0) 2007-03-20 12:50

"their observance of those commandments does not "count" for group purposes."
hmm,
A jakie sa group purposes??

BTW:Tak jest, ze judaizm to religia prawa,islam to podporzadkowanie sie Allahowi,a chrzescijanstwo to religia milosci.
Dzieki Bogu ze jestem chrzescijaninem....

Co do zdjecia,to jakosc wysmienita(wkoncu 5D)
ale POV mi sie nie podoba.Lepsze by bylo z profilu,zeby oczy byly widoczne,lub choc nos;),zeby emocje byly widoczne z tego zdjecia,ktorych tu moim zdaniem brak.

Pozdrowionka
mm..........

photosushi (382) 2007-03-30 18:10

Agnieszka
I should had take the time to go through your photos before . I'm just stunned with the quality of your work !
Thx for sharing !!!!!!!

Clairedelune (4885) 2007-04-01 12:50

It took me a while, isn't it? ;) I told you, I'm not especially what we can call an active TE member right now... :)
First, thank you for posting a photo of an Hassid woman in extasy in answer to my previous request.
If I limit myself on the photographic aspects, I can say that I especially like what you did with the photo, the way you have worked it out in PP. I really like the feel. The photo in itself shows us a unique and rarely seen moment. I don't know if she is kissing her book, in an act of praise for the Words that bring her into rapture, but I like how she seems completely involved in her act. I might have cropped a bit the right side to get rid of the empty space just at the right of the tree.
Though I can relate to the ecstatic feeling, I am not what you can call a religious person. In fact, I'm a bit allergic to religion. But, that is another story, isn't it? ;)
I can't help it, your quote of Judaism101 disturbs me a bit. I always find it difficult to have people (whoever they are) to try to categorize and to fit genders in specific boxes... (I had a hard time with the famous book about men and women coming from Mars and Venus!)
Thanks again Agnieszka.
Claire

Polonaise (5640) 2007-04-18 12:56

Inne...Chyba najbardziej intymne ze wszystkich...
Dwa zdjecia w jednym...
Jedno to zdjecie bez noty...
Pure, vusual satisfaction...Bo fotografia proby szlachetnej, delikatna sloncem co na ratunek pospieszylo...
Drugie - to zdjecie z nota przeczytana... Zawierucha w glowie, i powrot do czytania, i znowu do zdjecia...
A to juz nie fotografia...To temat teraz caly, i filozowia odwieczna, i chec do argumentu wzbiera, i znowu do zdjecia...
I cicho zamknac strone przyszlo...I pomyslec jeszcze raz o tym co tam stalo napisane Agnieszkowym slowem, w drodze do pracy, czekajac na swiatlach, w trafiku dzikim utkniety...
A tam ta extasa w rozmodleniu...posrod drzew, w Lezajsku...
-------------------

Zamierzam dalej kontynuowac...czy wolalabys po angielsku, dla swiata calego ???

RSK (34) 2007-05-19 14:25

Hi Agnieszka, you have certainly caught the emotion with this image,I have looked through your gallery on this site & you have posted some very touching & vibrant images,to my eyes you have a talent for capturing the moods of people in a special way.

Ron

Khattakphoto (678) 2009-03-13 23:56