Ta'anit 14 How Social Hierarchy Affects Prayer

So the community is undergoing a series of fasts because there has been no rain.  What are pregnant and nursing women to do?  The rabbis are unequivocal - women who are pregnant or nursing are not allowed to be stringent.  They are not permitted do participate in all of the fasts.  The rabbis argue about which fasts are most stringent, most difficult, etc.  They generally agree that women who are pregnant or nursing should not participate in the middle fasts of the series.

Part of me is so happy to see that our rabbis understood the special needs of pregnant and nursing women.  A more cynical part of me wonders whether this was about the needs of women or the needs of our collective children, the inheritors of Abraham's lot.  Women are far more valuable when we are caring for children - especially when we are pregnant, but also when we are nursing.  Perhaps I will remember that meeting the needs of children (ie. meeting the needs of their mothers) is what all people want, regardless of our gender or sex. 

In their discussion about "sounding an alarm", the rabbis compare different cries.  The shofar is compared with the trumpet.  But then the rabbis remind us about the call of the human voice when one is in distress.  Might the "alarm" be represented by people crying out - crying out in prayer?

This notion of prayer as a cry is very meaningful for me.  Having led the chant of Kol Nidre for many years, I understand the difference between a whisper and a mournful cry.  There are many ways that we can call out to G-d, that we can sound an alarm, that we can bring attention to our immediate concerns.  Prayer is so often an experience of rote recital.  Should we be thinking of prayer as an experience of sound?

Our rabbis wonder why the residents of Nineveh, a place that does not experience rain in the summer, would call out for rain.  Might this be an error?  I am curious why people would only pray for things that we can logically receive.  If I were living in the hot, dry climate of Nineveh, why wouldn't I pray for rain?  Even if my crops were not dependent on that rainfall, all of life is dependent on water.  I believe that I must be missing out on a basic premise regarding the prayer for rain.

Our daf ends with two more considerations.  The first attempts to understand why shops would be permitted to open their doors "a little bit" on Monday but perhaps more, or for longer, on Thursday.  Why might this be?  The rabbis do some fancy footwork to explain the types of shopping that might be required on those different days.  The second consideration looks to understand how people of different classes greet each other.  The rabbis note that people of 'importance' should not humiliate themselves - unless they are certain that their efforts will be rewarded.  The rabbis are careful to instruct each other against arrogance or pretentiousness.  However, they understand the importance of their role in the community.

This conversation about social class, access to prayer, and worthiness is much larger than I can tackle today.  The good news seems to be that our rabbis were concerned with these issues and they discussed the implications of different actions.  They recognized that the poor had needs just as they themselves had needs regarding leadership.  The bad news is that the rabbis seem to lean toward both creating and maintaining a social structure that is static.