The girls’ freezer won’t work.
– While the boys are in the freezer they are getting satisfaction from fulfilling a, if not the, major part of their missions on earth, limud Torah. That the girls can sock money away (MAYBE) for their future husbands and do chessed in their free time will not be as satisfying unless it is a PERSONAL, individual choice between them, their parents, mentors, etc.
– I urge people to track down Jewish periodicals from the 80s, like the JO, Jewish Women’s Outlook,etc. when there was so much written about women’s lib and finding true fulfillment in home. We are now living in a post feminist world, where even the outside world understands the fulfillment that can come from the home. (The conflict surrounding this is called the Mommy Wars.) We are giving our girls so many conflicting messages. I said this once before, there was this commercial then for a woman’s perfume (Enjoli, for anyone with an equally misspent youth) with the message that women CAN have it all. It’s one thing for women to work because they have to in this economy, and there is no reason our girls shouldn’t work in fields they find satisfying on all scores. And for many, if not most girls, not getting married the second sem is over is not a bad idea. But please, let’s make sure it’s coming from the best of motivations, and that our kids aren’t getting raw deals. The longer OUR society will FORCE our girls to wait, they will get MORE into their professions and cynical. It’s happening. Older young women do NOT have to get cynical, they can grow and blossom, but in this climate they will.
Because you can go on and on about numbers, freezer, but these girls won’t feel anyone’s acting in THEIR best interests, and restoring the dignity of the bas Yisrael they’ve been taught about all these years. Not until we get the boys, their mothers, the girls’ mothers and the whole messed up system shaped up.
– How would we implement it? I wouldn’t take any kind of social engineering takanos seriously unless it had UNIVERSAL, ACROSS THE BOARD participation from ALL rabbanim. This is as serious a step as occasions in the navi when there were such draconian steps taken. Why doesn’t anyone see the long term effects of this besides the possible change in the demographics that’s the cornerstone of the New Age philosophy?