“I tried to pray, but my mind kept wandering. Under all these brims and bows, what were people really thinking? There were few clues, only the fantasies I spun out. Did any of these women ever worry, as I did,… — Tova Mirvis Copy Share
“There are few aspects of my family not imbued with Jewishness; it is braided through every memory, part of nearly every conversation and every relationship. On every wall of this house, there is contemporary Israeli art. Books overflow onto every free surface - this is a house made not only of bricks but of books. On my parents' shelves, novels… — Tova Mirvis Copy Share
“Be good, said this teacher. be good, the community said. Be good, my name reminded me. But could the inside of your mind be made to conform as readily as your body could - your thoughts covered with the equivalent of a long skirt? I knew without needing to be told that an indispensable part of being good was a… — Tova Mirvis Copy Share
“Naomi remembered all the times she had decided to daven because she saw someone else with an open siddur, when she had made a bracha before eating because someone else did… She couldn't imagine how hard it was to do these things on your own. But at the same time, there must be a certain freedom that came with it.… — Tova Mirvis Copy Share
“If there was any sliver of meaning, any sense of God's presence, it lay in the feeling of being away from the rules, away… — Tova Mirvis Copy Share Image
“I wanted to be moved but it was a performance I'd seen too many times. Here is the part of the service where you sit. Here you stand. Here you bow. Here you proclaim unwavering belief. I stared into my prayer book, hoping my face gave nothing away, but just in case, I pulled the brim of my black silk… — Tova Mirvis Copy Share
“I tried to pray, but my mind kept wandering. Under all these brims and bows, what were people really thinking? There were few clues, only the fantasies I spun out. Did any of these women ever worry, as I did, that too much thinking might unravel their lives? You were supposed to believe that this way of life was the… — Tova Mirvis Copy Share
“As my daughter nursed, I ran my hands over her tiny legs and silken cheeks, marveling at the mystery of such a small creature, the fact that inside her head, a world was awakening. Looking at her blue-green eyes and fuzz-dusting of blond hair was like waiting for a picture to come more fully into focus. So far, little had… — Tova Mirvis Copy Share
“She remembered a story she had once heard: a woman had gossiped about her neighbors and later regretted what she said. She went to… — Tova Mirvis Copy Share Image
“When we were teenagers, we would imagine that when we had daughters of our own, we wouldn't be so strict. We would give them… — Tova Mirvis Copy Share Image
“People bustled around me, in a Manhattan hurry, but I stopped walking. I stared at my reflection. It was hard not to rip off… — Tova Mirvis Copy Share Image
“If someone like Batsheva wanted to be Orthodox, there was surely something to it. Not that she doubted it (or at least she didn't… — Tova Mirvis Copy Share Image
