Shelo Asani (Who Hasn't Made me)
As a kid in primary school, part of the prescribed morning services included a set of blessings in which we thanked God for the various gifts he bestowed up on us.
While we girls whispered quietly, our gratitude to the Lord for making us ‘according to His will’, the boys sang loudly and proudly, the following:
Blessed art thou, Lord our God, King of the universe, who has not made me a woman.
The message was subtle.
Thus began the internal war against my own faith.
I thought I’d share with you a series of work I created once.
It’s  called Shelo Asani, which means, Who Hasn’t Made Me, and the images are made up of the Hebrew words of some of these blessings.
I made these soon after becoming a new mother when I discovered the joys and challenges that came with giving birth and sustaining a newborn.
Carrying a baby to term and the years of raising small children made the blessing seem like the ultimate insult.
Making this one of Eve, laughing and stuffing her face with forbidden apples, made me laugh. Her mouth is made up of God’s name which we Jews are forbidden to write out in full. A part of me was waiting for God to clobber me as I burned the letters into the wood.
Thanking God for not making them slaves seemed like an ironic blessing for the men in my family to be reciting while taking on stricter and stricter rules as they were becoming Haredi.
I’d love to hear your comments/experiences with reciting these or any other prayers that triggered or shaped you.
Wow! There I was thinking it was weird to ‘pledge allegiance to the flag’ every morning when I went to school in America, but this is off the scale!!! 😳😳😳
Shelo asani isha. Yes, I too asked how this could be, it’s so blatant. A rabbi told me it was because men have more mitzvahs, and that’s considered a blessing… but I think he may have been gaslighting me 😂