I grew up Orthodox as a young child and then Conservative in the years when Conservative was close to Orthodox. In my teens my parents joined the Reform Temple. I could not shake the idea that tallit and kippah were for men only.
I was once refused an aliyah to the Torah because I could not bring myself to put on a kippah and tallit.
It was only when I had an adult Bat Mitzvah at the Conservative synagogue at the age of 53 that I finally donned a kippah and tallit, given to me, by the way, by an Orthodox male Israeli for my Bat Mitzvah. Since then I always wear the kippah and tallit. I love the way the tallit envelopes me and the way the kippah completes me in making the transition from daily life to the sphere of prayer and focus on the spiritual.
I grew up Orthodox as a young child and then Conservative in the years when Conservative was close to Orthodox. In my teens my parents joined the Reform Temple. I could not shake the idea that tallit and kippah were for men only.
I was once refused an aliyah to the Torah because I could not bring myself to put on a kippah and tallit.
It was only when I had an adult Bat Mitzvah at the Conservative synagogue at the age of 53 that I finally donned a kippah and tallit, given to me, by the way, by an Orthodox male Israeli for my Bat Mitzvah. Since then I always wear the kippah and tallit. I love the way the tallit envelopes me and the way the kippah completes me in making the transition from daily life to the sphere of prayer and focus on the spiritual.