Jan 5, 2012

The Kiddush Crisis

Image: http://4.bp.blogspot.com
As I am sitting there in post-break-up state trying to keep my head above water and pass the time with serenity, my friends, whom I have a variety of, thank G-d, come to console their grieving friend.

As we are trying to chit chat about nothing too important, Friend 1 mentions the fact that she enjoyed making kiddush at her meal the night before.

Friend 2 asks if there were men at the table.
There were.

Friend 2 flips and starts screaming at Friend 1 that she is changing tradition, reforming Judaism, ignoring the rabbis, defying the spirit of the law, etc...

Friend 1 is shocked at the insults being hurled in her direction completely out of nowhere and tries to respond by saying she consulted with rabbis, she quotes the source from Mehabber in Orah Hayyim 271:2.


Friend 2 really couldn't care less about the rabbis and tells Friend 1 that she will never eat by her again and then, then comes the biggest threat aka the shidduch threat. "I had guys I would set you up with. Now I wouldn't set you up with anyone! You hear me???"

I try to calm them down. I ask Friend 1 to continue the conversation another time, and I ask Friend 2 to quiet the tiger within her. She screams at me: "If you support Friend 1, I am never going to eat by you either!"

I am sitting there not knowing what hit me. The last thing I want to be doing is being in the crossfire of the Kiddush crisis!

The reason I bring this all up is because I want to know how controversial it is for a woman to make Kiddush or Hamotzi in the presence of men. Is it appropriate? For you, would it be a deal breaker in shidduchim? 

I don't feel a burning need to make kiddush and hamotzi every single week, however, when I brought up the idea of potentially making kiddush or challah on occasion to see if the guy is flexible, he flipped on me. 
In case you were wondering, we never married each other.