Eshet Chayil, Celebrating Women and Girls

About Eshet Chayil, Celebrating Women and Girls

Every Friday evening, before the Shabbat meal, many Jews around the world recite a poem to honor Jewish women, often referred to as Eshet Chayil, or Women of Valor.  The poem is still relevant today due to its feminist meaning; it suggests that women should be valued not for mere physical beauty but for their compassion, generosity, intellect, creativity, commitment, integrity, hard work, and dignity. The poem is found in Proverbs (Mishlei) 31:10-31, believed to have been written by King Solomon.

I have often contemplated the meaning of Eshet Chayil for women today. Some women featured here are valorous as spiritual beings, blessing Shabbat candles or reciting the Shem’ah.  Other Eshet Chayils, though, are not captured in valorous acts of doing.  Many are simply being; they are standing, sitting, reclining, dancing, or flying around in a place of beauty, rapt in yearning, awe, joy, or contemplation.  Yet other Eshet Chayil are engaged in gender non-traditional activities such as carrying a Torah (still unaccepted in many orthodox circles)blowing a shofar, or fiddling on a roof.  To me, an Eshet Chayil is a woman who expresses valor in unexpected places, exhibiting and redefining the limitless ways in which women can be powerful and dignified.

Glossary of Hebrew/Yiddish Terms