The Rituals We Pass Down – What my mother gave me—and what I’m giving my daughter

The Rituals We Pass Down – What my mother gave me—and what I’m giving my daughter

This story was originally published by the Jewish Women’s Archive, and is repurposed here with permission. My mother is modern in her love but ancient in her rituals. When I got my first period, she slapped me across the face.Perhaps for her the slap symbolized the wild thrust out of girlhood. Perhaps it was to remind me that being a woman means being punished, with pregnancy and pain and the push-pull of caretaking and the mental load. I hadn’t…