Global Hallel has been the answer to women’s prayers

OVER THE last few years, the Global Women’s Hallel has been working on a series of initiatives with Edgware United shul to help women and girls feel more engaged with tefillah. This began with a monthly women-only Kabbalat Shabbat in March 2018 with 80 attending. Our Zoom Women’s Hallel was launched in 2019 during the first Covid lockdown at a time when shuls were closed and communal praying halted, a challenging period for the many across the Jewish community for whom shul is at the heart.

In the Jewish tradition, there are two ways to pray — individually or as part of a community. This is reflected in the silent Amidah, followed by the repetition, including kedushah, where we come together to daven as a community. We created the online Women’s Hallel to allow women to continue to pray as a community during the pandemic.

It started locally in Edgware but soon became UK-wide and then international, with over 100 people from around the world coming together in tefillah every month. We created virtual break-out rooms so that women could talk to those they had been davening with and get to know more about their lives and the communities they came from.

This international davening was possible because of the shared text of Hallel through the centuries, meaning that people across the globe share the same Psalms. Women from different parts of the world brought their own traditional tunes, sung to the same universal, unchanging text.

But online tefillah can never replace the experience of being in shul. The worst of the pandemic is thankfully behind us and we have returned to davening together in physical spaces. So why is it that so many around the globe still join to sing Hallel online each month?

For many, the Global Women’s Hallel has enhanced their shul experience. For example, it has given women the safe space to develop their skills and gain confidence, enabling them to participate in services at their synagogues. The support, guidance and advice from the community has allowed them to believe in their ability to lead davening, whether on Zoom or at an in-person Kabbalat Shabbat.

For women living in rural communities where there are no shuls, the Hallel has allowed them to find a connection to their Judaism that they don’t want to let go of. To quote one participant — “to be able to sing a part in the women’s Global Hallel with other women across the world has enabled me to feel an incredible connection with them. And one that wouldn’t have been otherwise possible, being fairly new to exploring my Jewish identity and living as I do away from a Jewish community. It is a beautiful and enriching experience each month.”

While davening Hallel together is the key focus of the Global Women’s Hallel, we’ve also introduced other initiatives, enabling women to share significant moments in the Jewish calendar. For example, for the past two years we have asked them to send photos of their menorah lighting on a specified night of Chanukah. This has resulted in a huge array of photos from multiple time zones, starting with New Zealand and Australia, moving on to Israel, then Europe, ending up in America and Canada.

Through the Global Women’s Hallel, we’ve brought together generations of women — our youngest participant was seven, our oldest 94. Sisters, parents and daughters and grandmothers and granddaughters have duetted.

We are proud of the community we’ve created, the lives touched, and, above all, the opportunities that we have given women to feel more connected to tefillah. I look forward to it continuing for many years to come.