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Video: The Feminine Mystique

The women make up the Secret Service Division of the Army of Hashem. Rochel Holzkenner uses the concept of the mirrors that the women brought for the Beis Hamikdash as the feminine modality: materialism with spiritual potential.

She discusses masculine and feminine spiritual forces, emphasizing, for example, that motherhood is the drawing out of the latent potential in the child. She shares stories, words of the Rebbe and pesukim in the Chumash to elucidate the physical and spiritual roles of women.

Rochel  Holzkenner is the co-director of Chabad of Las Olas with her husband Rabbi Sholom Holzkenner. Rochel teaches in the Rohr Bais Chaya High School and the Chaya Aydel Seminary. Rochel is an affiliate of the Rosh Chodesh Society, a division of the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute.  She holds an MS in Brain Research Education from Nova SE University.

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18 Comments

  • Pedant

    The secret of pronouncing the word “women”:
    pronounce it as: wimmin.

    The pronunciation “wummen” refers to only one woman.

    Please tell your friends.

    Really amazing idea and talk and otherwise.

    • Educated Pedant

      “Of” denotes “from” so you should have written “the secret to pronouncing…”

      Your second sentence is also gramatically inferior; “refers to only…” should read “refers only to…”

      Sentence number three is alright but if you tell your friends to use “wummen” in the singular you may wind up having “wimmin” with less than a Beis Rivkah education saying things like, “This woomin don’t feel like dooing nuthing,” which would sound funny coming from a presumably chasidishe lady.

      Lastly, never start a sentence with an adverb unless it helps develop a thought. Using “really” to emphasize “amazing” is really stupid, especially since neither word supports what you’re praising, but you don’t need a Beis Rivkah education to know that.

  • Mavin

    To # 1

    And the fact that someone who holds an MS in brain research would be unaware of such a basic distinction is pretty incredible, to put it mildly.

  • Hard to watch

    This is painful to watch. She’s not just uncomfortable speaking but also incoherent. It’s just one idea after another with no direction.

  • not sure

    To number 5: when or if you would get up to speak let see if you could do better, she spoke from the heart. well done keep speaking Rochel Holzkenner you left a good impression.

    • Really?

      How does speaking “from the heart” make someone worthy of your time and attention? Fact is, my time is valuable and if I’m going to spend an hour listening to a shiur it had better be intelligently presented and make sense. Ms. Holzkenner’s talk was poorly presented and her material disjointed at best. Just because she holds an MS doesn’t make her have anything useful to say. There are plenty of people with letters after their names that aren’t worth listening to.

  • Pedant

    The talk was great! I really apologize for coming off negative (and grammatically inferior). In truth, I was not just coming off negative. I was being very negative to a woman who is clearly doing great things and making a difference in this world.

    How tiny is a mispronunciation compared to that? Very, very small. As small as my decency.

    Mrs. Holzkenner, if you read these posts, I hope that you would forgive my totally inappropriate comment.

  • woah

    you guys are so rude!!! seriously not appropriate AT ALL. thought what she said was amazing!! and i thnk that crown heights.info should scan what people say this isnt a website to bash people.. im disgusted.

    • lm

      no ones bashing her, they’re criticizing her speaking ability and professionalism since she talks in circles and makes almost no sense.

  • P L

    GREAT, GREAT LECTURE.

    YOU REALLY DID YOUR HOMEWORK.

    DON’T LISTEN TO ALL THE NEGATIVE COMMENTS.

    MAY YOU GO FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH!

    P L

  • To #10

    You’re messed up. Get a life. Hay lets write disgusting things to each other!! Just like people are writing disgusting this to her, so can we! This is the PERFECT PLACE for us to spread hateful things!! Kk your a sick pig. Now it’s your turn!

  • To #10

    OOOH just realized I said your instead f you’re. Hope no one writes a mean comment about that.. Wow I must have went to basis Rivkah if I made that mistake

  • Anonymous

    Mrs holtskiner!! You are the best.. You did a great job ..
    I can’t believe how people can talk that bad about such a nice and sweet rebetzin!! She did what she had to do and she did great!!!!

    Goooo Mrs holtskinerrrrrrr!!!!

  • To #10 & the rest of the insensitive "people"

    Next time you have a problem with the way someone sounds or speaks (not that it should make u so upset to write a comment about it-childish) maybe set up a meeting with him or her & tell them to their face instead of telling it to to world & making it a lot worse.

  • cas girl

    Mrs. H is a wonderful speaker I have learned so much in her classes and we all had the great privalige of having her as a teacher,so thank you for being a part of mine and so many others lives .all the best

  • lm #10 again

    To all who are blindly praising this lecture: Please do explain what made it so wonderful. If you can’t, at least ask yourself this: “Would I be defending the speaker if she wasn’t someone I knew.”

    Yeah, I didn’t think so.