Vekaray Shmah BeYisroel

Is it just me? Or is something changing, right under our very noses?

Recently I noticed a new phenomenon. I remember learning the nusach for naming a baby girl as ending with the blessing:

Yigadla (T'torah) L'chupah Oo'lmaasim Tovim. Check your Siddurim, That's what you'll find.


They should raise her to (Torah), to the wedding and to good deeds. Torah was an optional part of the blessing , probably in accordance with the fact that in the past most girls hardly studied Torah.

Recenty, on several different occasions, in different Shul's, I've heard a new twist.

"Yigadla L'ben Torah, Lchupah Oo'lmaasim Tovim"

She should be raised to marry a Ben Torah, to Chupah and Massim Tovim.

Firstly, the grammar seems incorrect. Secondly, it seems to me as a corruption of the prayer. It took Chareidim forty to fifty years to come up with a Kina (lamentation) on Tisha Bov to recognize the holocaust. This was due to the fact that we're not supposed to modify the Nussach as handed down over the generations and after all, the Holocaust was already covered by the all the Tsuros in the Kinos and did not require any special mention. (Tell that to the people who lived through it).

And now, so cavalierly, the ages old nussach of naming a baby girl gets changed.

And finally, (and my wife would be proud of me if she knew I posted this), isn't this really insulting to all women?

A baby girl's purpose is to get married to a Ben Torah?

I guess that's nothing new in this day and age.