The following is an excerpt from Our Bodies Our Souls: A Jewish Perspective on Feminine Spirituality, by Rebbetzin Tziporah Heller. It discusses a running theme here, and also relates to Shavuos.
Many women who very much want to marry find themselves waiting a long time before they succeed in finding the right husband. While there are countless avenues through which such women can continue to develop themselves spiritually, during this time they often experience the feeling of existing in limbo and of lacking a framework for further growth. Yet while being alone can be a very painful state, to waste the pain in a choice not to move on translates singlehood into an unnecessary tragedy.
A single woman is in a unique position in that she can focus more strongly on developing and nurturing particular aspects of her spiritual self…the potential for self-development is tremendous.
Although all major Jewish figures in the Bible indeed married at some point, many narratives of the lives of biblical women do not relate directly to who they were in marriage but to their individuality in a broader sense…
Naomi experienced her time of most significant spiritual growth after she had been widowed…Instead of being embittered and angry at G-d, she looked within herself to see what she could learn from the course her life had taken, and the consequent spiritual growth she experienced was tremendous.
When you consider Ruth, who also discovered the deepest part of herself, not during her first marriage, but after she was widowed, you can trace how she developed the qualities of kindness, truth, and internality. Her personal development and ability to meet challenges are an inspiration to any woman, not only to one who is faced with difficulties.
These are lives that show us true womanhood.
