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women in judaism: modesty

This is from an email I sent to someone, that I don't think got through... it does represent some of the thoughts I have been having lately.
I also would welcome any comments
Please excuse any unclear phrasing; I am very busy right now.

email I wrote:

Hello,
Thank you for this opportunity to comment on the subject:

I am a woman who was brought up about as secular as possible, but am
now moving toward a more observant life, as I see the beauty of it and
find out more about it; this does give me more of a need for a
"cultural perspective" on things. While on a practical, subjective,
side of things I feel more self-respecting, and more like my true
self, when I dress more modestly--on the other hand, I was very
interested to research more the history of Jewish women from the more
distant past, to the times over the past few hundred years, and this
brought me to some conclusions that explain the strictness:

1) All women may have covered their hair when living in middle-eastern
countries, and so that was a "biblical" norm of modesty for the
surrounding culture as well.
2) When women were living in Eastern Europe over the past few hundred
years, and were in the shtetls and such places, the stability of the
Jewish community depended on not having conflicts with the surrounding
neighbors, and since--as in Native American cultures today on
reservations, for example--outside men would easily rape a Jewish
woman and not suffer the consequences of law, and Jewish men may not
have been able to fight back in any feasible way, since a conflict
would have put the community at risk as a whole: therefore, any act a
woman could do (i.e. especially stringent modesty, including covering
hair, and ankles, etc...) would definitely be of great worth to her
family and community!

I have come to a funny kind of understanding of Rabbinical law, that I
am not sure if what is quite held to be "Orthodox" but somehow I am
able to keep the two sides of things in my mind, in paradox, but
harmony: I feel like Rabbinical law could be objected to as not "being
required by G-d" in the sense that it has different interpretations,
and one person may argue with another as to details...but on the other
hand, when a community (especially such a large community as the
Jewish People) agrees to do things in one way, that agreement in and
of itself serves to strengthen any actions taken by any one or all of
the People. Why? It seems to me that since our job is to serve G-d as
best as possible in our role as an example and possibly light-bringers
to the world, unity must have strength. So in that case, any
"rebellion" unless for the sake of rebellion alone, does not serve
oneself or the whole.

All of this is not very well researched, or clearly thought out, but
it is the way I have been dealing with what, in modern society, can be
thought of as "superstition" or such.

Thank you again for listening.

Out of the mouth of...

This morning as I was driving to work, my daughter asked me: "Is it going to be Easter soon?

I thought, what to answer? I didn't want to say something negative, but I didn't want to confuse her after all we had been celebrating Easter two years ago, and hadn't talked about this particular holiday.
"Well, Easter is a holiday that people who go to Christian churches celebrate. Christian people believe that Jesus died and became alive again on Easter. They believe that he was not only a good teacher who taught them about God, but also that he was God. And we are Jewish, we believe that God is everywhere. Jewish people don't believe that a person can be God."
"Of course," she said, "There is one God, and God is everywhere. That would mean if God was a person that there was a split--that there were two parts. God could be two places if God was split, and then God would not be in some place but in two places. God is one, everywhere, so it can't be that way. (sorry if this is not word for word, hers was better!)

I was impressed. She turned 6 only this summer!

A short...

A small post at the end of a work day. We are very grateful that our two older children have found a place at a Jewish school...we will see how this goes, as school starts in a week!
Getting health insurance in place for the pregnancy--my but it is strange to be preggers again. That's an annoying word, but so there.
The Rabbi suggested going to the mikvah since we had been involved in Christianity for a couple of years. Before the high holidays... interesting idea. I am thinking about it.

Grateful Rant

So, I am in a grateful mood. Maybe because after my husband did a bunch of laundry and dishes on Monday, and then I folded and put away a bunch and remade all the kids beds I felt good about myself. Maybe because I have been praying and journaling daily and regularly and I feel more at peace. Maybe because I finally got our car repaired and its all clean and shiny (though they did charge me twice by accident and are still figuring that out)
...Or maybe its because we're expecting a baby! I always wanted four children. Thank you G-d for bringing another soul into our life. We're not telling anyone yet, although the belly's beginning to show. Maybe its because I'm so grateful that I have such a wonderful family. Thank you, Hash-m for that!!!!!

Okay, I will be on my way now.

May you all have a wonderful Shabbat and continuation of your weekend--and may you all be blessed to feel the gratefulness of the beauty of life surrounding and in you.