Womanly Things:
Modesty is important, and from an early age, young girls wear long sleeves and below the knee skirts. When an orthodox woman marries, she cuts off her hair and continues to wear it almost buzzed. She wears what’s called a scheidel, which means wig. It’s amazing how elaborate they can be. The good ones are made of human hair and cost a mini-fortune. I’ve never quite understood this one… in the Muslim faith a woman covers herself for the outside world, yet is beautiful for her husband, and here it’s reversed. Also, in schul (synagog) there’s usually some kind of curtain or latticework that separates the men from the women.
The Mikvah
A mikvah is a ritual bath/place where a woman goes to cleanse herself - renew herself spiritually - 7 days after her period. It’s looked at as the renewal of life and conncection with God. Like being born again and ready to conceive. If you ever drive past a mikvah you can see that there’s always a drum or cistern attached to the building which is designed to catch rain water, and at least some percentage of the water is supposed to be natural source. The mikvah is supposed to be performed at night, a woman goes in wearing no make-up, jewelry, or anything that might interfere with the water completely engulfing her. She’s not supposed to have sex until after the mikvah. A husband is technically not supposed to travel the day/night of her mikvah, or, she’s supposed to wait till he returns.
While a woman is having her period, she is considered impure.. That’s one of the reasons a Rabbi, observant man, won’t shake hands with a woman. Some (most?) observant couples have two beds in the bedroom for this occasion. Of course, when you do the math, the acceptable time to have sex falls right smack at the time a woman becomes most fertile.
(Admittedly, some of these things are disturbing to non-observant and non-jewish women...)