On the morning before the first day of Passover, several of us gathered at Congregation Kneseth Israel to study something in depth. Those of us who are first born are supposed to fast the day before the seder in recognition that our lives were spared when the Angel of Death passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt. BUT, if we complete studying something, then we are obligated to celebrate and we cannot fast. A legal fiction? Yep, but a nice tradition and one that forces me to study something. Studying something, mastering it, making it my own is part of what I love about being a rabbi.

This year I chose as the topic, Zipporah. Truth be told I am not sure that in an hour session and my preparatory work I am really done with this topic.

Who was Zipporah? The wife of Moses, daughter of Jethro the Midianite priest (cohen). Or daughter of Reul as one of texts names him. The mother of Gershom and Eliezer. She circumcised Gershom on the road to freedom. She is identified as the Cushite woman. Her name means little bird.

She only appears in three Biblical texts: Exodus 2:18-20 where Moses meets Zipporah at the well. Always at a well. Exodus 4:26 where Zipporah circumcises Gershom thus preserving the covenant and maybe in Numbers 12:1 when Miriam complains about the Cushite woman. None of these texts are particularly easy. Zipporah seems to play a bit part. So why do we care?

We care because Zipporah becomes a role model for us today. Daughter of a Midianite priest, she was not an Israelite, perhaps if she is a Cushite, she is even African, black skinned. Yet she is the one responsible for passing down the covenant, by taking matters in to her own hands and circumcising her son.

When reading all of the midrashim (yes, I did that amount of pre-reading first, plus a modern midrashic novel, Zipporah Wife of Moses by Marek Halter), we learn that Miriam was struck by leprosy by speaking out against her brother. The rabbis talk about it as gossip because she is questioning whether Moses is fulfilling his husbandly duties. Ultimately Miriam is told essentially to mind her own business. How many times have we had people wonder in our community if someone is Jewish, or Jewish enough, or can be attending religious school. My advice, based on reading these texts? Mind your own business! Eventually it will sort itself out (and it is part of my job as mara d’atra, master of the place, to help people sort it out for themselves!)

Studying these texts on the morning before Pesach was thrilling. There were two men studying to be Catholic priests from Africa. There two women who are married to non-Jews that are raising their children as Jews. One is in a bi-racial marriage. They broke into four groups and really wrestled with the texts. Holy sparks flying. It stretched all of us. And that is precisely the point of Torah study. To stretch us. To become G-dwrestlers.

One modern day sermon I read in preparation was my Rabbi Stephen Kahn, “For Officiating at Intermarriages: The Voice of Zipporah”. He describes sitting in his office listening to a Bar Mitzvah parent trying to prepare with her son on the phone. None of her family will be participating in the service. They are not Jewish and she has not converted. As he said, “Yet again I am confronted with the reality that this woman, who is sharing in the most meaningful way in raising her son to become a Jewish adult, is not Jewish herself. She tells me that she and her husband sit hour upon hour studying with him at home learning a language she had never been exposed to as a child herself. Taking on the commitment of v’shinatam l’vanecha, of teaching our children.” She is a modern day Zipporah.

He goes on to explain that for seven years he had chosen not to participate in interfaith weddings. But in looking at Zipporah and watching his congregation, he is changing his mind. “According to the midrash (teaching story), the rabbis suggest that God was angry with Moses because he had not immediately circumcised his son. Therefore, God sought to kill him. The midrash claims that had it not been for Zipporah’s dedication to the mitzvah (commandment) of circumcision, Moses would have died and the Jewish people would never have been savedOn a very deep level this small editorial note on Moses’ journey from Midian back to Egypt is filled with a very powerful message. That his non-Hebrew wife fulfills the mitzvah of circumcision is no small matter. After all, it is traditionally a commandment upon the father of a Jewish child. Studying this text has inspired me to make both the emotional and intellectual transition in my life.”

For me, I believe that in certain cases performing an interfaith wedding makes sense. I am not sure my congregation is there yet. But as I write these words on Erev Easter I am aware that we will have Hebrew School tomorrow and that only half our children will show up. The other half, fully the other half will be celebrating another holiday at their grandparents’ homes. Interfaith marriage is here to stay. Perhaps it is better to say it has always been here. Rebecca, Rachel, Leah, Pharaoh’s Daughter, Zipporah. Non-Jewish women. All were instrumental in ensuring that the next generation were part of the covenant. The research in Boston shows that if we are welcoming to non-Jewish spouses, rather than pushing them away, they become involved, invested, engaged. Some convert. Some do not. Many are instrumental in passing down Judaism to their children. Just like Zipporah. For me that is the take-away from my in-depth study of Zipporah. I am glad I had the opportunity.