Part B. My sermon
Good morning. What a great morning at CKI. Very often I joke during Pesuki D’zimra that it is the men and Margaret. Last week I switched sides because all the men were on one side and all the women were on the other side. But look at us today!
What we are doing this morning at CKI is not really new. We have had mixed seating since Walter and Adeline Kohlhagen integrated the seating back in the 50s. The way I got the story, when they moved from Connecticut so Walter could be the head engineer at the Elgin Watch Factory, he didn’t want to join CKI if he couldn’t sit with his wife. Adeline said, “Come sit with me in the women’s section” and that ended the separation. Simon called her CKI’s own Rosa Parks. We’ve had women reading from the Torah since Blossom Wohl had the first aliyah—we think that was 1960. (Heads from old timers nodding)
We stand on the shoulders of women like Blossom and Adeline.
For me, this service is personal. I did have a Bat Mitzvah. It was a Friday night and in the Reform Movement we read Torah on Friday night. I loved reading Torah. Being close to those ancient words. Between my Bat Mitzvah and my Confirmation, we changed from the old Union Prayer Book to Gates of Prayer—and with it came my first introduction to non-gendered language for G-d as we were encouraged by the rabbi to write our own prayers. In college I was active in Hillel and was asked to read Torah for Jewish Women’s Week. Again it would be on a Friday night—and the more traditional members had never seen Torah read at night. They objected vehemently. The compromise was to read Torah from the scroll with the blessing for Torah study and not an aliyah blessing. I remember being hurt and angry. It didn’t feel like really reading. My introduction to Jewish feminism, small f, began. In college I spent junior year in Israel. After being violently attacked, I was told by a rabbi, a youth group advisor at the yeshiva I was studying at that it was G-d telling me I was a woman and couldn’t be a rabbi. I was crushed and confused.
In 1988, the year Simon and I were married, my college roommate who was living in Israel at the time, joined a small group of women for a prayer service on Rosh Hodesh at Chanukah at the Western Wall, the Kotel. They were rededicating themselves to women’s prayer. That service gave birth to the group, Women of the Wall which we are celebrating today.
Before 1967 and the liberation of the Western Wall by the paratroopers, women and men davenning at the Wall was never an issue. There are photographs and drawings of men and women standing together, shoulder to shoulder praying from the early 1800s through 1948. After the liberation of Jerusalem—there is a whole other sermon in that!—Jews began having organized religious services at the Wall under the auspices of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation. Currently Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz is the rabbi of the Kotel, appointed by the Prime Minister’s office.
For the last few years, there have been escalating tensions. That is not strong enough. When have been threatened, beaten, spit upon, eggs thrown at them and arrested. Why? For the simple pleasure of davenning as women. Some with tallitot or tefilin. With hope, with a Torah. Not just Reform Jews but Jewish women of all varieties. One of my Orthodox professors, Rivka Haut, z”l was one of the founders. Another professor, Rabbi Jo David, wife of our sofer, Neil Yerman, is coordinating today’s celebrations. Another good friend, Rabbi Susan Silverman, is an active participant there and many, many friends and colleagues have participated in Women of the Wall’s monthly services. I am a national speaker for them.
In May 2013 a Jerusalem judge overruled a 2003 Israeli Supreme Court ruling prohibiting women from wearing a tallit or carrying a Torah was wrong and that Women of the Wall gatherings should not be illegal. I thought things would get better. I was wrong.
Simon and I remember fondly davenning together at the Kotel in 1989 in the plaza itself.n January of 2016 the Israeli Cabinet approved a plan to designate a new space at the Kotel that would be available for egalitarian prayer. I was filled with hope. I was wrong.
Still no. In January of 2017, the Israeli Supreme court ruled that the government could not find “good cause” to prohibit women from reading from Torah. The images that followed were haunting, with women and a Torah scroll pushed to the ground by fellow Jews. In June the 2016 plan to provide additional space at the Kotel was scrapped although Robinson’s Arch was not deemed as access to the Wall.
So what is at stake here and why does it matter at CKI? First of all, the ultra-Orthodox rabbis have it wrong. While women are exempted from time bound mitzvot, from the days of the Talmud, they are not prohibited. If you want to “take on the mitzvah” of tallit or tefilin or blowing shofar or reading Torah. You can. Period. Recently when we participated in Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs World Wide Wrap, we were reminded that women have laid tefilin, a time bound mitzvah, all the way back to Michal, Saul’s daughter, as it is described in the Talmud (JT Eruvin 10:1, 26a). Rashi’s daughters put on tefilin. If you go to JTS it is a requirement, male or femaile. And yet, in 2010, Noa Raz was beaten at the Central Bus Station in Beer Sheva for doing precisely that.
Let me be clear, no woman should ever be beaten for davening. Period. Clearer—no woman should ever be beaten. Period. But to watch Jews do this to other Jews is haunting.
The images of women having chairs thrown at them, being thrown to the ground, arrested by Israeli police. Israelis arresting Israelis are disheartening. That’s not strong enough. Disgusting. Appalling. Scary. There are echoes, real echoes of Jews being rounded up and arrested in Germany. I wish I could say that it has ended. It has not. At yesterday’s celebration at the Western Wall of Women of the Wall’s 30th anniversary, again davenning was interrupted by thousands of ultra-Orthodox haredi, young men and women, bussed in to do precisely that. Yes, the reports claim 10,000 ultra-Orthodox women.
According to Fox News quoted Ha’aretz (Oh, the irony), “One man was arrested for attacking an officer while there were multiple injuries following the clashes. The Women’s group said on social media that two of their members had to get medical treatment. Reports claim the progressive women’s group was also opposed by over 10,000 ultra-Orthodox women on Friday morning, with one protesting girl telling Haaretz that religious schools bussed them to the holy site to make it harder for the progressive group to find space to pray.”
Why, what are the men, the rabbis, the ultra-orthodox men even the women, afraid of? Praying is not new for women.
There are a couple of issues here. In the Talmud, it explains that women, children and slaves are exempt from time-bound mitzvoth. That includes reciting the Sh’ma which happens at prescribed times. And the reading of Torah. Over time, what that meant was that the synagogue became the bastion of men. Remember, I joke that the early service is often the men and Margaret. Women didn’t count in the minyan, therefore. Women didn’t feel obligated to come. And often they didn’t feel especially welcome. It didn’t mean that they didn’t pray—it was just different. Then there is the argument that if they are not obligated, if they lead the davenning it doesn’t really count for someone who is obligated to make someone yotzei, fulfilled in their obligation.
Yet women are obligated to pray. According to Orh Samayach, an Orthodox yeshiva in Jerusalem, answering that very question:
“Most halachic authorities maintain that a woman is obligated to recite the morning (shacharit) and afternoon (min- chah) shmoneh esreh (silent amidah prayer) every day. If she has additional time she should recite the following, listed in order of priority: (Note that they are always said in the order printed in the siddur.)
- First verse of shema, together with baruch shem kevod malchuto l’olam va’ed.
- Emet veyatziv (the blessing after shema leading into shemoneh esreh)
- Baruch she’amar, ashrei, yishtabach Birkot hashachar (morning blessings starting from “ha’no-tain la’sechvi…” and ending with “hagomel chasadim tovim l’amo Yisrael”)
- Birkot haTorah (blessings on Torah study)
- The two blessings preceding shema
- The entire shema
- The entire p’sukei d’zimrah
A woman who has very minimal time because of child care or other obligations and can’t spare even the short time for shmoneh esreh, must nonetheless fulfill the obligation to offer some form of prayer every day. This prayer must include the following three elements: Praise to G-d followed by a personal request, and then words of thanks to G-d. Since birkot hashachar and birkot haTorah contain these elements, a woman in the above situation should therefore recite birkot hashachar and birkot haTorah.
The time limits for a woman are the same as for a man. So for example, the morning shmoneh esreh should ideally be prayed within the first third of the daylight hours, or at the very latest before midday.”
Sources: Halichos Bas Yisrael by Rabbi Yitzchok Yaakov Fuchs, ch. 2 https://ohr.edu/ask_db/ask_main.php/206/Q5/
So pray they do. And always have. Just as we have done at CKI.
Last night as part of my Taste of Shabbat on Facebook Live, I read a prayer written in Italy in 1786 by Giuseppe Coen for his new bride. This slim volume, translated by Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin as Out of the Depths I Call to You, A Book of Prayers for the Married Jewish Woman has prayers for lighting Shabbat candles, going to the mikveh, first 40 days of pregnancy, labor, delivery, nursing.
There are two other issues that come up. The first is the argument of Kol Isha, the voice of a woman. Did you know that a woman’s voice could be so alluring that it might turn a man on? This is part of the argument for not allowing a woman to be shliach tzibbur.
“At the heart of this issue is the Talmudic understanding (Berakhot 24a, Kiddushin 70b and Sotah 48a) of Shmuel’s statement, “Kol b’isha ervah,” the voice of a woman is ervah, as it is written (Song of Songs 2:14), “Sweet is your voice, comely your appearance.” The Talmud interprets kol b’isha ervah to mean that the voice of a woman is nakedness and therefore it is forbidden. The fear is that the voice of a woman will distract a man from his prayer or study.”
https://www.womenofthewall.org.il/kol-isha/
In Israel, depending on the political climate, that means that sometimes women can sing in IDF groups or can be heard on Israel Radio and sometimes they can’t.
Yet, women have been singing and praying all the way back to Biblical times. Miriam led the women in song and dance after the parting of the Red Sea. Hannah prayed. Deborah sang.
Lest you think that only Women of the Wall write articles encouraging a woman’s voice to be heard, JOFA, the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance also does. https://www.jofa.org/learning And at the modern Orthodox Lincoln Square synaoguge in New York, they have had a women’s minyan on Shabbat afternoon since the 1970s. Once I was privileged to read Torah there. This is pluralism at its best.
The last issue that gets misinterpreted is around whether a woman can touch a Torah. What if she is menstruating? How would you know? Even these issues have been resolved. And as someone who worked at a mikvah, a Jewish ritual bath, let me assure you, no impurities can be passed to the water of the mikvah or to the Torah. It is really a non issue in traditional halacha. It is hard for me to even stand here and do all this halachic justification that seems so obvious to me.
However, from time to time since this is a congregation that embraces diversity. That diversity includes religious observance. Elu v’elu, this and this are the words of the living G-d. And so from time to time I get real questions about whether we are counting women in a minyan. Yes. But if you have a practice that will only let you count men, I tell someone, I am sure there will be enough (I pray) that you will be yotzei. Some of my women colleagues, rabbis and ministers do not like that answer, but it works for me. Can a woman recite kaddish—yes. Can a woman stand next to a man at the cemetery and recite kaddish, still yes. Can a woman put on tefilin. Yes. Can a woman blow shofar. Yes.
Today, in celebration of Women of the Wall, Cantorial Leader Ilana Axel has just led us in a new setting of Kumi Ori. A promise of the prophet Isaiah written originally in feminine grammar. Was Isaiah speaking to the Israelites asking them to remain optimistic? Or to the Shechinah, the Divine Indwelling Presense of the Holy One, the feminine aspect of G-d? Or directly to the women, then and now, asking them to let their light shine? Maybe all of Women of the Wall’s questions. Let me assure you. That light, G-d’s light shines, equally, on all of us.
Today’s portion is called Pekudai, records. It is the record of all that was brought to build the miskan, the tabernacle. Those records include the fact that men and women brought gifts—gifts of their heart—to make the mishkan possible. They created the space that the Presence of the Holy One dwelled. That word though is important. In its verb form, we know it. G-d pekad et Sarah. G-d took note of Sarah. G-d remembered Sarah. We use that verb in the first paragraph of the Amidah when we add the matriarchs. Barukh atah Adonay, magen Avraham (u’foked Sarah)
So we will sing and dance and pray. Just as we have done at CKI. And maybe, just maybe G-d will take note and remember us and record us. All of us. And then, we will rise, all of us, and our light will shine!