Shavuot begins. Heres a Jewish feminist take, with the link to the full text so you can read more. [The Jewish festival of] Shavuot is celebrated with an all-night study session, a _tikkun leil Shavuot_, at which traditional texts are studied. The biblical text associated with Shavuot is the Book of Ruth, a pastoral romance that uniquely represents the collaborative and redemptive friendship of women. Today Jewish women write themselves back into history and engage in a dialogue with Jewish texts. Women have for years learned what the men heard at Sinai. Now we have the opportunity to reclaim our relationship to Torah and to hear the revelation for ourselves. As Jewish feminist theologian Judith Plaskow writes in her book _Standing Again at Sinai_, Jewish feminists must reclaim Torah as our own. We must render visible the presence, experience, and deeds of women erased in traditional sources. We must tell the stories of womens encounters with God and capture the texture of their religious experience. We must expand the notion of Torah to encompass not just the five books of Moses and traditional Jewish learning, but womens words, teachings and actions hitherto unseen. (p.28) Our interpretations and reactions are necessary to make Judaism whole. Susan Sapiro, via RitualWell ritualwell.org/ritual/shavuot See also, in the first comment below, a blogpost by the wonderful Velveteen Rabbi with a link to her full essay at Zook. I will also post the link in a separate update.
Posted on: Tue, 03 Jun 2014 23:15:00 +0000
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