The Torah: A Women's Commentary

Wanting to write down while the memory is still fresh and the buzz in my heart still palpable how incredible it was to be in the presence of Tamara Cohn Eshkenazi tonight, at a faculty-hosted Havdallah. This woman, who stood before us draped in a shocking majenta scarf, and carried a demeanor of both grace and ferocity, took on the publication of a unique, brave and challenging compilation of the first exclusively female Chumash with full commentary on the Torah. I am convinced after meeting her tonight that the process of the compilation was one of careful, insightful deliberation, depth, and a spirit of genuine camaraderie amongst women writers, who were hungry to have their voices heard and to be held to a high standard of intellectual discourse in their work, as male torah scholars have enjoyed for centuries. She brought in the voices of women from absolutely every religious place on the spectrum, from Orthodox to transgender Reconstructionist, rather than politicize “ progressive feminism”  to speak to only a select few or to exclusively the Reform movement which published the book.

 

I am most struck by her description of how the process went-rather than an ego war, it was a creative joy for the women to work together, and literary criticism (which I sense there was plenty of) was treated as educational-I deeply hope to find that kind of challenge and support in my colleagues, and particularly my female colleagues throughout rabbinical school.  I am increasingly aware that the challenge is particularly steep for women when constructing our careers and reputations, and it can be too easy to fall into traps of claws, or saccharine as large groups of women are stereotyped into. On a personal level,  I am inspired by her use of poetry, to frame each parsha, which in itself can contain poetry, but can also (often) be problematic patriarchal narrative, and to introduce a way to take on the most challenging gender dichotomies, laws and polemics with poetic vision really speaks to me.

I am still very much crafting my vision of what kind of rabbi I hope to be..but the intuition in me now says that deeply creative, and textually grounded pastoral care will be my niche, and inspirations like Tamara who emphasize BOTH a profoundly intellectual and accessible read of Torah, and a welcome of creative voice into the telling of our narrative bring me to recommit to finding my own spiritual voice in this role. To intuition. And scholarly, spiritual female leadership.