{"id":52083,"date":"2019-03-26T00:35:40","date_gmt":"2019-03-25T22:35:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=52083"},"modified":"2022-10-17T17:39:03","modified_gmt":"2022-10-17T14:39:03","slug":"reclaiming-what-is-rightfully-mine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/reclaiming-what-is-rightfully-mine\/","title":{"rendered":"Reclaiming What Is Rightfully Mine"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[483,365,431,410],"acf":{"old_id":"52083","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":52026,"related_cahpter":"183","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"This Torah lives in my feelings, my thoughts, in my lived experience, in the fullness of my womanhood ","content":"

“Surely, this Instruction which I enjoin upon you this day is not too baffling for you, nor is it beyond reach. It is not in the heavens\u2026 Neither is it beyond the sea.. No, the thing is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to observe it” (30:11-14).<\/span><\/p>\n

I have always loved these verses because of their connection to the famous Talmudic passage “Tanur Shel Achnai,” (“Achnai’s Oven”) which affirms the authority of rabbinic human interpretation as essential to the continued relevance of Jewish life. It was precisely my love for the world of the Beit Midrash – the tension found in Talmudic debate and dialogue – that originally propelled me to become a rabbi.<\/span><\/p>\n

For virtually all of Jewish history, Judaism has not only been interpreted by men but has also been male-centric. As a female rabbi, it has been a challenge to venture into a rabbinic world that is all too commonly void of women\u2019s voice. At times, this cognitive dissonance has required a great degree of denial, and reinterpreting pieces of Torah and Talmud. While navigating this male-dominant Jewish domain, carving out my own sacred space, I have all too often bumped up against the larger non-Jewish realm, which is equally inhospitable to my full self. Although none of this is new, in the last few years I have experienced deeper alienation from my Jewish tradition.<\/span><\/p>\n

And then, I come to this chapter of Torah, a chapter that sets out a choice we each are given to turn and return to this \u201cthing\u201d \u2013 Torah \u00a0– a choice to live with an open heart. This Torah, this way of life, is not \u201ctoo puzzling\u201d nor \u201cbeyond reach.\u201d One does not need to be ordained (let alone from a particular denomination), nor does one need to have studied for a particular length of time. Nor is it only for the devout, those wedded to Jewish law. It is there for those who spend their days responding to emails, settling disputes on the playground, or driving a taxi; for those who spend their evenings unloading groceries, making dinner, and loading the dishwasher.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNeither is it beyond the sea\u201d speaks not just to those living in Israel. This Torah is to be interpreted throughout the world, across the multiple geographic places we find ourselves.<\/span><\/p>\n

This Torah, this living tradition, \u201cis very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart.\u201d It is here, in me, in my feelings, in my thoughts, in my lived experience. It lives in the fullness of my womanhood in every bit as legitimate a way as anyone else in the world alive today or who has ever lived.<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps when I internalize the Torah\u2019s words, when I truly experience it in my mouth and heart, am I able to unveil myself within my own tradition. Only then can I locate myself within my Judaism. Perhaps, only when I am able to unburden myself from millennia of the heaviness of male-centric exclusivity, can I find an opening in my heart to return and reclaim what is rightfully mine. <\/span><\/p>\n

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