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Bible

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Kasten Family

Be Fruitful and Recognize

Rachel Kasten

Despite being a Jewish educator, I have never felt a strong, personal connection to our sacred texts.

Topics: Motherhood, Bible

Naomi Harris Rosenblatt

Naomi Harris Rosenblatt has had a distinguished career in Washington, D.C. as a psychotherapist and Bible teacher. Born in Haifa, she lived in Palestine during the time of the British Mandate and witnessed first hand the birth of the State of Israel. After her marriage to Peter Rosenblatt, a Washington attorney, she moved to the United States, which has been her home ever since.

Voices of Jewish Poets Logo

Passover Poetry: Giving Miriam her song

Gail Reimer

In recent years, Miriam has become regular presence at the Passover table.  For some she is there in the form of Miriam’s cup, a ritual addition to the Passover Seder created by Jewish feminists. For others, she is invoked through Debbie Friedman’s joyous song, an occasion, at many seders, for women to sing and dance, continuing or reexperiencing the celebration of freedom, led by Miriam, upon crossing the Red Sea.   

Topics: Passover, Bible, Poetry
"The Songs of Joy," by James Jacques Joseph Tissot

Celebrating Miriam

Leah Berkenwald

Big sister. Song leader. Outspoken challenger. Prophet. In her many roles, Miriam is integral to the story of Exodus. Her legacy is complex, dynamic, and hopeful.

Topics: Passover, Bible
"The Songs of Joy," by James Jacques Joseph Tissot

Faith is packing your timbrel

Melissa Scholten-Gutierrez

Last Pesach, I heard a sermon given in which my friend and rabbi used the phrase “faith is packing your timbrel” and I got super fixated on this concept and have found it running through my head in difficult times, a sort of mantra to reflect upon.

Topics: Passover, Music, Bible
Voices of Jewish Poets Logo

Passover poetry: Re-telling the story of our own lives

Gail Reimer

National Poetry Month officially began yesterday. It is not altogether clear why the Academy of American Poets chose April as the month to celebrate poets and poetry.

Bernice W. Kliman, 1933 - 2011

She found that her feminism conflicted with the synagogue practice of denying women a place on the bimah. Only later did she [find] a sympathetic rabbi and a group of congregants who also believed in women’s equality.

Miriam and Aaron Complain Against Moses

They will spit: In the tradition of Miriam, Jewish women will continue to challenge the establishment

Susan Reimer-Torn

The ultra-orthodox establishment in Israel is reportedly losing sleep over women’s demands for equality.

Telling the whole Hanukkah story

Leah Berkenwald

Hanukkah isn't only a story about Judah Maccabee and the miracle of the oil.

Topics: Hanukkah, Bible

In a new light: Avivah Zornberg and the tale of Joseph

Susan Reimer-Torn

I have long seen myself as the dissident daughter of an orthodox father, a truant who broke her father’s heart by turning my back on his cherished orthodoxy and living a more experimental way of life. It is therefore a delicate matter, this fascination of mine with the Other Daughter – the good girl – the one whose father did not call out after her in censure, the one whose aptitude for learning was cultivated on her father’s knee, the one who no doubt offered both her parents much solace.

"The Songs of Joy," by James Jacques Joseph Tissot

The confrontational face of Miriam

Susan Reimer-Torn

When we are first introduced to Miriam in the Bible, the times are bleak. The Egyptian Pharaoh has decreed that all baby boys born to the Hebrew slaves be immediately put to death.

"The Songs of Joy," by James Jacques Joseph Tissot

Miriam and the Passover Story

Leah Berkenwald

I'm sure I'm not alone when I say that Passover is my favorite holiday.

Savina J. Teubal, 1926 - 2005

Savina reclaimed the stories of Sarah and Hagar through her writing, and through her life. Like Sarah, Savina went forth into new lands, without maps or mentors to guide her. Like Sarah and Hagar, Savina lived in a patriarchal world, challenging that world with her choices and her clarity about the work she was called to complete….

Tikva Frymer-Kensky, 1943 - 2006

As a scholar, Dr. Frymer-Kensky challenged her students to study deeply and obtain mastery of their subjects; any less was insufficient. In her writing, she modeled both rigor and relevance…. She wrote in order to bring us the ancient and to create a more just present.

Who Scribed Your Torah?

Elizabeth Imber

Every Shabbat, Jews all over the world go to synagogue, pray, kibbitz, and, of course, read from the Torah. And while there is plenty of debate among and within the Jewish movements about who wrote the words of the Pentateuch, there is no question that the words got on the parchment thanks to the master skill of the sofer.

Topics: Bible

A Year Later

Julie Seltzer

Last year, b’etzem hayom hazeh, on this self-same day, As It Is Written: Project 304,805 opened

Another important event in my life happened on this day as well: sixty-one years ago, on October 8th, 1949, my mother, z”l, was born.

While this convergence may seem a mere interesting coincidence, there is precedent in our tradition for the notion that related events occur on the same date

Topics: Bible

Women reading Torah: Empowerment in Photos

Leora Jackson

Earlier this week, a post on The Sisterhood blog (with whom JWA regularly cross-posts) publicized a call from Women of the Wall for photographs of women with Torahs as part of a solidarity movement with WOW, who have been subject to harassment and arrest over the past several months in their attempts to hold egalitarian Rosh Chodesh services at Robinson’s Arch in Jerusalem.

American women mark death of British author Grace Aguilar

November 23, 1847

A group of Jewish women in Charleston, South Carolina deplored the death of British author Grace Aguilar as a "national calamity."

Israeli and American Jewish women read Torah at the Western Wall

December 1, 1988

Israeli and American women joined together and attempted to pray as a group at the Western Wall for the first time on December 1, 1988.

Anita Diamant Publishes "The Red Tent"

October 1, 1997

Anita Diamant's powerful first work of fiction, The Red Tent, was published on October 1, 1997.

Vashti: Bible

In the biblical Book of Esther, Vashti is wife of the king of Persia who refuses his request to appear before the royal guests at a banquet. Her episode introduces several themes that occur throughout the book, and she sets in motion the rest of story’s events when her refusal leads to her being deposed and replaced as queen by Esther.

Tamar: Midrash and Aggadah

The Tamar narrative in the Bible casts the characters in a human, and not very complimentary, light. The later Rabbis sharply criticize Judah and his sons, but they describe Tamar positively, despite the fact that she is a convert. Her actions during her relationship with Judah demonstrate her purity, and her behavior shows the proper way in which all future women should perform.

Tamar: Bible

Tamar, whose story is embedded in the ancestor narratives of Genesis, is the ancestress of much of the tribe of Judah and particularly the house of David. After Judah blames Tamar for the death of two of his sons and subjugates her so she is unable to remarry, she tricks him into freeing her from her limbo, illustrating both her loyalty and assertiveness.

Shiphrah: Bible

Shiphrah (more commonly spelled "Shifra") is one of the two named midwives who serve the Hebrew women in Egypt and who contravene Pharaoh’s order to kill at birth all Hebrew males.

Shiphrah: Midrash and Aggadah

Shiphrah was one of the two Hebrew midwives who delivered the children of the Israelites during the Egyptian servitude. She is mentioned only once in the Bible, but the Rabbis identify the midwives with various Biblical heroines, thereby transforming them from secondary characters to central, fully developed figures whose annals spread over additional chapters of the Torah.

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