The Feminist Seder |
The Feminist Seder and Other Innovations
At
the beginning of the twenty-first century and in the light of the immense
progress women have made in attaining equality with men in so many fields of
endeavor such as the military, the economy and education it is not surprising
that American women are now making an effort to reach equality with men in their
religious life as well. This is particularly important for American Jewish women
because the proportion of American Jewish women who have a higher education and
who participate in the economy is so high. Thus, the 1990 Jewish Population
Survey revealed that 25% of all American Jewish women were then college
graduates although only 11% of all American women had that much education.
Therefore,
several responses to the male centered attitudes in Judaism have now been tried
by Jewish women. One of these is to reinterpret ritual so as to allow female
participation. This response tries to maintain tradition by accommodating the
Jewish legal code even as women become more and more involved in Jewish
practice. Three of the four principal American Jewish denominations have used
and are using this accommodation of women into the tradition and are therefore
called "modernist" in their response to women's needs. The "Torah
true" or orthodox Jewish community has so far made no such changes. In the
words of Rabbi Zevulun Charlop, dean of the Rabbi Israel Elchanan Theological
Seminary orthodox seminary, "Any Orthodox rabbi who ordains a woman is by
definition not orthodox."
This
attitude towards the ordination of women as rabbis is not only related to the
rejection of that role for women but
is also related to the view of orthodox Jews and fundamentalist Christians that
female higher education of any kind is not necessary.
Beginning
in 1971 a group of women appeared at the convention of the Jewish Conservative
movement and demanded full participation for women in Jewish life. By 1978
mixed seating and women leading the congregation in English readings were nearly
universal in Reform and Conservative congregations. In Reform congregations
women were also honored with calls to the Torah during the weekly reading (aliyoth)
and were also counted as a member of the ten person quorum demanded of Jews
in order to pray as a congregation. Reform synagogues also permitted women to
lead prayer services.
Women
in the Reform movement were also admitted to the rabbinical seminary at the end
of the 1960's, so that Sally Priesand became the first woman Rabbi in America
when she was ordained
by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1972. Since
then women have also been admitted to the Reconstructionist and Conservative
rabbinate.
Thus,
the conservative movement celebrated ten years of women as conservative rabbis
at the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1993 at a two day conference. Although
that conference celebrated the ascension of women to the rabbinical calling it
was not free of controversy, as two male rabbis voiced their regrets at the
departure of those who could not accept female rabbis on Halachic or legal
grounds.
Seminaries
of the Reform, Reconstructionist and Conservative movements also admit
women as cantors. This innovation is not only significant because it
places the musical aspects of Jewish worship services into the hands of women
but it is also significant because Jewish tradition holds that the cantor is the
Shaliach Zibbur or Messenger
of the Congregation. Accordingly, the cantor, also known as Baal
Tefilah or Master of Prayer represents the congregation before God and
pleads the congregation's case before Him. In view of the long tradition of
Jewish male centered religious dominance it is indeed a major change in practice
and opinion which has permitted this development.
One
consequence of the admission of women to the rabbinate has been the decline of
the traditional role of rabbi's wife, generally referred to as the rebbetzin.
Although no such official title exists in Judaism, the label rebbetzin
was for centuries attached to the wife of the rabbi and carried with it,
even in America, various expectations concerning her services to the
congregation. In sum, the rebbetzin is
an unpaid assistant rabbi who is expected to do a great many things without
receiving anything but social honor or prestige in return. Such an arrangement
was of course acceptable before the era of women's liberation. At the beginning
of the 21st century the rebbetzin
role is hardly supported by any women other than those married to orthodox
rabbis. In fact, several books and journal articles have been written since the
1980's denouncing the role of rebbetzin
despite the fact that a few of these women have become celebrities in their own
right, thus furnishing the proof that exceptions once more prove the rule.
The
effort to include women in the rabbinate and give them equality in other areas
of the Jewish tradition was initiated in the 1930's by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan.
Kaplan founded the Reconstructionist movement and the Society for the
Advancement of Judaism, in which women could be counted in the minyan
or quorum. In addition he introduced the Bat Mitzvah to the United States
when his own daughter became Bat Mitzvah in 1936. In the 1990's
Reconstructionists admitted gays and lesbians to Jewish rituals and to the
Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, a policy followed also by the Reform and
Conservative branches of Judaism. In addition, Reconstructionist women have
altered the traditional Jewish prayers and given God a feminist appearance.
Thus, Reconstructionist women include such prayers in the English language as
"yours are the cradling arms of life," and "the womb of our safe
deliverance." Reconstructionists, following Spinoza, also include
references to nature
in their prayers and rituals so as to defeat the male centered anthropomorphic
language found in the traditional prayer book. Nevertheless, Reconstructionists
have maintained the traditional prayers in the Hebrew language unaltered. An
example of the effort to relate Judaism to nature is the work of Rabbi Leah
Novick who functions in the San Francisco area. Involved in numerous community
action activities she also serves rural Jews who have no connection to the
mainstream Jewish establishment but who seek to connect Judaism to the
environment and to the land. This, she claims, permits rural Jews to establish a
"grass-roots" Jewish renewal movement.
There
is also a so-called "Post-modern" feminist movement among Jewish
women. This group of Jewish women seeks to create new rituals focused on women's
experience. Relying on such sources as the native American religion, witchcraft
and some Sephardic practices, post-modern feminists engage in the ritual of
burying the placenta, foreskin and umbilical chord of a new born child amidst
prayers which address God as "Queen of the Universe."
Other
women have organized a "feminist Seder." That ancient Passover
ceremony serves to recall the Exodus from Egypt during a festive meal surrounded
by readings from the Haggadah. The
Haggadah not only recounts the events
pertaining to the liberation of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery but also
includes numerous hymns of gratitude for that liberation together with
rabbinical admonitions, sayings, proverbs and stories. Hence the introduction of
a feminist Haggadah which includes a
list of "the ten plagues that men have brought against women." These
plagues include such hardships as men's failure to accept lesbians, the lack of
research concerning women's medical needs, the media image of women, the gender
wage gap, the feminization of poverty, threats to abortion rights, lack of
female role models and exclusion of women from history. The feminist Seder also
includes songs thanking God for Gloria Steinem and labels the Matza
or unleavened bread a metaphor for a "woman flat in the relief of
history."
In New York City there is a gay and lesbian synagogue whose female rabbi,
Sharon Kleinman,
is of the same persuasion. Called Beit Simchat Torah or House of Torah
Joy it is also labeled the Gay and Lesbian Synagogue of New York City and is
supported by 1200 members. This development has evidently angered some people so
much that Rabbi Kleinman has not only received a good deal of negative publicity
but also denunciations and death threats. Female rabbis, like Sharon Kleinman, are often anxious to change the world with particular reference to the position of women. They champion social justice causes and believe that their new status gives them a unique opportunity to bring about such changes. That is also true of women in the Protestant ministry, although female ministers are more likely than female rabbis to believe that they were "called" and that they were particularly chosen to "navigating life's passages with people." Shalom u’vracha.
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