Religious Liberties
Mishenichnas Adar marbin b'simcha. When Adar enters, we increase joy. -- Babylonian Talmud, Ta’anit 29a Despite the imperative to be joyous during the Hebrew month of Adar, I cried recently at the Kotel (Western Wall) during Rosh Chodesh services marking the new month. Thankfully, my tears were tears of joy and excitement. In fact, Adar will never be the same for me. I last worshipped with Women of the Wall at a Rosh Chodesh service in the summer of 1989, when the wife of one of my graduate school professors encouraged me to attend. That morning, I joined a group of... Read More
“My partner and I will soon pull out our passports, your honors, and exchange vows on foreign soil. Not your sick institutions and not the State which you are trying to take ownership of – neither will take away from this moment, that is also for us, secular Israelis, believe it or not, sacred. You will not decide on what pillars our home will be built, because we believe in strong, liberal, and egalitarian pillars that bring light into our home. And you? You are shades that have been pulled down, closed off rooms, representatives of the Stone Age who insist on imposing an old-fashioned... Read More
Kehillat Yuval in Gedera, Israel, founded seven years ago, is my spiritual home without walls. We don’t have a permanent building. We hold Kabbalat Shabbat services in the lobby of a school in the town that long ago became too small for us all. We usually hold b’nai mitzvah ceremonies at other Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism synagogues that open their doors to the community’s families. Recently when we tried to find a place for a group tefillin-laying ceremony, we realized that whatever happened, families would have to travel far from Gedera to participate, prompting us... Read More
Anat Hoffman is executive director of the Israel Religious Action Center, the legal and advocacy arm of the Reform Movement in Israel and co-founder and chair of Women of the Wall, which has been advocating for women’s rights at the Western Wall in Jerusalem since 1988. I caught up with Anat during one of her speaking tours in the U.S. How did you become such a fighter for social justice? My drive goes back to my childhood. When I was nine, a swimming team coach from Tel Aviv saw me performing a gymnastics routine at a Jerusalem community center and said, “Can you swim?” “Sure!” I said... Read More
“Aren’t you afraid of God?” a secular Israeli asked recently. “That God will strike you for your sins?” A fascinating query, since this man wasn’t religiously observant at all. Yet he was afraid of the Jewish God he’d been taught. He’d been misinformed. Fear of God isn’t mortal fear. It’s yirat Adonai, which means to be astoundingly in awe of God. A passage from Shabbat 31ab in the Talmud, a record of rabbinic teachings, affirms such awe as our highest aspiration. How could one be afraid of this God? Last week, as I joined with a contingent from Women of the Wall... Read More
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