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RavBlog Menu About About Ravblog Policies and Guidelines The CCAR About Mission History Board CCAR Staff CCAR Press Categories News Books Ethics Israel Reform Judaism Prayer Statements Technology Search Search for: About Show sub menu About Ravblog Policies and Guidelines The CCAR Show sub menu About Mission History Board CCAR Staff CCAR Press Categories Show sub menu News Books Ethics Israel Reform Judaism Prayer Statements Technology Categories Books CCAR Press Passover Reclaiming a Place for Women at the Seder Table Post author By Rabbi Dalia Marx, PhD Post date April 17, 2024 No Comments on Reclaiming a Place for Women at the Seder Table Rabbi Dalia Marx, PhD, is the author of From Time to Time: Journeys in the Jewish Calendar , now available from CCAR Press. In this excerpt, she discusses the importance of acknowledging the crucial role that women play in the Passover story and elsewhere in Jewish tradition. Many women sense that elements of Jewish tradition leave them mute and unrepresented. We cannot deny the exclusion of women from the public realm over the course of far too many generations, but if we take a close look at the events that form the basis of the Passover holiday, we will find that strong, active, and optimistic women occupy a central place in the narrative. This is an important precedent for women in our time who are looking for their place in Jewish tradition. The story of the redemption from Egypt began and was made possible by dint of the actions of dedicated women who refused to give in to despair. The Hebrew women refused to knuckle under to Pharaoh’s murderous order and continued to bring life into this world. Jochebed, Moses’s mother, is one of them; she gave birth and protected her son from Pharaoh’s decree. Her daughter, Miriam, hid the newborn in a basket of reeds and set him floating on the Nile. The midwives who attended Jochebed also chose the path of rebellion and showed mercy to the Hebrew babies. Who were those midwives? Pharaoh called them the Hebrew midwives” (Exodus 1:15). It is possible to read this and understand they are Hebrew midwives,” but it is also possible to read the phrase as the midwives of the Hebrews,” meaning that they themselves were not Hebrews but bravely cooperated with the women of the enslaved nation to keep the newborn boys alive. Pharaoh’s daughter herself refused to take part in her father’s murderous plans. When she saw the helpless baby brought to her by the Nile, her human compassion overruled her social and class attachments. A midrash calls Pharaoh’s daughter Bityah” (see Babylonian Talmud, M’gillah 13a), and she has been regarded by the Jewish tradition as a righteous woman and even a Jew-by-choice. Miriam then ensured that Jochebed, her mother, would be the one to nurse Moses in Pharaoh’s house, so that he would imbibe—both literally and figuratively—his first human experiences in the arms of the people Israel. Reading Jewish sources with a fresh eye makes it possible for women to demand their rightful place. This is not a mere act of intellectual sophistication, nor is it bending the texts to one’s own will. Just the act of reading the sources anew is liberating. It gives expression to multiple pure voices that have been suppressed and silenced—and after all, liberation is one of the central themes of Passover. Many people are now attempting not only to make the place of women equal to that of men at the seder table, but also to find special ways to highlight their function and role in the story of the nation and the family. Rabbi Dalia Marx, PhD, is the Rabbi Aaron D. Panken Professor of Liturgy at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) in Jerusalem. She is the chief editor of T’filat HaAdam , the Israeli Reform prayer book (MaRaM, 2020). From Time to Time: Journeys in the Jewish Calendar was first published in Israel in 2018 as Bazman and has been translated into German, Spanish, and now English. Tags Books , CCAR Press , Feminism , holidays , Jewish Holidays , Passover Categories CCAR Press Rabbinic Careers Helping Shine the Inner Light: A Rabbi as Editor Post author By Rabbi Annie Villarreal-Belford Post date April 15, 2024 No Comments on Helping Shine the Inner Light: A Rabbi as Editor CCAR Press Editor Rabbi Annie Villarreal-Belford discusses bringing a rabbinic touch to the work of guiding authors and their books through the publication process . When I left the congregational rabbinate after eighteen years and started working for CCAR Press as their new editor, I had no idea what to expect. It is true that I worked for the URJ Press for two years as an intern while in rabbinical school, but my entire working life since ordination consisted of serving congregations. Being a rabbi, for many of us and definitely for me, was never just a job—it was holy service, it was my identity, it was my soul’s calling. What kind of rabbi would I be now? We all have a different understanding of what it means to be a rabbi: a teacher, a leader, a guide, a counselor, a sh’liach tzibur (prayer leader), a manager. The list stretches on, and while I spent a great many hours in all of these roles, I have always believed that being a rabbi means recognizing and affirming others’ inner lights, and helping them shine those lights into the world. I worried that even though I was ready to leave congregational work I would no longer be able to do that work of seeing and uplifting inner light. In the past two years as editor at CCAR Press, I learned how pointless that worrying was. As an editor, I am extremely privileged to read and work with our authors, phenomenal colleagues who already have a strong sense of their inner light. Sometimes, though, it is hard to translate that sense into words on paper, and this is where I can lean into my sense of what it means to be a rabbi. I try to find the essential voice that flows through the books I edit and clarify, refine, and shine a light on it. I am an editor, yes. And I am also serving as rabbi to the text and its author—recognizing and affirming the author’s inner light as revealed through their words, and helping them shine their lights even more clearly and brightly into the world. When I left the congregational rabbinate after eighteen years and started working as an editor, I didn’t know that I would still be serving as a rabbi, albeit in a novel (no pun intended) way. Rabbi Annie Villarreal-Belford is the editor at CCAR Press. She is a contributor to Inscribed: Encounters with the Ten Commandments (CCAR Press, 2020). Tags Books , CCAR Press , Editor , Jewish books , rabbinic careers Categories Israel Rabbinic Reflections Rabbi Oded Mazor: Israel, on The Day After (היום שאחרי) Post author By Rabbi Oded Mazor Post date April 4, 2024 1 Comment on Rabbi Oded Mazor: Israel, on The Day After (היום שאחרי) Rabbi Oded Mazor is a Reform rabbi living in Jerusalem, where he leads Kehilat Kol Haneshama. During CCAR’s annual rabbinic Convention—held this March 2024 in Philadelphia—he was asked to address an audience of his rabbinic peers and reflect upon life in Israel during the war, specifically the day after the war ends. Below are his powerful reflections. We were asked to talk about the day after.” In the last few days, two quotes from the תפילה ( t’filah , prayer) passed before my eyes, bringing two different feelings that many of us feel these days, about the present and about the future. On Shabbat, the words that struck me the most were not easy ones. Do you remember the words ואל תטשנו יי אלוהינו לנצח ( Al titshenu Adonai Eloheinu l’netzach )? i How should we translate these words? What does the word לנצח ( la’netzach, forever) refer to in this phrase? Does it mean, God, don’t ever forsake us?” Or does it mean, God, don’t forsake us forever?” It’s not the same thing. I’m going to refer to a few people in my congregation, Kol HaNeshama in Jerusalem. The first, her name...