Tomorrow we read the story of the Tower of Babel. In this story, the men wanted to build a tower so tall that it could reach the heavens and touch G-d. They wanted to make a name for themselves. They wanted to experience directly G-d or they wanted to become like G-d or they wanted to be G-d. G-d punished them by confusing their language, confounding their speech. The building of the tower and the city stopped and people were scattered all over the world. But they were men. Women build too. This week we celebrated Hadassah’s 100th anniversary with the dedication of their new hospital in Jerusalem. Many of my friends were in Israel for the opening. But unfortunately, we still have a problem, both here in the US and in Israel. Is it really possible that one presidential candidate spoke about binders of women? Is it really possible that at that same time, women were being arrested in Israel for disturbing the peace? Their crime–proclaiming the Sh’ma, the watchword of our faith, outloud with too much enthusiasm. What is it about women’s voices that scares men? How did we get to this point where only the very Orthodox control the Western Wall? When the Temple still stood, there was a men’s court, a woman’s court and even a court for the stranger among us. Women sang. Women danced. Women prayed. Women judged. Women taught. Now women can be arrested for singing or wearing a tallit or tefilin. This is nonsense and runs counter to the stories and halacha preserved in the Talmud. Those of us in the United States have an obligation to keep reminding Israel that there are a variety of opinions as to what constitutes acceptable, normative Judaism. We are women will not be silenced as we choose to worship how we want. We will not be intimated by the voices of a few men. We will continue to sing, to dance, to worship and to pray. This is not an issue just for me as a woman, or as a woman rabbi. It is not an issue just for me as a Reform Jew or a Conservative Jew or as a post-denominational Jew. It is an issue for all of us as Jews.
Perhaps as I learned in an email today, Yizhar Hess, Executive Director of the Masorti movement in Israel, put it well when he said: “In all honesty it must be said we have misunderstood our own history. The Kotel was never liberated, rather, it was handed over to the Ministry of Religion and to the Haredim who fully control the area. In a process of exclusion, this national symbol has been turned into an Orthodox synagogue. The women of Hadassah may be good enough to build hospitals but not good enough to pray and sing.”
Let me be perfectly clear, women are good enough to pray and sing, to be rabbis and cantors, to read Torah, to lay tefilin, to worship as Jews. The work of Hadassah to build hospitals and to save lives and the work of Women of the Wall must continue to be applauded and supported. Abraham Joshua Heschel had it right. “Prayercannotmendabrokenbridge,rebuildaruinedcityorbringwater to parched fields. Prayer can mend a broken heart, lift up a discouraged soul and strengthen a weakened will” My prayer this Shabbat is that we continue to build hospitals and we continue to sing and pray–however we see fit as women.