Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equity Presentatioin - “Learning from the Struggle of Others”

“Learning from the Struggle of Others”

Devorah Zlochower
Rosh Beit Midrash, Drisha Institute

Opening Remarks

Good morning. It is an honor to be here with you.

When Daisy Khan called me a few months ago and described this conference and its aims to me, the parallels to my own life experiences were striking. Granted we talked of Islamic law, of training muftias, but aside from differences in religious language the problems and proposed solutions were very, very familiar. I have been engaged for the last decade and a half in a very similar enterprise in the traditional Jewish community where we have fought for a woman’s right to study Jewish law and argued where and how to exercise religious authority. And the struggle is far from over.

I am reminded of the closing scene in the movie Yentl in which Yentl, a Jewish woman in her 20’s disguises herself as a man in order to enter a yeshiva where she could study Talmud and Jewish law to her heart’s content. Yentl is ultimately found out, and in Barbra Streisand’s retelling of this Isaac Bashevis Singer tale which is incidentally a much darker story, Yentl is standing at the bow of a ship sailing to America and where, we are presumably to believe, she is finally able to live as she wishes.

Well, it took Yentl a very long time to find a women’s yeshiva. Drisha Institute, where I studied and have been teaching Talmud and Jewish law, opened in 1979, and it is only in the past decade or so that women have been able to claim their right to study the same texts as their male counterparts.

I have been fortunate to have been born at a time where these opportunities have become possible for young Jewish women who yearn for the same learning as their brothers. And I am just old enough to have experienced the struggle it took to achieve this goal. Much has been accomplished, all the texts of the Jewish tradition have been opened to Jewish women and girls and we are never going back. But the question of how this knowledge is to be utilized and whether knowledge can be transformed into real power and authority is as yet unanswered in the Orthodox community. While my Reform, Reconstructionist and Conservative sisters can receive ordination as rabbis this is not yet the case in Orthodoxy.

And we too have answered the question of power, at least initially, by bypassing the pulpit and not fighting for ordination. When I was asked a decade and a half ago what I wanted, what my ultimate plans were, I answered that I wanted to be a Rosh Yeshiva, not a rabbi. A Rosh Yeshiva, literally the head of a yeshiva, exists outside of the lay community for the most part. It many ways it is akin to an academic dean but with a greater spiritual role. A pulpit rabbi, on the other hand, is a leader in the lay community. A rabbi is expected to preside over life cycle events, to give pastoral guidance to congregants and often presides over prayers although a rabbi is not required to lead prayers.

But this answer which worked for me for a long time ignores the basic power dynamics of my community. Because every aspect of life is governed by religious law, as it is in Muslim society, male religious leaders have a great deal of power. We have not yet made that leap from knowledge to power although nascent steps have been taken. My position at Drisha is a new one. I am Rosh Beit Midrash, a title which I basically coined to carry connotations of religious learning and leadership without using the term rabbi. One of my colleagues is the spiritual leader of a synagogue on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and one of my students is on the religious staff of an Orthodox synagogue. Neither of them holds the title of rabbi but they certainly act as rabbis. The day approaches where we will have to ask ourselves do we remain satisfied with that which we have achieved or do we press on. And, I believe, pressing on will involve fighting for the right to call ourselves rabbis.

I wish you great success in your struggle.

Thank you.