Women Speak
Miriam’s Cup - A Ritual for Women/A Ritual for Us All
The Passover haggadah is one of the most widely dispersed and read of all Jewish texts. Ironically, the story leading up to the Exodus from slavery contains one of the most femalerich narratives in the Bible, yet the haggadah is devoid of a single female personality; Joheved, Miriam, Shifra, Puah, and Pharaoh’s daughter never appear in its pages.
To provide women with a place in the Passover ritual, many households have begun to place kos Miryam, Miriam’s cup, on the seder table beside the cup of Elijah. It is a reminder of the midrashic tale of Miriam’s well, a miraculous source of water in the desert. As a symbol of women’s presence at the exodus, the kos Miryam reflects a contemporary desire for the inclusion of all Jews at the seder.
Miriam’s cup is an evolving ritual. Some fill it at the beginning of the seder, others after the 10 plagues are read before dayyenu. Others use it in conjunction with Elijah’s cup at the end of the evening. It may be passed around for everyone to take a sip, or pour its contents into individual glasses. Whatever your preference, Miriam’s cup provides a thoughtful ritual to enhance your celebration.
For ideas on crafting your own kos Miryam, creating a women’s seder, and other seder enhancements, go to the Women’s League website, www.wlcj.org.
Not for Children Only - Around the World with the Four Questions
Two new publications provide an international flavor to one of the seder’s most time-honored traditions.
Ilana Kurshan’s lovely Why Is This Night Different From All Other Nights (Schocken Books) translates the four questions into 23 languages and offers histories of the Jewish communities in each of the countries in which these languages are spoken.
300 Ways to Ask The Four Questions: From Zulu to Abkhaz, by Murray Spiegel and Rickey Stein, has images and drawings from 120 countries and includes parodies in Morse Code and Valley Girl-speak. Masorti Olami will receive a contribution for each book bought. For information, go to www.whyisthisnight.com.
This Month in History: March 1972
A Call for Change
Ezrat Nashim, a small group of young Jewish feminists, submitted the following set of challenges to the Conservative rabbis at the Rabbinical Assembly’s 1972 annual convention:
- Women be granted membership in synagogues.
- Women be counted in the minyan.
- Women be allowed full participation in religious observances: be given aliyot and Torah reading and be recognized as prayer leaders.
- Women be recognized as witnesses in Jewish proceedings.
- Women be allowed to initiate divorce.
- Women be permitted to train as rabbis and cantors and perform rabbinic and cantorial functions in synagogues.
- Women be obligated to fulfill all mitzvot equally with men.
In the three decades since, the Jewish Theological Seminary and Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies have graduated over 300 female rabbis and cantors, and hundreds of women teach in university-based Jewish studies programs worldwide. More than 90 percent of all Conservative congregations are fully egalitarian.
Twelve in Four Through a Feminine Lens
A dozen books on the women of Genesis published over the past four years:
- Eternally Eve: Images of Eve in the Hebrew Bible, Midrash and Modern Jewish Poetry by Anne Lapidus Lerner (2007)
- The Torah: A Women’s Commentary by Tamara Cohn Eskenazi, ed. (2007)
- Hagar, Sarah, and Their Children: Jewish, Christian and Muslim Perspectives by Phillis Trible (2006)
- Lilith’s Ark: Teenage Tales of Biblical Women by Deborah Boden Cohen (2006)
- Praise Her Works: Conversations with Biblical Women by Penina Adelman (2005)
- After the Apple: Women in the Bible: Timeless Stories of Love, Lust and Hunger by Naomi Harris Rosenblatt (2005)
- Sarah Laughed by Vanessa Ochs (2005)
- Countertraditions in the Bible: A Feminist Approach by Ilana Pardes (2004)
- I Am…: Biblical Women Tell Their Own Stories by Athalya Brenner (2004)
- Reading the Women of the Bible: A New Interpretation of Their Stories by Tikva Frymer Kensky (2004)
- Sisters at Sinai: New Tales of Biblical Women by Jill Hammer (2004)
- The Women Who Danced by the Sea: Finding Ourselves in the Stories of Our Biblical Foremothers by Marsha Pravder Mirkin (2004)
