(Rabbi’s Corner)

 

Rabbi Gayle Pomerantz

For about seven or eight years we had a women’s torah study group at Temple Beth Sholom. We met faithfully each week, young and older women, Jews by choice and Jews by birth, working and non-working women. Though we varied in backgrounds, we all shared a passion for Torah study. Each week, we read the Torah, starting with Bereshit, in the original Hebrew. Then we translated the text and began the slow but invigorating process of parsing the words of Torah, unraveling layers of meaning and then extrapolating what this particular text or story could mean for us as modern Jewish women. We laughed together, cried together, shared intimacies, disagreed at times, and grew together. I often wished we had recorded our sessions because in those moments of Torah study, there were profound and meaningful insights and revelations. Each of our lives was enriched by our shared study of Torah in hevruta (a study group).

At the time we began our study together about 11 years ago, there were very few resources for studying Torah through a woman’s eyes, using women’s commentaries. Though women have figured prominently in transmitting Jewish teachings and values, very little of their wisdom was preserved in written form. Most of what we studied in our Torah study was commentaries written by men for men. Our study and discussion became, in and of itself, a women’s commentary of sorts. Today, I am thrilled to say, an official Women’s Commentary has been published by the Women of Reform Judaism. This comprehensive and scholarly work was 14 years in the making. It contains biblical scholarship, post biblical interpretations, and contemporary reflections. It is a rich and important contribution to Torah Study and a milestone gift in the field of women’s Torah studies.