Wrestling with the Israel I know and Love

Real relationships are not always easy. They require negotiation, compromise, understanding and space for each partner to grow. As the Biblical Jacob wrestled with an angel, today I wrestled with the Israel I know and love.

In 1990, when I was a first year Rabbinical student in Jerusalem, I was hesitant to tell anyone what I was studying. The concept of a woman rabbi was beyond the typical Israeli’s realm of conception and it was exhausting for me to try and educate complete strangers.

With each return trip, the process of telling the average Israeli that I am a rabbi has gotten easier. Today I am not confronted with disdain nor do people look at me as if I were an alien. Twenty years ago, we didn’t have a Hebrew word for a woman rabbi. When I told people I was engaged in rabbinical studies, they asked if I wanted to be a rabbanit – a rebbetzin. Two years ago, the Academy of Hebrew Language in Israel accepted the word “rabba”, the female word for rabbi, as part of the Hebrew language. When I share my profession, I teach everyone that word hoping that each mind and heart I expand will create a more inclusive society.

Today my standing up for the right to be a liberal religious Jewish woman took another turn. Over the years, laws have been enforced limiting what women may do on their very small side of the Western Wall plaza. Women cannot read Torah, women cannot wear a tallit, woman cannot put on tefillin, nor can women pray in a collective voice. Only one day a month, on the new moon, have we been given permission to lift our voices at full volume in communal prayer.

This morning at 6:30 am, I set off to welcome the new moon of the month of Av with Women of the Wall, a group I have supported for years from across the sea. Today, for the first time, I could support them with my presence. On one hand it was liberating. For the first time in my life, I could be a part of a prayer service at the Wall and join in a choir of communal prayer. But on the other hand, I was uneasy. Our group of seventy five women was under constant surveillance and protection by the Israeli police. We were videotaped the entire time, so that evidence would be in hand for those who broke the law by wearing a tallis.

When relationships get hard, working at them is the answer. Petitioning the Israeli government, supporting causes in Israel that move our homeland forward in the direction we desire, and debating with our passion, presence, words, and action are the best ways to create the change and equality we seek to see. I’m grateful that I can welcome this Shabbat, having done my small part.

They say there are two Jerusalems: Yerushalayim shel malah, the heavenly Jerusalem of our dreams, and Yerushalayim shel matah, the earthly imperfect Jerusalem of our reality. Each day may we do our part to lift our city to a holier and higher place. May our daughters know the day when they can be able to stand at the Western Wall wearing a tallit, if they choose, and singing out in collective song, if they are so inspired.

– Rabbi Judy Schindler