The Women's Passover Companion: Women's Reflections on the Festival of Freedom

by Sharon Cohen Ainsfeld (Editor), Tara Mohr (Editor), Catherine Spector (Editor), Paul Hyman (Foreword by)

Overview

A powerful—and empowering—gathering of women’s voices transmitting
Judaism’s Passover legacy to the next generation.

The Women’s Passover Companion offers an in-depth examination of women’s relationships to Passover as well as the roots and meanings of women’s seders. This groundbreaking collection captures the voices of Jewish women—rabbis, scholars, activists, political leaders and artists—who engage in a provocative conversation about the themes of the Exodus and exile, oppression and liberation, history and memory, as they relate to contemporary women’s lives.

Whether seeking new insights into the text and traditions of Passover or learning about women’s seders for the first time, both women and men will find this collection an inspiring introduction to the Passover season and an eye-opening exploration of questions central to Jewish women, to Passover and to Judaism itself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781580232319
Publisher:	Turner Publishing Company
Publication date:	02/01/2006
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	2.36(w) x 3.54(h) x 1.08(d)

About the Author

Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld, Tara Mohr and Catherine Spector first worked together as organizers of Jewish Women at Yale and as leaders of Yale University's beloved and inspiring women's seder. Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld is currently the associate dean for student life at the Rabbinical School at Hebrew College in Newton, Massachusetts. Tara Mohr is currently an MBA candidate at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, focusing her studies on social entrepreneurship. Catherine Spector is currently a lawyer in Chicago and was, during college, part of the steering committee for Yale's two national conferences on Jewish women.

Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld, Tara Mohr and Catherine Spector first worked together as organizers of Jewish Women at Yale and as leaders of Yale University's beloved and inspiring women’s seder. Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld is currently the associate dean for student life at the Rabbinical School at Hebrew College in Newton, Massachusetts. Tara Mohr is currently an MBA candidate at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, focusing her studies on social entrepreneurship. Catherine Spector is currently a lawyer in Chicago and was, during college, part of the steering committee for Yale’s two national conferences on Jewish women.

Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld, Tara Mohr and Catherine Spector first worked together as organizers of Jewish Women at Yale and as leaders of Yale University's beloved and inspiring women's seder. Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld is currently the associate dean for student life at the Rabbinical School at Hebrew College in Newton, Massachusetts. Tara Mohr is currently an MBA candidate at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, focusing her studies on social entrepreneurship. Catherine Spector is currently a lawyer in Chicago and was, during college, part of the steering committee for Yale’s two national conferences on Jewish women.

Table of Contents

Foreword, Paula E. Hyman xi Preface xvii Acknowledgments xxi Introduction xxv Part 1: Why Women's Seders? 1 For Women Only 4 Esther Broner The Continuing Value of Separatism 9 Judith Plaskow Creating the Ma’yan Women’s Seder: Balancing Comfort, Challenge, and Community 14 Tamara Cohen and Erika Katske Miriam and Our Dance of Freedom: Seder in Prison 22 Judith Clark Every Voice Matters: Community and Dialogue at a Women’s Seder 26 Catherine Spector God’s Redemption: Memory and Gender on Passover 32 Norma Baumel Joseph An Embrace of Tradition 38 Tara Mohr Part 2: Reclaiming and Re-creating Passover Rituals for Women 45 Thoughts on Cleaning for Pesach 49 Haviva Ner-David We Can’t Be Free Until All Women Are Important 54 Leah Shakdiel Setting a Cup for Miriam 59 Vanessa L. Ochs The Celebration of Challenge: Reclaiming the Four Children 65 Leora Eisenstadt Orange on the Seder Plate 70 Susannah Heschel The Open Door: The Tale of Idit and the Passover Paradox 78 Sandy Eisenberg Sasso A New Song for a Different Night: Sephardic Women’s Musical Repertoire 84 Judith Wachs I Will Be with You: The Divine Presence on Passover 99 Carol Ochs Part 3: Women of Exodus 105 Shiru l’Adonai: Widening the Circle of Memory and History 108 Judith Rosenbaum Miriam’s Leadership: A Reconstruction 113 Lori Lefkovitz Their Lives a Page Plucked from a Holy Book 119 Margaret Moers Wenig With Strong Hands and Outstretched Arms 128 Sharon Cohen Anisfeld The Secret of Redemption: A Tale of Mirrors 135 Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg "Fixing" Liberation, or How Rebecca Initiates the Passover Seder 142 Bonna Devora Haberman }Part 4: Telling Our Stories 149 A Story for the Second Night of Passover 153 Ruth Behar Jephthah’s Daughter: A Feminist Midrash 159 Letty Cottin Pogrebin Memory and Revolution 165 Dianne Cohler-Esses Leaving on Purpose: The Questions of Women’s Tefillah 171 Chavi Karkowsky Of Nursing, in the Desert 177 Janna Kaplan On Matzah, Questions, and Becoming a Nation 182 Leah Haber God’s Bride on Pesach 188 Kim Chernin The Matzah Set-Up 196 Jenya Zolot-Gassko Women Re-creating the Passover Seder: Bella Rosenfeld Chagall and the Resonance of Female Memory 202 Judith R. Baskin Part 5: Visions and Challenges for the Future 209 Sanctified by Ritual 213 Phyllis Chesler Reflections on the Feminist Seder as an Entry Point into Jewish Life 220 Lilly Rivlin Placing Our Bettes: Keepin’ It Real at the Seder Table 225 Ophira Edut Pluralism in Feminist Settings 229 Martha Ackelsberg Conflict and Community: The Common Ground of Judaism and Feminism 235 Ruth Kaplan What Now? After the Exodus, the Wilderness 240 Sharon Kleinbaum Letting Pharaoh Go: A Biblical Study of Internalized Oppression 246 Ela Thier Reflections on Exodus in Light of Palestinian Suffering 251 Lynn Gottlieb Walking the Way as Women 256 Merle Feld Notes 263 Glossary 283 Bibliography 293 Index 297 About Jewish Lights 307

Editorial Reviews

This Passover "companion" for women will be useful to those who desire a new women's Haggadah and ritual or those who simply seek to better understand the feminist themes of the traditional liturgy. The essays address three key subjects: the Passover holiday, the biblical book of Exodus and the new tradition of women's seders. Vanessa Ochs contributes an essay on "setting a cup for Miriam," tracing the evolution of Miriam's cups at contemporary seders and discussing the importance of having a new ritual object for women. Like many of the other essays, Ochs's is enriched by her personal experiences of inaugurating new traditions for Passover; the book's best section, in fact, is one called "Telling Our Stories." (Apr.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Editors Anisfeld, Tara Mohr, and Catherine Spector, a rabbi at Harvard Hillel, a writer, and a law student, respectively, helped organize Jewish Women at Yale, led Yale's Women's Seder, and worked on the Yale Women's Haggadah. These companion volumes reflect their desire to provide both background readings on the many aspects of women's relationships to the Passover holiday, from cleaning and cooking to feminist interpretations of the holiday and the special meanings of a women's seder, and fresh material for the seder itself. The Women's Passover Companion collects commentaries by writers and scholars such as Letty Cottin Pogrebin, Phyllis Chesler, Susannah Heschel, and others, discussing the value of women's seders, Passover rituals for women, Miriam and the women of Exodus, how contemporary women can relate to the lessons of the holiday, and visions and challenges for the future. The Women's Seder Sourcebook, arranged in the order of the seder, provides over 200 suggested rituals, readings, commentaries, and blessings to be used during the seder itself; contributors include Faye Moskowitz, Maxine Kumin, Marge Piercy, Barbara Boxer, Hadassah Lieberman, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, as well as noted women rabbis, activists, and scholars. Both volumes consist primarily of original writings. While a number of very good haggadahs have been published, these volumes succeed beautifully in giving us a wealth of insights on and new connections to the Passover story that will help women create a truly transformative and personally meaningful Passover experience. Highly recommended for public, academic, and synagogue libraries.-Marcia Welsh, Dartmouth Coll., Haverhill, NH Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal