Rereading Torah Towards Liberation

This post is both a celebration of a few scholars who have impacted my learning over decades and a sort of pep talk, for myself and for all who are discouraged by the pace of change.

How Change Happens, or Doesn’t: Part 1

I recently rediscovered this quotation, found in The Torah: A Modern Commentary, edited by W. Gunther Plaut, z”l, and quoted earlier in Plaut’s 1974 [Be-reshit] Genesis commentary:

“Man has no part in making woman. He exercises no control over her existence: He is neither participant nor spectator nor consultant at her birth. Like man, woman owes her life solely to God. To claim that the rib means inferiority or subordination is to assign the man qualities over the woman which are not in the narrative itself. Superiority, strength, aggressiveness, dominance, and power do not characterize man in Genesis 2. By contrast he is formed from dirt; his life hangs by a breath which he does not control; and he himself remains silent and passive while the Deity plans and interprets his existence.” — Phyllis Trible [end note]

Plaut’s citation is to an article by Phyllis Trible, published in 1973. It’s inclusion in the Reform commentary of 1974 means, for one thing, that Plaut was citing and sharing the latest scholarship of his day — and not just choosing familiar, well-liked sources. Trible had not yet published her major works: God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality (1978) and Texts of Terror: literary-feminist readings of Biblical narratives (1984).

As I’ve found myself saying a lot recently, Plaut’s commentary is no haven for non-zionist readers, and it might seem old and fusty to many today…. I confess that I did not grow into my current appreciation for this volume until decades after I first opened it. But I find myself returning to this work more lately, finding passages I previously overlooked or misunderstood — and marveling at the depth and breadth of what Plaut has been offering readers for nearly 50 years now. And also thinking about how change happens.

Plaut’s inclusion of Trible in 1974 also means that he was relying on, if not centering, feminist scholarship THIRTY-FIVE YEARS BEFORE the Reform movement finally published The Torah: A Women’s Commentary, claiming they were moving women “to the center of the page.” (FWIW, here’s my rant from back in 2009 on that publication.)

With more years of perspective on the URJ’s Plaut and Women’s Commentary, I find myself reflecting on how scholarship, liturgical practice, and general Jewish views change over time. And how it doesn’t. His inclusion of the early Trible quotation is, on the one hand, a very minor matter for celebration. On the other hand, his later editions included (slightly) more scholarship from feminist and gender studies, as well as statements from the Reform movement on LGBTQ+ issues and human rights. I believe that, in the long run, Plaut’s matter-of-fact inclusion of such material did more for moving gender studies “to the center of the page” than did the URJ’s decades of dithering and too-little, too-late 2008 publication.

Returning and On-going Relevance

Trible’s brief passage regarding the creation of humans is — again or still — all too relevant today. To our collective sorrow, we need this reminder today that the Torah text does not support the ill-founded, ugly-intentioned interpretations finding such political power in our country.

On the positive end of the reminder spectrum: Looking into continuing influence of Trible’s work on Christian and Jewish theology, I stumbled upon a critique of Trible’s “Eve and Adam: Genesis 2-3 Reread,” by theologian Bryce E. Rich, from back in 2006, when he was a seminary student. I also found the same author referencing her work — including the very passage Plaut quotes — in his 2023 book, Gender Essentialism and Orthodoxy: Beyond Male and Female. A lovely progression from her publication in 1973 to his 2006 blog post and then 2023 book. And there are many similar examples among Jewish and Christian writers. Learning flourishes and nourishes many communities.

On the worrying end of that reminder spectrum: I also found theologian Rich having to argue against the view that “contemporary transgender individuals and their supporters are gnostics, ‘new gnostics,’ or heretics more generally.” See Rich’s 2024 article, “Transgender Experience and the Limits of ‘Gnosticism.’” My grasp of relevant Christian scholarship is almost non-existent; related concepts in Judaism, from what little I do know, are not really parallel. But charges of heresy, especially if somehow tied to an individual’s gender identity and expression, seem important and disturbing. So, I hope that Jewish gender studies can be of some support to Christians facing such challenges.

…And I hope more of us can find, and create together, resources and inspiration in Torah developed over the long haul.

How Change Happens, or Doesn’t: Part 2

[Update: Arthur, born in Baltimore, MD, Oct 12, 1933, died Oct 20, 2025 in Philadelphia, PA.] During a [5785] Torah study at Tzedek Chicago, we explored Rabbi Arthur Waskow’s piece on “Eco-Theology” in the context of parashat Noach. The 2022 article concludes:

“Seeing and hearing YHWH  as an Interbreath — Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Breath/ Wind/ Spirit — could transform our entire culture, bringing the insights of mystics and the calculations of geologists into a coherent whole.” — A. Waskow, Eco-Theology in Biblical Tradition (Reconstructing Judaism)

This reminded me of “The Rainbow Haftarah,” which Arthur prepared in 1993:

“…I call you:
I, the Breath of Life,
Within you and beyond,
Among you and beyond,
[That One Who dwells between you and me]
That One Who breathes from redwood into grizzly,
That One Who breathes from human into swampgrass,
That One Who breathes the great pulsations of the galaxies.
In every breath you breathe Me,
In every breath I breathe you….” — A. Waskow, “The Rainbow Haftarah” (Open Siddur)

The Open Siddur link above includes background on the piece and musical notation for chanting. “New Haftarah for the Rainbow Covenant” appears in PDF link at The Shalom Center.

In the span of years and teaching, between the “Rainbow Haftarah” and the “Eco-Theology” article, Arthur [his memory now for a blessing] has taught many, spurred much action, and inspired much organizing. The Shalom Center, which he founded in 1983, influenced generations of Jews and others interested in the intersection of religious practice and activism.

Recently, after 40 years as founder-director, Arthur formally took up the role of “Prophetic Envoy,” passing the directorship to Rabbi Nate deGroot. (The “passing of the lulav” celebration also marked Arthur’s 91st birthday.)

When We Stop Noticing

The Shalom Center’s “passing of the lulav” prompts reflection.

On the one hand, climate crisis and so many other aspects of our reality have worsened over the decades; perhaps too many of us have stopped noticing that the world is on fire. There is grave danger in this. On the other hand, there is greater recognition that climate change is “a Jewish issue” than there was 40 years ago; perhaps so much so that we are in danger of forgetting, or never learning, that a shift in thinking has taken place and that such a shift required work.

On the one hand, the Jewish world faces cataclysmic crisis, to the point that we are in danger of ceasing to seek ways forward as challenges seem insurmountable; perhaps we’ve stopped noticing possibility. On the other hand, some aspects of the Jewish world are different today, in ways barely imaginable 40 years ago.

Consider, for example, Arthur’s teaching on the divine as breath. This has reached many, even since the 2022 “Eco-Theology” article and even before the 1993 “Rainbow Haftarah.” It is now accepted practice, in many Jewish circles, to bless God as “Ruach” — both as a less-gendered, less hierarchical way of naming the Divine and as a practice specifically recognizing Breath-Spirit as divine. What was, not so long ago, odd and marginal is now so common in some places as to seem “mi-Sinai,” received from Mount Sinai. And, while Arthur is not the only teacher influencing this shift, there is no denying the power and reach of his prophetic voice.

The good news here is that more Jews can relate to the language of blessing God, without having to pause to argue with the text or re-imagine the language for themselves. A danger is in forgetting, or never learning, that change has occurred at all — and that such a change required imagination and effort, conflict and creativity.

…Re-engaging in old struggle has its own dangers, but understanding how we got where we are is part of developing Torah over the long haul.

How Change Happens and Doesn’t

A final installment, for now, on Torah and the long haul brings me to the work of Rabbi Dr. Jill Hammer. While I once met Rabbi Plaut, and I have learned and protested and worshiped with Arthur Waskow over some decades, I don’t recall ever being in the same room with Jill Hammer. We have crossed paths in other ways, however, and her work’s influence on me and so many others is incalculable.

I can think of few scholar-artists more prominent than Jill Hammer in creation of ground-breaking contemporary midrash. Some of her midrash, like “Miriam under the Mountain” and “The Mirrors,” has shaped my thinking so deeply and for so long that I’m not sure I can consider Exodus without assuming this background. Jill Hammer’s writing expanded Torah in essential ways and paved the way for other artists and scholars. However, I think it’s also interesting, in considering the long haul, to explore where her work did NOT connect for me.

I am a city person, raised with a concrete “yard” and visiting “nature preserves” under duress; connecting to the divine through element-based ritual is not simple or natural for me. Moreover, I have never connected well with “the feminine” in my own (cis female) life or as an aspect of the Divine. Therefore, much of Jill Hammer’s work — on the feminine divine, on goddess, and through the Kohenet program — was out there, expanding Judaism and making Torah more accessible for many, but it didn’t seem to directly address me…. until Return to the Place: The Magic, Meditation, and Mystery of Sefer Yetzirah (2020).

Instant and Long-Term Connection

Being introduced to the Sefer Yetzirah was ground-shifting. Traveling its path with Jill Hammer was a powerful experience. And her introduction to Return to the Place helped me see something similar in my own efforts, around some Jewish text, as “less of a scholar” and more “a lover of it”:

“…I am less of a scholar of Sefer Yetzirah than a lover of it. I read Sefer Yetzirah in my own context as a ritualist and poet. The moment I encountered this text, I knew I had come home. To me, the book offers a sacred experience of the elements that make up our planet and our bodies. It has a powerful Jewish perspective on universal mysteries, a perspective that references Jewish ideas and also reaches beyond them. The text brings together the Bible and Hebrew language with an attitude that embraces the world and all of its multiplicity and wonder. This is exactly the way I want to be addressed as a spiritual person: not only as a member of a tribe, but as a person in need of transformation.

“While I’ll refer often to scholarship in working with the book’s text, my intention is not to provide a critical commentary but to explore Sefer Yetzirah as a vehicle for spiritual experience, theological depth, and creative expression. My experience, after seeing the excitement the book generates in those who encounter it, is that the ideas and practices this book holds can transform the lives of others as it has transformed mine.” — J.Hammer, Return to the Place, p.xv (full citation below)

Powerful connection to text can begin instantly for one individual, but the process that makes text accessible to any one person — or to a community — is a long-haul effort involving many. Jill Hammer’s work — with Sefer Yetzirah and so much more — shares both the possibility of instant connection and a glimpse into the deep and complex network of additional connections yet to be explored. Her work reminds me that bringing ourselves into Torah is a tender and tangled endeavor and that, while our language and pathways to the ultimate Source may change, the Source itself remains.

Finding our ways, individually and collectively, into Torah is work of the moment and of movements, part of on-going endeavor of Jews over centuries, and an opportunity to consider: “The Text that is World cannot be full expressed” (Sefer Yetzirah 4:4)

Citations

Plaut. The Torah

The Torah: A Modern Commentary, UAHC, 1981. (Union of American Hebrew Congregations is now Union for Reform Judaism). Edited by W. Gunther Plaut.

End Note from Plaut for Trible quotation: “From ‘Depatriarchalizing in Biblical Interpretation,’ Journal of the American Academy of Religion, XLI, I (March 1973), pp.30-48. The article reevaluates the role of woman in the Genesis story.”

Hammer. Sefer Yetzirah and Sisters at Sinai

“The Mirrors” and “Miriam under the Mountain” appear in Sisters at Sinai: New Tales of Biblical Women. Jewish Publication Society, 2001. “The Mirrors” also appears in All the Women Followed Her: A Collection of Writings on Miriam the Prophet & The Women of Exodus. Edited by Rebecca A. Schwartz. Rikudei Miriam Press, 2001. (This volume also includes a piece of mine about Zipporah.)

Return to the Place: The Magic, Meditation, and Mystery of Sefer Yetzirah. Rabbi Jill Hammer. Ben Yehuda Press, 2020.

The introduction and first chapter are available for free download. This website also offers meditations, in audio and text, which could be pursued separate from the book…. but you should find the book, which is available from libraries and booksellers.

See also Omer Calendar of Biblical Women, which has been available through Ritual Well, for a decade in several forms, and is now found in print at Ayin Press. More books and background at JillHammer.net

Jill Hammer was also editor of Living Text: Journal of the Institute for Contemporary Midrash, for all but the first issue. It’s a great loss that funding for ICM disappeared, and I consider myself extremely privileged to have participated in some of its programs and to have contributed to this issue of its publication.

Issue 6