Jewish women from diverse backgrounds explore the questions at the heart of the unique ritual that is Passover in this groundbreaking work A groundbreaking conversation in the voices of Jewish women-rabbis, scholars, activists, artists-about the themes of the Exodus and exile, oppression and liberation, history and memory, as they relate to contemporary women's lives. Foreword
xi
Paula E. Hyman
Preface
xvii
Acknowledgments
xxi
Introduction
xxv
Part 1: Why Women's Seders?
1(44)
For Women Only
4(5)
Esther Broner
The Continuing Value of Separatism
9(5)
Judith Plaskow
Creating the Ma'yan Women's Seder: Balancing Comfort, Challenge, and Community
14(8)
Tamara Cohen and Erika Katske
Miriam and Our Dance of Freedom: Seder in Prison
22(4)
Judith Clark
Every Voice Matters: Community and Dialogue at a Women's Seder
26(6)
Catherine Spector
God's Redemption: Memory and Gender on Passover
32(6)
Norma Baumel Joseph
An Embrace of Tradition
38(7)
Tara Mohr
Part 2: Reclaiming and Re-creating Passover Rituals for Women
45(60)
Thoughts on Cleaning for Pesach
49(5)
Haviva Ner-David
We Can't Be Free Until All Women Are Important
54(5)
Leah Shakdiel
Setting a Cup for Miriam
59(6)
Vanessa L. Ochs
The Celebration of Challenge: Reclaiming the Four Children
65(5)
Leora Eisenstadt
Orange on the Seder Plate
70(8)
Susannah Heschel
The Open Door: The Tale of Idit and the Passover Paradox
78(6)
Sandy Eisenberg Sasso
A New Song for a Different Night: Sephardic Women's Musical Repertoire
84(15)
Judith Wachs
I Will Be with You: The Divine Presence on Passover
99(6)
Carol Ochs
Part 3: Women of Exodus
105(44)
Shiru l'Adonai: Widening the Circle of Memory and History
108(5)
Judith Rosenbaum
Miriam's Leadership: A Reconstruction
113(6)
Lori Lefkovitz
Their Lives a Page Plucked from a Holy Book
119(9)
Margaret Moers Wenig
With Strong Hands and Outstretched Arms
128(7)
Sharon Cohen Anisfeld
The Secret of Redemption: A Tale of Mirrors
135(7)
Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg
"Fixing" Liberation, or How Rebecca Initiates the Passover Seder
142(7)
Bonna Devora Haberman
Part 4: Telling Our Stories
149(60)
A Story for the Second Night of Passover
153(6)
Ruth Behar
Jephthah's Daughter: A Feminist Midrash
159(6)
Letty Cottin Pogrebin
Memory and Revolution
165(6)
Dianne Cohler-Esses
Leaving on Purpose: The Questions of Women's Tefillah
171(6)
Chavi Karkowsky
Of Nursing, in the Desert
177(5)
Janna Kaplan
On Matzah, Questions, and Becoming a Nation
182(6)
Leah Haber
God's Bride on Pesach
188(8)
Kim Chernin
The Matzah Set-Up
196(6)
Jenya Zolot-Gassko
Women Re-creating the Passover Seder: Bella Rosenfeld Chagall and the Resonance of Female Memory
202(7)
Judith R. Baskin
Part 5: Visions and Challenges for the Future
209(54)
Sanctified by Ritual
213(7)
Phyllis Chesler
Reflections on the Feminist Seder as an Entry Point into Jewish Life
220(5)
Lilly Rivlin
Placing Our Bettes: Keepin' It Real at the Seder Table
225(4)
Ophira Edut
Pluralism in Feminist Settings
229(6)
Martha Ackelsberg
Conflict and Community: The Common Ground of Judaism and Feminism
235(5)
Ruth Kaplan
What Now? After the Exodus, the Wilderness
240(6)
Sharon Kleinbaum
Letting Pharaoh Go: A Biblical Study of Internalized Oppression
246(5)
Ela Thier
Reflections on Exodus in Light of Palestinian Suffering
251(5)
Lynn Gottlieb
Walking the Way as Women
256(7)
Merle Feld
Notes
263(20)
Glossary
283(10)
Bibliography
293(4)
Index
297(10)
About Jewish Lights
307