WOW: How Awesome it Would be! Delivered Shabbat Vayetzi, 11/9/2013

Allow me to share a personal story.  Just over 24 years ago, I moved to Israel.  I hadn’t planned to move to Israel.  A music conservatory drop out, I was finishing a degree in Psychology and was all set to move back to Philly in order to pursue a PhD in clinical psychology at what was then Hahnemann University.  It was only after those plans were set that I felt free to explore a nagging call to consider the cantorate.   Mind you, I grew up singing regularly at Temple – I was that kid that got all of the solos in choir, who demanded to chant, not read, Torah, but this was the 70’s: there were no adult female role models on the bema.  It wasn’t until my college years that I slowly became aware of women pursuing the cantorate and rabbinate.  So, with nothing to lose (the seat at Hahnemann wasn’t going anywhere), I inquired and applied, unknowingly after the deadline, to the Hebrew Union College’s cantorial program.  Despite being late, I was accepted and literally with a few weeks notice was on a plane to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport.   In many respects, I had no idea what I was getting into.  But, WOW, mah nora hamakom hazeh, how awesome was that place.

Outside of Canada, I had never been out of the country, and here I arrived to stay the year.  There are no dorms at the Hebrew Union College.  Upon arrival, students must find their own lodging.  I found a cozy 1 bedroom in the heart of Rehavia, mastered the art of cooking with a wonder pot, and made for myself a home.   I knew no one in Israel.  I was 23.  It was the first time I lived entirely on my own.  It is only in hindsight that I recognize the awesomeness of that period in my life.  But, WOW, mah nora hamakom hazeh.  How wondrous it was.  Only looking back do I recognize the courage and tenacity I exhibited and the willingness I had to dive into a new venture.  WOW.  

At the same time as I reflect with a sense of awe over that moment in my life, I also experience a tinge of regret over missing what in hindsight was indeed a Godly moment.   Some fellow students had invited me to join them at the Kotel, the Western Wall, for Rosh Chodesh worship.  I had better things to do.   I didn’t think these gatherings were all that important.   At that time, I wasn’t all that familiar with Rosh Chodesh practices (I hadn’t observed it growing up, and I hadn’t yet studied it.  Remember: It was my first year at HUC); and though perhaps hard to imagine, I was far less a feminist in those days.   I viewed most “women’s” worship experiences – which is how I understood Rosh Chodesh gatherings -- as a reinforcement of the segregation I witnessed in the orthodoxy of my early youth.  That wasn’t for me.   I didn’t need a women’s group.   Put simply, I didn’t get it.  What I missed entirely was the broader issue of seeking validation for non-Orthodox worship in the public square – at the Kotel, no less, a universal historic symbol of Jewish life.  Little did I know what I was missing!  Yesh Adonai bamakom hazeh, v’ani lo yadati, God was in that place, and I didn’t know it.

This group was the then nascent Women of the Wall that just this past week, on Rosh Chodesh Kislev, marked their 25^th anniversary.  WOW: Women of the Wall, their acronym WOW is fitting.  Mah nora hamakom hazeh – how wondrous their journey has been.   They have come a long way, as has, over the last quarter century, my and I bet many of your attitudes towards womens’ roles in the synagogue and beyond.  It took years before I woke up and realized how important that grass roots effort was.  It took years before I woke up and realized that the opportunity to be on the ground floor of a vibrant and vital movement working towards the acceptance of Progressive Judaism in Israel had been right in front of me, and I missed it.

Of course, in 1989, none of us, even those who courageously prayed and read Torah in the women’s section of the Wall month after month, could have imagined the impact this group would have.    No one then could have imagined the initiative this group has since taken.  No one could imagine how many women would be inspired by their efforts to wear their tallisim proudly while singing out boldly.  No one could have imagined 1000 men and women gathering in solidarity supporting equal access to and the expression of non-orthodox worship at the wall.  None of us would have imagined a proposal for egalitarian worship at the wall such as the Women of the Wall have proposed to the Israeli agency that oversees religious affairs at The Wall just weeks ago.  WOW: mah nora hamakom hazeh, how awesome has their work been.

What would be even more awesome? If by the time my children are grown, if by the time Lily (the baby we just named this morning) is grown, we could look back with wonder that the Women of the Wall were ever anything but successful.  What if in hindsight we could reflect back on history with disbelief that non-Orthodox worship was ever controversial or less than acceptable at the Wall in Jerusalem.  What if we could look back with disbelief that a woman was ever forbidden to wear a tallis, or forbidden to sing out in public.  WOW:  mah nora hamakom yihiye --  how awesome the place would be!