Our tradition is filled with wonderful examples of women who were leaders. In fact women have held positions of respect and responsibility in Judaism since biblical times. They took the risk. They took the initiative. They mentored others. Today’s women must do no less.
It is Sarah, our first matriarch, who sees that Isaac is the one to follow after Abraham. And it is Rebecca who knows that Jacob should receive the blessing and not Esau. We can look to Esther on Purim and Judith on Hanukah. We have the wonderful example of the daughters of Zelophehad. When their father died without male heirs, these women stood before Moses and the leaders of the community and asked for their inheritance. “Why should the name of our father be taken away from the midst of his clan (just) because he has no son?” (Numbers 27:4) And God told Moses: כן בנות צלפחד דברת“Rightfully speak the daughters of Zelophehad” (27:7).
The נשים צדקניות—righteous women —fill the pages of our Jewish texts. It is because of these women, we are told, that Israel was redeemed from Egypt. Miriam, who crosses the Red Sea and leads the women in song is, along with Moses and Aaron, one of the liberators of the people of Israel. In his Schocken Bible commentary, Everett Fox writes: “…the enterprise of deliverance from Egypt began with a little girl at the Nile, watching through the reeds to make sure her baby brother would survive; it ends with the same person, now an adult, a ‘prophetess’ celebrating the final victory at the Sea…” (page 336).
Throughout our modern history we have also had women leaders as role models: Henrietta Szold, the founder of Hadassah; Sarah Schenirer, the founder of Bais Yaakov Schools for Girls; Golda Meir and many others. These women, like their Biblical sisters, were not afraid to step forward. They did not wait to be invited to join the community of leaders. They simply took leadership upon themselves.
Over the years many have used halakha, Jewish law, to deny women access to leadership positions. A thorough review of the sources, as we have within these pages, shows that there is no reason to prevent women from having leadership roles. However, the force of custom is very strong, and sadly, many women have internalized this secondary role.
And God told Abraham:
כל אשר תאמר אליך שרה שמע בקלה“in everything that Sarah says to you, hearken to her voice…” (Genesis 21:12). JOFA’s mission is to create the opportunities for women to have their voices heard within the Jewish community. Women comprise fifty-one percent of the population. How wonderful it will be when these women take their rightful place alongside men using their talents and professional skills to help shape Jewish life by sharing communal responsibility.