To celebrate the contributions women have made to our communities through Torah learning and leadership, JOFA sponsored its fifth annual Shabbat T’lamdeini initiative on May 8th, parshat Emor. The purpose of the program is to highlight the strides women have made in advanced Jewish scholarship on a very local level. Shabbat T’lamdeini encourages individual synagogues to design their own programs to meet the specific needs of their own community. As in previous years, women were invited to speak at a Friday night oneg, give a Shabbat morning drasha, Shabbat afternoon shiur, se’udah shlishit d’var Torah, or to act as scholars in residence. This year’s program was our most successful to date, with close to 70 synagogues participating. This number included many repeat participants from Canada, Australia, and the US. There were new participants in Houston,TX, Kansas City, MO, three congregations in Teaneck, NJ as well as a Shabbaton in Scandinavia and twelve congregations (co-sponsored locally by Kolech and Ne’emanei Torah Ve’Avoda) in Israel. This is a tremendous leap forward from just over 40 synagogues and congregations that participated last year. In America alone, programs were held in 17 states.
This year’s offerings at the various synagogues matched, if not surpassed, previous years in variety of subject matter and depth of scholarship. Many synagogues had multiple women speak during a Shabbat-long dedication to women’s scholarship. In Chicago, Lisa Schlaff addressed two separate congregations, Anshei Sholom and Tehilla (a newly established partnership minyan) about women in the ancient synagogue. Her talk was an examination of Rabbinic, Greco-Roman and archeological sources. At Tehilla, she even gave two additional talks on the founding of Darkhei Noam (a partnership minyan in New York) and Jewish education. Devorah Zlochower, JOFA Board member and Director of FullTime programs at the Drisha Institute, was invited to Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun to speak from the pulpit following Shabbat morning services as well as at se’udah shlishit. Her main talk was entitled, “Dress and Gender in Jewish Law,” in which she reviewed many of the talmudic and halakhic sources dealing with appropriate dress for both men and women in relation to evolving considerations of modesty. She also addressed the congregation at the Great Neck Synagogue a week earlier as part of their Shabbat T’lamdeini program.
The response in the aftermath of the program has been resoundingly positive. Synagogues who have participated in Shabbat T’lamdeini since its inaugural year reaffirmed their commitment to the event, while new-comers thanked JOFA for sponsoring the program and assured the planning committee that they would participate again next year. Interestingly, among the synagogues that declined to participate, the reason repeatedly given was that since women addressed the congregation all the time, a special program of this type was not necessary for that particular congregation. While JOFA was disappointed by all refusals to participate, we were heartened by the knowledge that for some synagogues, a d’var Torah given by a learned woman was hardly anything new.
Building on the success of Shabbat T’lamdeini, JOFA is planning to establish a speakers’ bureau to meet the increased demand for accomplished women Torah scholars. For next year’s Shabbat T’lamdeini, May 7, 2005, parshat Kedoshim, JOFA hopes to achieve the goal of 100 participating synagogues.