She is Bat Yisrael, a Daughter of
Israel. She is representative of every Jewish woman, living and dead and not
yet born.
Bat Yisrael was the Jewish women
of yesterday, the women who influenced the future of Judaism. She was the Matriarchs,
giving future women the strength to uphold God’s word. She was at Mount Sinai to receive the Torah, whether in person or in
spirit. She was the women documented in the Prophets and Writings, as well as every
woman forgotten by male-dominated history. Bat Yisrael was every woman who has shaped the rich
past of the Jewish people, whether a revolutionary like Sarah Schenirer or an
average Jewish housewife dedicated to taking care of her family. She was called
Bas Yisroel in the dark ghettos of Eastern Europe, Bat Yisra’el in the lush
kibbutzim of Israel .
It doesn’t matter how you say her name. All that matters is that she has one.
She is the Jewish women of today,
from rabbis leading Reform congregations from the pulpit to Hasidic rebbetzins
leading their communities’ women from the sidelines. She is secular, Haredi,
Reconstructionist, Modern Orthodox, post-denominational, and everything in
between. Her clothing adheres to the strictest interpretations of tzniut (modesty) and she wears a bikini top and denim cutoffs. She lives in the ultra-Orthodox enclave
of New Square
and the predominantly Protestant fields of Kansas and in the secular neighborhoods of
Tel Aviv. She prays fervently at the Western Wall, skirt swaying in rhythm with
her body, and she wears traditionally male tefillin (phylacteries) and tallit (prayer shawl) while she prays with
Women of the Wall. She eats from the fruit of her hands; sometimes that fruit
is triple-washed to get rid of all the non-kosher bugs, and sometimes it is
not.
She is the Jewish women of
tomorrow, those that will continue time-honored traditions and add their own,
pray the prayers that the Sages wrote and add their own heartfelt requests to
their Creator. She will delve into the sacred texts and create new
interpretations, discover that Judaism is truly a timeless religion. She will
be able to accomplish so many things that modern-day Jewish women (and men) are
not able to even dream of.
She is Bat Yisrael because she is
both woman and Jew. Call it an accident of birth, call it a God-given mission;
it doesn’t matter. Her status as Jew and her status as woman qualify her as Bat
Yisrael. Regardless of her practice, the title of Bat Yisrael cannot be taken
from her. You can try, but you won’t succeed. The Egyptians tried to enslave
her. The Greeks tried to assimilate her. The Spanish tried to expel and burn
her. The Nazis tried to exterminate her. None of them succeeded. And neither
will you. Because she is Bat Yisrael.
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