The Receiving: Reclaiming Jewish Women's Wisdom [Paperback]

 

 

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As a child, Rabbi Firestone loved the synagogue, until she was banished to the women's section by her father as she grew older. Little did she know, at that time, that the women's section behind the curtain had an unshared wisdom. In this book, she starts on the path of reclaiming Judaism's submerged female voice. Like the Jewish Star of David, with one point going up to the heavens and another pointing to the ground, her book reclaims the sufficient wholeness of the sensuous earth and the spiritual in Jewish learning. In each chapter, she chooses a notable Jewish female, and uses that person's life to explore Jewish thought. At times the connections are tenuous, but the book works well. In Chapter 1, we read about Hannah Rachel of Ludomir (1815-1905). She was a scholar of the Talmud who was odiously pushed down by Jewish leaders and forced to marry. Yet among the common Jews, she was a healer and counselor. Using her life as an example, Firestone explores yichud or wholeness and the role of female leadership. In Chapter 2, Bruriah (2nd Century CE), every Jewish woman's hero, is brought back to life. In her post Hellenic period, this brilliant female scholar of the Talmud left her male counterparts in awe of her erudition. But while some know just an inkling about Bruriah, Firestone successfully resurrects the stories of the brothel and the academy to show the role of Eros in Jewish philosophy. Firestone discusses how women must bring both logic and sensuality, one's holy and erotic sides to both study and life. In Chapter 3, we are introduced to Malkah of Belz (1780-1850), the wife of the Belzer Rebbe, Rabbi Shalom Rokeach. She brought the divine to noble domestic activities and sat with her husband. Her life is used as a platform for the discussion of kabbalistic branches. In Chapter 4, Firestone tells the story of Asnat Barzani (17th Century), a leader of Kurdish Jews who became a Rosh Yeshiva in Mosul, who can serve as a role model today. She would submerge herself in and surrender to a text, rather than just master it. In Chapter 5, the story Dulcie of Worms, Rhineland (12th Century) is told. She was murdered at age 26, and her life would have been forgotten had her husband, the Pietist / Kalonymous Rabbi Eleazar, not written her an eloquent eulogy. A young businesswoman, mother, firzogerin, prayer-mentor, and scholar, Dulcie's life is a catalyst for the discussion of Rashi's daughters, and the reclamation of darkness in order to be balanced. In Chapter 6, you will meet the Yemenite Rabanit Leah Shar-abi of Jerusalem (1919-1978), who exemplified the art of putting one's vision into action, using the kabbalistic branches of creativity, energy, and deployed method. Her life and Psalm 90 are used by Firestone to teach one how to discover purpose. By Chapter 7, the reader is ready to meet Francesca Sarah, of 16th Century Safed, and for that lesson, you must receive and read the book.

The other night I wandered into my local bookstore looking to browse the poetry section. In the main room, where authors come to do readings, I saw an attractive, bright-looking woman sitting at a long table and signing stock after the eveningï¿s events, which I had missed. Although Tirzah Firestone is a local author like myself, I had never met her; the truth is, she was unknown to me, as were her works. But I zeroed-in on her book, THE RECEIVING, and decided to pick up a copy. This was a real impulse buy for me, as I had no intention of buying anything that night, least of all a book about ï¿Reclaiming Jewish Womenï¿s Wisdom.ï¿ (Iï¿ll argue in a moment that, however, that was not what the book was really about, at least not in its deepest aspect.) I was reminded of book signings that I had done. There she was all alone with a big stack of books; I really just wanted to support a fellow author.

Iï¿m glad I did. Itï¿s a wonderful book, and I found a fair share of treasures inside. I especially liked reading about Beruriah and Leah. But perhaps most of all I liked the story that was the inner and secret story of the book: Tirzahï¿s. Itï¿s a story that has real magic. The authorï¿s anger at the way Judaism has often failed to connect people, especially women, to the deepest well of spirit is painfully apparent. But it never overwhelms her writing or descends into hatred or bitterness. Why? Because she seems, through the alchemy of will, faith, knowledge or grace, to have sublimated this potentially destructive emotion into a profound love of her tradition and celebration of its possibilities in furthering the deepest designs of life. This is a true heroï¿s -- heroineï¿s -- journey.

For me, the experience of reading her book was even more remarkable because I was completely unprepared to be touched in any way by an account of womenï¿s experience of and through Judaism. As a sometimes mystic and constant writer about mysticism, I had always regarded Judaism as just about the LEAST mystical -- and therefore the least deeply useful -- of religions. I had a certain respect for exoteric Judaism. (Though definitely not for the dietary proscriptions and misogyny and such of the Pentateuch.) I had thought that Judaism, over three thousand years, had built up an incredible store of wisdom about the world and how to live in it in a good way. Theologically, however, along with its offspring, Christianity and Islam, Judaism seemed fatally flawed by its emphasis on a totally transcendent God. Indeed, all the Western religions, when compared with the Eastern, seemed to offer little in the way of effective spiritual practice and hardly seemed like real religions at all.

As for esoteric Judaism, I had thought it a withered flower: it seemed that the Hasidic mystical revival, for instance, had long since been sucked of its vital essence and been reduced to mostly doctrine, dogma and empty rituals, propped up by a rather rigid and patriarchal authoritarian structure: the fate of almost all true spiritual impulses within religions. I knew only very little about Kabbalah; my sense of it was of a byzantinely intricate and medieval system, needlessly complicated, in which mystical insight and practice had been ossified and pretty much lost into symbols. Itï¿s a delightful coincidence that just recently, as Iï¿ve been doing a little research into Kabbalah for a fantasy series about magic, I was able to read about the Tree of Life through Tirzahï¿s eyes -- and those of the women she chose to write about. And MY eyes were opened.

And so I began to see that Judaism might really have a wondrous core: wise and still vital and capable of helping people realize the transcendent as an immanent part of the world -- and themselves. For the first time, I saw the beauty of it, and for me this was a wondrous thing. If womenï¿s wisdom is equated with these core mystical insights and realizations, then I suppose that that IS what the book really is about. But I see Beruriah and Malkah -- and the author -- rather as bright doorways that anyone of her tradition could walk through; through all of these women shines that singular light that is neither feminine nor masculine, nor indeed Jewish in any particular way. That is one of the best things about the book, the way that it holds great value for even such skeptics and anti-religionists as I.

When we look back on the rediscovery of the lost or hidden chapters of Jewish history, this book will stand out as a major work. Rabbi Firestone has told the stories of seven forgotten Jewish women who were mystics, each following a different path. She weaves their stories together with teachings from Kabbalah that locate their lives in the spiritual fabric of the Jewish tradition. I recommend this book to people of all genders, Jews and non-Jews alike, who are looking for guidance in their lives, and would like to ground it in the journeys of other seekers. This is the kind of book I hungered for when I was in Hebrew School, but it hadn't been written yet. Rejoice! The future of the Jewish tradition is being written now, from the lost stories of our grandmothers and their grandmothers, by a new generation of elders like Rabbi Firestone.

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5.0 out of 5 stars A True Champion for Women Everywhere!
"The Receiving" was truly a book that I could not put down.
It has inspired, encouraged, and elevated me a great deal. Read more

Published on May 6 2003 by Eunice

5.0 out of 5 stars A New Light
Rabbi Tirzah Firestone shines a new light on Zion in particular and on the world of spirituality in general with the publication of her new book The Receiving: Reclaiming Jewish... Read more

Published on Mar 10 2003 by Ken Rosenstein

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