On a ski lift in the mid-’70s, a man asked Jane Litman what she did. When she told him she was a rabbinical student, he fell off the lift.
Now an ordained rabbi and spiritual leader of San Francisco’s Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, Litman said she is rarely anyone’s “first woman rabbi” anymore.
But as an activist, she’s taking a key role in giving voice to women’s concerns. Along with Rabbi Debra Orenstein, Litman is co-editor of the second volume of “Lifecycles: Jewish Women on Biblical Themes in Contemporary Life.” The first volume, edited by Orenstein, explored ritual.
“Lifecycles 2,” Litman said, is more than just Torah commentary.
“It’s about how Torah and Jewish lives intersect: friendship, home, sexuality, body, education. It’s about how Torah and women’s lives interreflect and provide insight to each other.”
The volume is divided into five sections, each reflecting on one of the five books of the Torah and its themes.
It’s a diverse collection of voices that includes Alice Shalvi, Rabbi Amy Eilberg, Judith Plaskow, Debbie Friedman, Vicki Hollander and Gloria Steinem.
Numbers deals with coming out of the wilderness, used in “Lifecycles 2” as a metaphor for women’s emergence from marginalization.
“Numbers explores the trepidation inherent in liberation,” Litman and Orenstein write. “Freedom raises insecurity and fear because it generates new, unpredictable possibilities and choices for which each person must be responsible.”
Litman says that although she’s only 42, she considers herself an “elder” on this spiritual journey.
“I was born in Egypt,” she said metaphorically. “I look to the young generation of women, the ones who were born in the wilderness. I think among young women there are whole new ways of understanding Judaism. There’s a much more fluid understanding, a new Judaism that’s willing to take in what’s good in the external culture, and yet a Judaism in which women feel fully grounded in the tradition.”
Some feminist challenges to Judaism have now become well-integrated into the fabric of Jewish thought.
“We just can’t look at God the way we used to, the traditional image of God as the old man in the sky,” she said. “There’s a whole new way of looking at the divine, the idea that God is present in the actions of human beings, in nature, in the world around us. In using feminine imagery, we’ve liberated God from that idolatrous, patriarchal model.”
In her “Lifecycles 2” essay “When the Siren Stops Singing,” Litman critiques the Jewish view of women as temptresses, objects of male sexual desire.
“Traditional Jewish thought views sexuality as an overpowering male urge that must be tamed through legal injunction and religious discipline,” she writes.
What women are supposed to do is much less clear, she said in an interview.
“I think it’s important for women to become subjects rather than objects. Sexuality is a gift. Women need more permission on how to use that gift in a way that is fulfilling and sacred.”
She cites traditional Jewish texts to support her position.
“It turns out that Jewish sacred texts, specifically the first chapter of Genesis and the Song of Songs, present sexuality as a gift from God,” she said, “not a scary, out of-control drive requiring suppression.”
“The Bible teaches us that we are holy, created in the divine image. Even Leviticus, for all its Thou-shalt-nots, regards sex as a particularly sacred act.”
Litman, who was already a feminist when she started exploring Judaism as a teenager, said that women today are active participants in all aspects of Judaism.
“Women are studying the texts, the Jewish mystical tradition, Hebrew and theology,” she said. “Women aren’t merely reacting.”