{"id":1753,"date":"2018-07-18T10:52:55","date_gmt":"2018-07-18T08:52:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kol-ami.kulam.org\/2018\/07\/18\/tzelofhads-daughters-a-feminist-poem-about-the-western-wal"},"modified":"2018-12-17T12:56:12","modified_gmt":"2018-12-17T10:56:12","slug":"tzelofhads-daughters-a-feminist-poem-about-the-western-wall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kol-ami.kulam.org\/en\/2018\/07\/18\/tzelofhads-daughters-a-feminist-poem-about-the-western-wall\/","title":{"rendered":"Tzelofhad\u2019s Daughters: A Feminist Poem About the Western Wall"},"content":{"rendered":"

This thought provoking poem<\/a> by progressive Jewish feminist, Abby Caplin<\/a>, draws a parallel between the biblical Daughters of Tzelofhad<\/a> and the modern\u00a0Women of the Wall.<\/a>\u00a0Both groups fight for gender equality within Judaism; the biblical women who argued that they should be able to inherit their father’s land, and the modern\u00a0organization\u00a0that works to attain equality for women at the Western Wall. A critical commentary on today’s leadership, the poet highlights how Moses turned to God for answers, ultimately granting the biblical women their just request, while the current political and religious leadership is resistant to changing the status quo.\u00a0This poem was shared on\u00a0Ritualwell.org<\/a>, a project of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College that provides a platform for creating new Jewish practices.<\/em><\/p>\n

Tzelofhad\u2019s Daughters<\/h1>\n

The five daughters of\u00a0Tzelofhad,
\nMahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, Tirtzah
\nStrong\u00a0bible women, sisters,
\nStood together, sand between toes,
\nToe to toe with their male elders,
\nJust in sight of the Promised Land.<\/p>\n

Our father died and left no sons.
\nGive us our inheritance! They insisted.
\nMoses, confused, did not know what to do,
\nExcept to simply ask
\nGod, who said,
\nThe plea is just!
\nGive them their share!
\nAnd it was made so.
\nIn the\u00a0Torah, it is written.<\/p>\n

Now the great great-granddaughters of centuries of
\nDaughters of Tzelofhad, grown women with daughters,
\nAnd granddaughters of their own
\nStand before the stones of
\nThe Western Wall, what remains of the great Temple.
\nThese are Women of the Wall.
\nThey tender prayers to God
\nAnd plead their case.
\nGive us our share, our place before the Wall,
\nTo pray freely, as full Jews,
\nThis is our inheritance!<\/p>\n

But those who rule do not ask God what is just,
\nWill not think to listen for
\nGod\u2019s answer, instead
\nAllow the pitch of chairs,
\nPrayer books ripped from mothers\u2019 hands,
\nAllow the din of curses raining down
\nUpon the daughters of the hot desert sands.<\/p>\n

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This thought provoking poem by progressive Jewish feminist, Abby Caplin, draws a parallel between the biblical Daughters of Tzelofhad and the modern\u00a0Women of the Wall.\u00a0Both groups fight for gender equality within Judaism; the biblical women who argued that they should be able to inherit their father’s land, and the modern\u00a0organization\u00a0that works to attain equality for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2548,236],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kol-ami.kulam.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1753\/"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kol-ami.kulam.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kol-ami.kulam.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post\/"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kol-ami.kulam.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81\/"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kol-ami.kulam.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments\/?post=1753"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kol-ami.kulam.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1753\/revisions\/"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11809,"href":"https:\/\/kol-ami.kulam.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1753\/revisions\/11809\/"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kol-ami.kulam.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/954\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kol-ami.kulam.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/?parent=1753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kol-ami.kulam.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories\/?post=1753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kol-ami.kulam.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags\/?post=1753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}