A few weeks ago, I read an article by a JTwitter friend, Avigayil Halpern. It has to do with the Kranjec Test, a challenge to include one non-male voice on every source sheet. It was a new term for an old problem I'd often mulled over - that there were never enough diverse voices in Jewish text and interpretation. Like Avigayil, I reasoned that *I* was the diversity on the source sheet, and unlike my husband who goes out of his way to find non-men to cite, I didn't have to do the same.
Besides, I'd reasoned, it was just so *difficult* to find. Aside from a few Twitter rabbi friends who have blogs and a few queer newsletters I get via email, it was a chore to find non-men to cite. That's when I realized - I was contributing to this problem.
You see, I'm always loath to put my words out there. I change my interpretations all the time, and learn much of what influences me from others. Besides, I'm only three years out of seminary, I always reasoned. Perhaps when I know more or feel more settled in my job, I might start putting the good stuff out after a stringent editorial process.
After all, it felt like chutzpah to have a blog where people can go to see my interpretations. I'm a small-town rabbi, a convert to Judaism, a loud-mouthed (and small-account) JTwitter member. I'm no Rabbi Barenblat. I'm definitely not Lord Sacks or anyone else with a blog I reference.
But by confining my interpretations to Twitter and my congregation's sanctuary, I realized that I was contributing to the dearth of diverse interpretation in Jewish scholarship today. Scholars and rabbis should write because they have something to say, not because they *are* someone.
So I'm going to try to write when I have something to say, and post my divrei Torah here as well. I'm using this space as an aggregator of sorts, so sometimes it will be a video, sometimes it will be a Twitter rant, other times it will be more autobiographical. Whether this becomes useful to anyone else is a mystery that remains to be seen and, I suppose, a thing only time will tell us. I will try to always be myself in these pages, and trust in the guidance of the Divine for the rest.
Feel free to join me on this journey. And welcome.
Comments