Part of the Problem

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.