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Tucked at the end of this week’s parsha, Sh’lach L’cha, we find two mitzvot and according to Halacha, women are commanded to perform the first and in many circles, women are forbidden from doing the other. These are the commandments of chalah and tzitzit. In Numbers 15:17-21 we are commanded to set aside one piece of dough from each batch we make, “…when you eat of the bread of the land you shall set aside a portion for God.” The concluding section of the parsha describes the tzitzit and how they are to be worn and their significance. In Numbers 15:39 we read, “And it shall be to you for a fringe, that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of Adonai and do them…” There is so much to say about these passages and endless d’vrei Torah have been written about them, but I would like to emulate the great commentator Rashi and examine what seems wrong to me here.

By Rebecca Kobrin In partnership with The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives, WRJ has engaged 15 scholars to research various aspects of WRJ's history and its impact on the North American Jewish community. This Ten Minutes of Torah is an excerpt of one of the articles, which will appear in a volume available at the WRJ Assembly in San Diego in December 2013. Please join us on Sunday, June 2, 2013 for the WRJ Centennial Symposium at Temple Israel of New York City, where many of the scholars will share the fruits of their research. A month before its official dedication in October 1951, the House of Living Judaism, the new headquarters of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations was already attracting considerable attention. Tour buses stopped to marvel at its looming presence; indeed, remarked the New York Times, it was quickly becoming “one of City’s ‘Sights’” perched on the corner of Sixty-fifth Street and Fifth Avenue (“New Hebrew Center One of City’s Sights,” New York Times, September 5, 1951, 6). With tourists awed by this new home of the UAHC and its neighbor Temple Emanu-El, all those close to the inner workings of UAHC appreciated the true miracle: the opening of a new center for Reform Judaism not in Cincinnati. This new center came into being, as historian Michael Meyer notes, “thanks largely to funds raised by local Sisterhoods,” led by Jane Evans, the National Federation for Temple Sisterhood’s executive director since 1933. Rallying behind the idea that the Reform Movement needed a new home so that it could have “a stronger presence in North America’s largest Jewish community,” the women of NFTS raised $500,000 to establish a new home for the UAHC offices. Since this geographic reorientation was mired in controversy, the rank and file support of NFTS demonstrated the widespread popular support for this historic move, transforming this female ‘auxiliary’ into a major artery of the Reform movement).

by Rabbi Michele Lenke Among the many gifts we find in this week’s Torah portion, B’haalot’cha, is the prayer for healing that Moses and Aaron offer to the Holy One on behalf of their sister Miriam. Her brothers pray “El Na R’fa Na La,” O God, please heal her! (Numbers 12:13). These five words are simultaneously simple and profound. Our siddurim are filled with prayers that use attribute after attribute, praise after praise in order to express God’s greatness, uniqueness and power, and yet what is so incredibly powerful here is that it takes just five words for two brothers to ask God for healing on their sister’s behalf.

Rabbi Saperstein and Rabbi Feldman: “The overt threats implied by the vandalism inside the hallway of the apartment building of a leader of Women of the Wall serves to remind us of the utmost importance of the Women of the Wall’s efforts to advance religious pluralism, democracy, and gender equality in Israel. We call on the Israeli judicial system to hold the perpetrators accountable.”

By Rabbi Marla Feldman I was blessed to have had the opportunity to become a rabbi and serve the Jewish community in a time when the doors to the rabbinate were open to women. As we celebrate the 40^th anniversary of Sally Priesand’s ordination, I am acutely aware that this was not always the case. Rabbi Priesand and the generation of pioneering women who came before me pushed through closed doors and laid out a welcome mat for women like me. We owe them a debt of gratitude for their perseverance. But even before Rabbi Priesand’s ordination there were women chipping away at the barriers to women’s spiritual leadership. Generations of Reform women as far back as the late 1800’s advocated for the ordination of women; they brought women out of the kitchen and into the center of Reform Jewish life. They set the stage for women to take their place on the bima and in the board room. They, too, deserve our gratitude, not only for their role in the past, but also for what they continue to bring to our congregations, our communities, and the Jewish world at large. These are the women of our sisterhoods, auxiliaries, and women’s groups; they were, and are, Women of Reform Judaism (WRJ).

by Dana Herman, PhD Although there are many benefits to working at The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives (AJA) in Cincinnati, OH—the largest, free-standing repository dedicated to preserving the history of American Jewry—one of the most delightful has to be meeting and interacting with the visitors to our facility who conduct research into the richness of the American Jewish experience, such as WRJ. This June will mark 3 years since I first met members of WRJ’s Executive Committee who came to Cincinnati to explore ways in which they could partner with the AJA to celebrate WRJ’s Centennial.

by Marcy R. Frost When is the last time you saw Hamlet? After more than 400 years, it remains popular and poignant. I never cease to be amazed by how much of Hamlet has found its way into our modern language. Of course, there is the obvious, “To be or not to be” line. Ever heard that “brevity is the soul of wit” or that “conscience does make cowards of us all”? Hamlet was the first to tell his friend, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” There’s also “Good-night, sweet prince; and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest,” “The play’s the thing wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king,” and “The rest is silence.” Did you know that Hamlet is the source of the saying, “To thine own self be true,” “There’s something rotten in the state of Denmark,” and “Neither a borrower nor a lender be.”? If there is method to your madness, Hamlet had it first. If you call someone a “piece of work,” you are harking back to Hamlet’s famous speech about “What a piece of work is man.” “The lady doth protest too much,” “more than kin, and less than kind” “every dog will have his day,” “get thee to a nunnery,” “cruel to be kind,” and “sweets for the sweet,” are all derived from lines in Hamlet.

by Amanda Wachstein, NFTY-PAR Advisor (pictured with Rosanne Selfon, her mom, also known as Bubbio, and Mila) The best gifts in the world are the people in our lives and the moments we share together, especially when those people are our mothers, the women who have made us strong, resilient and loving. These women come in all shapes and sizes; they speak different languages; they work both in and outside the home; they chauffeur and clean and cook and do endless laundry. They are elegant and fun, all at the same time. Our moms impact our world, far and near, in different ways.

By Dolores Wilkenfeld The dictionary defines the word, “journey” as “travel or passage from one place to another.” Yet, journey is used increasingly these days to refer to a series of events and experiences in our lives which influence us in a particularly meaningful direction. I would suggest that both descriptions can apply to the relationship between Women of Reform Judaism (formerly the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods) and the World Union for Progressive Judaism. The World Union – or WUPJ – is the largest religious Jewish movement in the world, encompassing more than 1.7 million Reform, Liberal and Progressive Jews in more than 40 countries. It was founded in 1926 and from its early years attracted the attention of NFTS leaders. By 1960, WUPJ had become a major project of NFTS. Local Sisterhoods were urged to include it in their programming and take up “Silver Coin Collections”. (We later graduated to paper money and checks.) It was at this time that I first helped create a skit about the WUPJ for my sisterhood and began my own journey into the exciting realm of international Reform Judaism.