NEW YORK — Sefaria, the nonprofit organization that digitizes and freely shares Jewish texts in Hebrew and in translation, has made Women of Reform Judaism’s The Torah: A Women’s Commentary available as part of its digital library.
Originally published in 2007 by URJ Press, WRJ and URJ Press commissioned the work of the world's leading Jewish female Bible scholars, rabbis, cantors, and others, whose collective efforts resulted in the first comprehensive commentary on the Five Books of Moses to be authored only by women. The volume includes original commentary on individual Torah portions as well as the Hebrew and English translations, giving dimension to women's voices in Jewish tradition.
In 2015, the Central Conference of American Rabbis took over for URJ Press as the publisher of the commentary.
“Too often, as clergy or lay leaders prepare text studies and learning resources, they have faced barriers to including women-led and female-centric work. Now with this partnership, scholarly feminist Torah commentary is easily accessible for all,” said WRJ CEO Rabbi Liz P.G. Hirsch.
The idea of a women’s commentary was originally brought up at the 1993 WRJ Assembly when Cantor Sarah Sager urged WRJ members to “imagine women feeling permitted, for the first time, feeling able, feeling legitimate in their study of Torah.” Sager continued with a challenge to WRJ: “If we are really serious about women’s spirituality, about reclaiming our history and our voices, about liberating the concepts of God and community, of integrating the Torah of our tradition into the Torah of our lives, then there is something very concrete that we can do. We can commission the creation of the first feminist commentary to the Torah.”
Following pilot volumes and Torah study tests, URJ press managed the editorial and publication processes of the commentary under the leadership of editors Rabbi Tamara Cohn Eskenazi, PhD, and Rabbi Andrea Weiss, PhD, and Rabbi Hara Person, managing editor.
“The Central Conference of American Rabbis is honored to participate in this partnership, which will greatly increase the representation of both women and Reform rabbis on Sefaria. We are delighted to bring the digital version of the landmark The Torah: A Women’s Commentary to new and wider audiences,” said Rabbi Hara Person, Chief Executive of Central Conference of American Rabbis.
In 2008, the commentary won the Jewish Book Council’s Jewish Book of the Year Award. It was later presented to President Barack Obama at the 2011 WRJ Assembly. Multiple printings have been needed to meet demands, and study guides for every parashah are also available.
Many thanks to the original funders of The Torah: A Women’s Commentary, including WRJ members who traveled across North America eventually raising in excess of $1.5 million to entirely fund the publication.
The book is available in print and as an ebook from CCAR Press.