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An
Interview with Rabbi
Tirzah Firestone
author of THE RECEIVING: Reclaiming Jewish
Women’s Wisdom
by
Andrew Young November 11, 2002
Andrew
Young: How does The Receiving depart from your first book,
With Roots in Heaven?
Tirzah
Firestone: With Roots in Heaven was a personal memoir.
The Receiving brings what I’ve learned in my return to
Judaism – its deep root truths – out into the public
domain so that women and men who have been disaffected or
disenfranchised from the Jewish tradition can hear and apply
these truths.
The
book also serves another intention of mine. Jewish history
and scholarship for thousands of years has been pronouncedly
absent of women. The holy women, the female sages and miracle
workers…they’re almost completely absent from our
history. I wanted to correct this terrible omission.
AY:
Why is this subject so important today?
TF:
We’re in an unprecedented time in history when women
are going to rabbinic seminaries, cantorial schools, and adult
education in large numbers. For the first time, all the doors
are now opening for women to learn everything from the Talmud
to Kabbalah to Jewish history and the arts. And because women
have become leaders of communities – rabbis, cantors,
Jewish educators – there is no stopping our urge to correct
this long history of being unheard.
But
the work has only begun. It’s critical that there be
a tikkun, a “repair,” to make known to the public
that, yes, indeed, there were remarkable women spiritual leaders,
scholars, and mystics in the past, too. In this way, we'll
have something to share with our daughters and the upcoming
generations who would otherwise find an enormous absence in
the history books.
AY:
These stories are by no means idyllic accounts; in fact, many
are poignant and even heartbreaking. How are the struggles
and even failures of these women sages of value to us?
TF:
It might sound sentimental, but I believe that we have a sacred
obligation to these women, to bring their stories forward
into the light of day, to teach our daughters and women friends
about them so they are not lost to history. Many of these
women’s struggles happened because they were so disempowered
within their communities.
The
Virgin of the Green Hut for example, was literally excommunicated
and banished from the Jewish community of Ukraine. There are
other examples here too of women who struggled within the
male-dominant society that they lived in and succeeded in
maintaining their spiritual connection to the Divine. To me
these are very powerful teaching stories about persevering
amidst the outer forces in the world.
These
stories also teach us that women had their own way of doing
things. They did not let anger deter their lives – because
they had too much to accomplish! That is an important lesson
for us.
AY:
Tell us more about the spiritual teachings in The Receiving.
TF:
My deeper purpose for writing The Receiving was to begin to
put forth the Jewish mystical legacy for women – the
woman’s Kabbalah. I wanted to convey the beauty and innately
balanced principles of Kabbalah in a way that could be applied
in a practical, down to earth way.
AY:
What is the Kabbalah?
TF:
The Kabbalah is the large and evolving body of Jewish mystical
work, not just a single book. It was originally an oral tradition
that comes to us through several different volumes that were
written beginning in the 1100s with the Bahir and then in
the 1200s with the Zohar. The Kabbalah has been transmitted
largely from men to men for hundreds of years. Now, this is
beginning to change.
AY:
What does the Kabbalah offer to women?
TF:
The essential principles of the Kabbalah are deeply balanced
and are all about healing. They teach the necessity and responsibility
of healing the opposites in life, particularly between the
masculine and feminine approaches to life. But because these
teachings have been transmitted exclusively by men and for
men for so long, they have taken on a very masculine garb.
That's to say, the language and terminology of the Kabbalah
is often layered in stiff, formal , abstract, and often masculine
clothing. This is not the Kabbalah's intrinsic nature, though!
Its true wisdom is very much about the masculine-feminine
balance.
AY:
Today, Jewish women can choose from many spiritual lineages
that embrace the feminine dimensions of spirituality. Why
would someone want to return to a tradition that has been
largely preserved and practiced by men for 3,000 years?
TF:
I hope that this book will be a homecoming for so many of
us who have turned away from our tradition to seek wisdom
elsewhere, who have thought that Judaism is intrinsically
out of balance. The book comes to teach that Judaism’s
most powerful teachings are about what is universal. Ultimately,
they are about achieving wholeness, and opening ourselves
to receive a direct spiritual experience.
AY:
Before you wrote this book, what resources were available
for someone looking for teachings on the Kabbalah taught by
women and for women? TF: For women and by women? Well, that's
just it; there really has been nothing available. Until now,
if a woman wanted to study Kabbalah in a serious way, she
would go to a teacher or author such as Gershom Sholom, Moshe
Idel, Eliot Wolfson. These are wonderful male scholars, but
the writing can be impenetrable even to a dedicated student.
And rarely is there any allusion to how the teachings relate
to a woman's perspective, her daily life, her feminine rhythms.
In
The Receiving, I have attempted to present the clear essence
of the Jewish mystical vision, stripping each teaching of
its masculine and hierarchical outer garments, to reveal its
innately balanced perspective. The seven stories I tell each
serve as a springboard into a particular aspect of Judaism’s
mystical wisdom, such as the ten centers on the Tree of Life,
the journey of the soul, reincarnation, and the Kabbalah’s
mystical practices.
AY:
This emerging face of the feminine in Jewish spirituality:
how do you see it influencing the course of events in our
world today?
TF:
That’s an important question. I don’t want to be
grandiose, but I will say that the imbalances that we are
suffering from now in the world have so much to do with this
ripping, this tear, between opposites. And the power of mending
and healing these rifts has everything to do with how we might
heal the conflicts we are witnessing today. Clearly, the feminine
principle, which has everything to do with relating to those
around us heart to heart – is very much what we need
right now.
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