d’var torah
Creating Humanity and
Midrash in the Divine Image
BY RABBI SHAI CHERRY
Parshat Bereshit
W hen teaching midrash, I
enjoy showing how paint-
ings are just as much
midrash as classical rabbinical texts.

A Renaissance painter, Bacchiacca
(1494-1557), depicted Eve lovingly
holding Abel aloft , while Cain, vying
for her attention, tugs at her hem. Th e
Torah gives us no indication that Cain
murdered Abel due to Eve’s maternal
favoritism, but that is what Bacchiacca
suggests. Blame the woman!
Earlier, in the Garden, Eve was pun-
ished by God for her transgression:
“Your desire will be for your man, and
he will rule over you” (Gen. 3:16). Th e
traditional commentators try to deter-
mine if the husband’s rule over his wife
is general or limited to the beginning of
the verse, which references her desire.

In either case, patriarchy is planted in
the garden.

Bruria is among the few women
mentioned explicitly in the Talmud.

Rivka Lubitch, an Israeli rabbinic advo-
cate for women, imagines what is found
in Bruria’s Torah: “Your desire will be
for your woman, and she will rule over
you.” Lubitch’s midrash explains that
“whoever desires someone is ruled by
them; but the Torah of Moses spoke in
the language of humans, which is to
say, males.”
Lubitch’s midrash is off ered in a
newly translated volume of the Israeli
women’s midrash, edited by Tamar
Biala, entitled “Dirshuni.” Biala
unpacks each midrash for those unfa-
miliar with rabbinic literature.

Bruria, Biala explains, is the wife
of Rabbi Meir who is known for hav-
(1.) (2.)
(3.) (4.)
(5.) (6.)
(7.) (8.)
(9.) (10.)
(11.) (12.)
(13.) (14.)
(15.) ing variant readings in his Torah!
Moreover, since Hebrew is a gendered
language, b’nei adam, the words we
translate as humans, is literally, “the
sons of Adam.” Th e recognition that
the Torah (of Moses) is written in the
language of “humans” is found fre-
quently in the Talmud where it is used
to neutralize a hyper-literal reading of
grammatical conventions or common
idioms. Lubitch reinterprets this common
rabbinic notion to destabilize and
uproot the Torah’s patriarchal ori-
gin story of both gender and sexual
orientation. In our world of power
and politics, whoever possesses what
another desires enjoys the advantage.

Lubitch, Biala and the other writers in
“Dirshuni” have appropriated the tra-
ditional method of midrash and writ-
ten themselves into the tradition. For
those of us familiar with rabbinic lit-
erature and supportive of their eff orts,
the result is breathtaking
At Congregation Adath Jeshurun,
we are celebrating this year 5783 as
the Year of the Woman. A series of
distinguished female authors, scholars
and Torah teachers will lead many of
our educational programs. For regular
Shabbat services, we are highlighting
female voices whose wisdom is now
enriching our tradition.

Th e fi rst female rabbi, Regina Jonas,
was ordained in Berlin in 1935. In
1972, Sally Priesand became the fi rst
American woman to be ordained.

In the 50 years since then, we have
benefi ted as a community from the
insights and perspectives of the other
half of our people. We will, of course,
continue to bring the widest range
of Jewish talent aft er the Year of the
Woman, but we wanted to begin the
second half of this century of woman’s
rabbinic leadership with a year explic-
itly devoted to women’s voices.

Feminism has also generated mid-
rash by men now able to see Torah dif-
ferently from our male ancestors. Years
ago, I noted that the language of human
creation in Genesis One (verse 27), for
example, is not how it is usually trans-
lated, male and female. Our verse in
Genesis One says God created human-
ity “masculine and feminine” (zakhar
u’n’kevah). (When God instructs Noah
to bring male and female animals
onto the ark, the Hebrew is ish v’ishah
[Genesis 7:2].)
One of our congregants, Mikayla
Fassler, astutely noted that such an
expression is not necessarily binary,
masculine and/or feminine. Like “day
and night,” the expression might be a
merism, one that is inclusive of every-
thing in between — like twilight.

Just as the divine image in which all
humans are created is neither exclu-
sively masculine nor feminine, the
Torah may be suggesting that human
gender identity is also not exclusively
binary. Rabbi Shai Cherry is the rabbi of
Congregation Adath Jeshurun in Elkins
Park, the featured lecturer for Th e Great
Courses’ “Introduction to Judaism”
and author of “Torah through Time:
Understanding Bible Commentary from
the Rabbinic Period to Modern Times”
and “Coherent Judaism: Constructive
Th eology, Creation, and Halakhah.” Th e
Board of Rabbis of Greater Philadelphia
is proud to provide diverse perspectives
on Torah commentary for the Jewish
Exponent. Th e opinions expressed in
this column are the author’s own and
do not refl ect the view of the Board of
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