1997: Over four hundred female rabbis have been ordained, half of the rabbinical students at Hebrew Union College are women, and numerous Reform, Reconstructionist, and Conservative Synagogues hold egalitarian services. Although there are still hurdles impeding the route to complete religious equality, most women no longer feel compelled to leave the Jewish community in order to gain a sense of liberation from their subordinate status. Today, women are pushing the boundaries and limits of their traditional roles and entering the religious arena as full participants. Over the past twenty years, the nature of Jewish feminism has evolved. No longer are women on as much of a quest for parity and access; they are now demanding influence and free participation. They have imparted a force upon modern Judaism, and it is important to examine their effects on the religion.

One general mission of feminism is to give women a presence and a voice in a society where they had been absent and unheard, and to base women's points of reference in the female rather than the male experience. Within Judaism, this movement has dealt with issues of womens' inclusion, and as it gains momentum, it is moving on to issues such as tradition, ritual and prayer. This wave of Jewish feminism has worked to create God-language and liturgy that takes the female perspective into consideration.

Since the mid-1970s, the Reform movement has been questioning the sexism of its liturgy. Women who had difficulty with traditional liturgy, with Judaism's portrayal and imagery of men and women in general, and with its concept of God as Father and King, have started challenging these notions. People have begun to respond to the need for theological reinterpretations to transform the women of Judaism from object to subject. New rituals have emerged that address the milestones and life cycles particular to women. Jewish women in the United States have begun to form groups which meet in their own homes and focus on a number of areas of concern: prayer, text study, liturgy, ritual and identity. This energy to examine, challenge, and re/create marks a new phase of Jewish women's spirituality.

Characteristic of this new spirituality are gender sensitive prayer books such as Gates of Prayer for Shabbat, Gates of Prayer for Weekdays and At A House of Mourning, which were written for the Reform movement and published in l992. In the translation, words like "mankind" became "humankind" and the Avot (Fathers) prayer was changed to the Avot V'imahot (fathers and mothers), praising Sarah, Rebekah, Leah, and Rachel alongside Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the English and the Hebrew. Both the Reconstructionist and Reform movements have recently come out with even more gender-sensitive versions of their prayer books. Such innovations validate the position of Jewish feminism as a part of mainstream Judaism.

New siddurim are created as a way of integrating spiritual and political beliefs that facilitates bringing the whole self into prayer. Havurat Shalom, a group of liberal-minded Jews who published a siddur in 1991, felt that their religious experience was diminished when they worshipped only part of God, the male part, as if it were whole. Names for God in their siddur include: "Source of Life", "Mekor ha-Hayim", "Our Mother", "Imenu", "Life of the Worlds or Everlasting Life", "Hei ha-Olamim". They also included phrases portraying God as a nurturer, friend and teacher.

Marcia Falk, a Hebrew scholar, linguist, lyric poet, and Jewish feminist has just put out an alternative prayer book called The Book of Blessings. Her identity as a poet and a feminist has led her to write new blessings to substitute for the traditional, formulaic ones that tend to idolize the images of a male Lord/God/King ruling over the world. She rejects the traditional naming of God as "adonai eloheynu melekh ha-olam", "Lord our God king of the world," because it reinforces forms of patriarchal power and male privilege in the world.

"My experience of life does not take the form of patriarchal images, so I haven't needed a sexist language," writes Falk. "If I needed to talk to a man, then I would need a male image. But theology isn't about talking to a male or a female; it's about getting in touch with the potential for the sacred in our lives."1

There is a prayer entitled "Blessing the Beloved" in the book which is a prayer for two people, intended for use at home on Friday evenings to express their appreciation of each other. Falk's Hebrew version of this prayer has grammatically correct alternatives for same-sex as well as opposite-sex couples.

One partner: How fine/you are, my love,/how fine you are.

The other partner: How fine/are you, my love,/what joy is ours.

Together: Of all pleasure,/how sweet/is the taste of love.2

This prayer was designed to replace Eshet Hayil, the prayer a man traditionally sings to his wife at the Shabbat table.

In Falk's siddur there is a blessing for putting on the prayer shawl that has language for women, as well as men. This was once an art resticted to men. At the opening of most of her blessings, instead of saying "barukh atah," "blessed are you [masculine]," or even "berukhah at," "blessed are you [feminine]," she says "n'varekh," "let us bless," which is more gender inclusive and utilizes active language, making humans active agents in blessing the Divine. Falk also composes new images such as "Eyn ha-khayyim," "wellspring or source of life" (used in her blessing over the bread), "Nishmat kol khai," "breath of all living things," and "Nitzotzot hanefesh," "sparks of the inner, unseen self" to serve as different metaphors for Divinity. Her feminism inspired her to embrace such diversified, inclusive, and pluralistic visions.

Falk feared rewriting many of the prayers that she did, especially the Shema, because it is a central prayer of Judaism and has been equated with centuries of martyrdom. The Shema that she has rewritten reads, "Sh'ma, Yisra'eyl-/la'Elohut alfey panim,/m'lo olam sh'khinatah,/ribuy paneha ehad. Hear, O Israel-/The divine abounds everywhere/and dwells in everything;/the many are One."3

There has been some controversy over her revisionism. Critics argue that it takes away the sense of tradition that unites Jews, and that the ritual quality of prayers is lost in new forms. These prayers transform concepts of God and theology that threaten tradition as well. Falk argues that Jewish liturgy has never been fixed in one version because old prayers were once new creations of individuals living in other cultures and times, and because the prayer book has been in constant flux from the earliest texts to the modern day ones. She consoles herself with the hope that her blessings can serve as a resource for people who are frustrated and "dissatisfied with the traditional prayers and for those who appreciate the traditional texts and wish to build upon them."4

There continues to be much debate over the issue of whether it is more meaningful for women to pray with the words that they grew up with even though they reflect patriarchal values, or to pray with a new language that is not oppressive to women. Some women feel a greater intensity during prayer when they know that they are speaking the words that their ancestors spoke. However, other women have a greater sense of fulfillment when they use new God-language that better expresses their perception of God. For the majority of American Jews who don't know Hebrew but mumble Hebrew prayers all the same, the words are rote, meaningful only as nostalgia. For those who do know Hebrew, praying can be even worse because the patriarchal language has become almost unspeakable and even offensive to them. That is why it is so important that Marcia Falk and the members of Havurat Shalom Siddur Project create new liturgy that is based on their own experiences and inspires others as well.

Ritual is supposed to reflect and sanctify Jewish lives as they are lived, but much Jewish ritual revolves around the lives of men. There is an absence in tradition because women's concerns, for the most part, are excluded (except in the Tkhines-collections of Yiddish prayers of Ashkenazic women dating from the late sixteenth century, which revealed women relating to God, the Jewish people, home, and family life). Rabbi Debra Orenstein has recently edited a book entitled Lifecycles: Jewish Women on Life Passages & Personal Milestones, which includes many new rituals, prayers and ceremonies for women. The life passages that are represented in this book include childbirth, coming out, menopause, and entering a baby girl into the Covenant. Up until very recently rabbis would not have cited these as life passages, much less as events worthy of their own ceremonies, but feminist Jews have been instrumental in expanding the definition of life cycle in many ways. By including women in rites of passage which used to be exclusively for men, the feminist movement has created new traditions that ritualize major events in women's lives. Thus women now celebrate Bat Mitzvahs and Covenant ceremonies, as well as supplemental divorce rituals and alternative marriage contracts, like those used in same-sex marriages. Rosh Chodesh, the celebration of the new moon, has also been an important reclaimed ritual for Jewish women. Rediscovering the New Moon as a source of monthly renewal has enabled Jewish women to grow within an ancient heritage.

When the Jewish feminist movement emerged there was opposition to it because some people feared that it would result in secularization. It is interesting to note, however, that many of the new developments coming out of Jewish feminism are clearly not secular. There are prayers, rituals, images and concepts of God that are allowing more women to become attached to their Judaism and connected to God. A question that arises with the emergence of this new prayer and ritual is, "Will people actually use this?" People challenge the validity of all of these new ceremonies and doubt whether they will ever catch on. Some women who have created new liturgies or rituals were hesitant about performing them in their own communities, much less having strangers perform them. But every prayer was new at some point. Some rituals and prayers caught on immediately and seem like they have always existed. I recall one day in Hebrew school, when I was eight, I was told to add my "mothers-Sarah, Rachel, Leah, and Rebekah" in the Avot section of the prayers, alongside the fathers. There was some whining and moaning because it had taken us so long to memorize the prayer in the first place, but it never again seemed right to say the Avot, without including our Imahot. People have felt that other rituals, on first performance, seemed forced, and the original form was revised or abandoned. Other rituals may have fulfilled an immediate purpose, but were forgotten soon after. Time will determine what new innovations will become part of some people's tradition.

Marcia Falk's new blessings have begun to circulate across the Unites States and also in Israel, where they have been adopted by communities and individuals from a range of orientations-Reconstructionist, Reform, Conservative, Havurah- style, feminist, progressive, and unaffiliated Jews. It wasn't long before people were even extrapolating from them to write new blessings of their own. Eighty years ago Bat Mitzvah ceremonies did not exist, but today this coming-of-age ceremony for a girl is common, even in Orthodox circles, though in more limited ways. Twenty-five years ago naming rituals for baby girls were virtually non-existent, but now it is expected to have some sort of ceremony after the birth of a daughter.

"It is startling to realize how quickly revolution becomes everyday reality," writes Orenstein. "It is not difficult to imagine a time, in the not too distant future, when the format of girls' naming ceremonies will be more standardized, when we will have communally and religiously sanctioned responses to miscarriage, when most Jews will become accustomed to seeing women don traditional (and perhaps feminized) prayer garments, including prayer shawl, phylacteries, and head coverings."5

It is important to recognize that none of the creations of new prayer and ritual would have been possible without the women who originally fought for inclusion as full members of the Jewish community. They worked to allow women to be ordained as rabbis and struggled to gain leadership in Jewish federations, on synagogue boards, and in Jewish community organizations. These new expressions of Jewish feminism can be seen as part of the influence that has been made since women have gained a more equal access to Judaism.

There is still the question of whether in twenty years these creations of postmodern feminism will be part of the life of the non-Orthodox Jewish movements, or if they will remain a phenomenon on the outside of mainstream Judaism. Women and feminists in the past have been accused of endangering tradition by using their influence to create new traditions. Can Judaism really be damaged by such influence? Maybe by asking the right questions, women will avoid endangering tradition, and will instead succeed in sustaining and renewing it.

Margot Meitner is a sophomore in Branford College.