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DRISHA - Viewpoints
Wendy Amsellem, Living Within My Era
 Wendy
Amsellem is Director of High School Programs at Drisha Institute and a
faculty member. After completing a BA from Harvard University, she began
Harvard Law but took leave to study in the 3-year Scholars Circle at Drisha,
graduating in 2000. Wendy is also an alumna of the Drisha Summer High
School Program. She is pursuing a PhD in Jewish Studies at NYU. |
My time at Drisha has been a conscious attempt to live within
my era. I am part of the first generation of Orthodox women for whom learning
Talmud is a given, and complete access to religious texts a right and not
a contested privilege. I feel at home in rabbinic texts. The logic is familiar
and the Aramaic phrases flow comfortably through my consciousness. I am a
part of a tradition of learning which at times seems so natural and seamless
that it is hard to remember that a generation ago, my experience was unthinkable.
Nevertheless, I am often aware that the authors of the texts I study never
dreamed that I would ponder their words. Women in rabbinic writings are regarded
as Other, our bodies inaccurately described, our personalities and intellectual
capacities woefully underestimated, and our proclivities seriously misjudged.
Many women shy away from the texts dealing with women, and instead prefer
to lose themselves in the anonymity of Nezikin (tort law) or Moed
(festival issues). In contrast, I have a fascination with Seder Nashim
(Order “Women”). I love the feeling of eavesdropping on the male
conversation, trying to understand what they really thought about us. I feel
a special connection to these texts and in trying to make sense of gender
relations in early Babylonia, I better understand my place in the Judaism
of today.
That I am an Orthodox Jew makes my grappling with these texts particularly
urgent and personal. The sexist attitudes of rabbinic writings are not antique
curiosities. They inform the way I live; they limit the options of what I
can do; and they precipitate the perpetual angst that is the hallmark of the
Orthodox Jewish feminist. I choose to be bound by traditions which are often
antithetical to the egalitarianism that pervades all other aspects of my life.
I could not continue in this mode if I did not really believe that Jewish
tradition and practice were evolving towards greater opportunities and equality
for women. I am committing my life to ensuring that women become increasingly
a part of the text tradition that has sustained Judaism for millennia.
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