Standing Here, All of Us

This week's Torah portion, Nitzavim, may be my favorite portion.

And this is because for me, it contains the heart of progressive Judaism.

It begins with one of the most powerful declarations of inclusion in Torah.

You stand this day, all of you.

Moses then names them young and old, men and women, stranger in the camp, no matter their occupation or social status.

Everyone stands within the covenant.

No one is excluded from this moment, not even the generations to come.

Then, a little later, Moses says something equally radical about Torah itself.

It is not in heaven.

Torah is not somewhere inaccessible, waiting for someone with special authority to bring it down to us.

It is very close to you.

in your mouth and in your heart.

The rabbis took those words very seriously.

In the famous story of the Oven of Achnai, when a heavenly voice intervenes in a rabbinic disagreement, Rabbi Yehoshua stands and answers, The Torah is not in heaven.

It has been given to us.

Now we must wrestle with it, interpret it, and take responsibility for what we do with it.

And then comes one of the best known lines of Nitzavim, , choose life.

For me, these three ideas belong together.

We all stand within the covenant.

Torah belongs to all of us.

And therefore, we all have a responsibility to choose what we do with it and how we live by it.

This week, those words have another resonance for me.

Gloria Steinem died on Wednesday.

Many years ago, her book Revolution From Within was the book that introduced me to feminism.

It opened a door, and through that door, I eventually discovered Jewish feminism and thinkers such as Judith Plaskow.