One hundred years this week, one of the most important innovations in Jewish history came into being: The First Bat Mitzvah.
A rabbi, who just a month before had opened a synagogue on the Upper West Side of Manhattan called the Society for Advancement of Judaism or SAJ, was already stirring up trouble. Never one to be stymied by potential criticism, he asked his board for approval of this radical idea. After gaining it, he told his daughter Judith. Two days later, on Shabbat morning she came to the men’s side of the mechitza (Yes they did still have divider between men and women!) and read from below the bima the words of the Holiness code from Leviticus 19.
As SAJ’s current rabbi Lauren Grabelle Herrmann put it on a podcast recording, this was the first opportunity for women to gain a voice in synagogue life. Judith Kaplan, later Eisenstein, went on to become a key composer of Jewish music, and a leader in the Jewish world. Her Bat Mitzvah itself was awkward, as are most first steps. But they are the most important ones we will ever take.
This week’s portion Tzav, recalls the early first steps of the Israelite sacrificial service, outmoded now, but radical then. Their initial forays into monotheism, while different than we observe now, led to everything that followed, just as Bat Mitzvah had paved the way to a century of women’s inclusion, and a more accepting and open Judaism over all.
Here’s to the millions of girls and women who have joined Judith in becoming a Bat Mitzvah. It’s amazing how big that first step truly was.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Alex