For Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, the son of non-Torah observant parents, his grandmother was his “first rebbe.”
She taught him the beauty of Shabbat observance as they shared Friday nights — eating, singing and learning together.
“She would speak to God like one speaks to a friend,” he said during Lake Park Synagogue’s annual dinner on Wednesday, May 18, held at the Rubenstein Pavilion of the Jewish Home and Care Center.
Chief rabbi of Efrat and founder and dean of the Ohr Torah Stone Colleges, Riskin shared his personal story during a talk about “Women in Jewish Leadership: A Silent But Effective Revolution.”
Focusing on women in leadership, Torah study and divorce, Riskin said: “[If we had] more women leaders, the world would be a better place.”
“We desperately need leaders of strength and leaders of compassion … to create a much better tomorrow,” he said.
Riskin said we should look to the Bible for stories of powerful women. “To some extent,” he said, “the Bible is even far ahead of modern times in terms of the image of and respect for women,” naming Sarah, Rebecca and Deborah, as examples.
In spite of a dearth of such leaders in modern Jewish life, halachah (Jewish law) does allow women to be such leaders, he said. “Women as leaders is built into Jewish law,” and therefore “must be built into Jewish life.”
Even so, an important issue in Jewish law, said Riskin, is the question of whether or not “women can study Torah at the highest of levels.”
Though halachah “doesn’t change — it’s eternal,” Riskin said that “situations change as society changes,” and this opens the door to new possibilities.
In ancient times, “most women didn’t study” at all, he said, but now, “women who do study, they ought likewise to study Torah.” And parents are obligated to teach their daughters that value.
Riskin also discussed the value of women learning law. When he first came to Israel, he said there were a “high percentage of women who wanted divorces.” But there were no women lawyers “trained to argue for women’s rights” in religious divorce trials.
Though he “knew it would be difficult,” Riskin went about setting and getting in 1990 Knesset approval for a legal training program for women advocates in rabbinic courts.
The initial response to the program was high: More than 80 women came for testing for entrance to the program. It has now trained about “100 women in the field,” Riskin said.
In conclusion, Riskin said that he is often asked why the word Shekinah, the presence of God, is a feminine form.
Riskin gave an example of a man who comes home from work and plays with his baby. When it is time for the baby’s diaper to be changed, the man hands the baby back to his wife.
Riskin said that often the woman will kiss the baby, even as she is changing his diaper. He compared this act to God.
“God loves everyone like a woman loves a child that came from her womb. He loves us even with all of our dirt.”
Brooklyn born Riskin is the author of two new books, “Women and Jewish Divorce” and “The New Passover Haggadah.”
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