The Voice of Sarah: Feminine Spirituality and Traditional Judaism (review)

Vol. 10, No.3 Spring 1992 139 essays assist somewhat, however, in orienting the present reader to the material. Levinas' major claims, however, deserve a better presentation and a more serious consideration than found here. Alfred L. Ivry Skirball Department ofHebrew and Judaic Studies New York University The Voice of Sarah: Feminine Spirituality and TraditionalJudaism, by Tamar Frankiel. San Francisco: HarperSan Francisco, 1990. 140 pp. $18.95. The Voice of Sarah: Feminine Spirituality and Traditional Judaism, by Tamar Frankiel, is the author's presentation of her own reasons for the Jewish woman's way of life and why she found Judaism so powerful a sustenance for feminine spirituality. She has found that deepening her commitment to Jewish practice has intensified her feminine consciousness. She admits that deficiencies developed in the tradition, and those flaws need to be repaired in order to provide the resources of strength, courage, and self-esteem that are the birthright of every Jewish woman. In this book Frankiel steps aside from the approach of biblical criticism, and she does not deal with studies directed at misogyny or patriarchal oppression in Judaism. These areas she leaves to others. Rather, her purpose is to present traditional Judaism as a living teaching, with rich resources for woman's self-understanding. She believes that by careful reading ofTorah, other biblical writings, and the midrash, the feminine dimension of the tradition can be, recovered and the women in the stories will appear multidimensional and great in their feminine spiritual achievements. The development of this position begins with the Mothers and great women ofJudaism and their impact on tradition. From the stories about Sarah, Rivkah (Rebecca), Rachel, and Leah motherhood moves beyond the stereotype of a woman always preoccupied with childbearing to signify a deep and profound inner connection to the future, and to succeeding generations in the tradition. Having laid the foundation on the Mothers, Frankiel next moves to stories of Ruth, Tamar, Esther, and Yehudit Oudith), who modeled righteousness and were regarded as paragons of piety. Finally; she takes up examples of women in post-biblical times. 140 SHOFAR ShulamitAlexandra, Channah (Hannah), Rachel \Verbermacher, and others witnessed to the continued influence of women on the tradition. The second main division of the work discusses some aspects of Jewish ritual life that are especially relevant to women. Ritual mitzvot (commandments) performed with kavannah (intention) open the possibility of entering into a new dimension of time that changes a woman's experience. In festival times the woman becomes a channel for the energy of the festival to affect her part of the world. All of this has a psychological and spiritual dimension which is best fostered in privacy as symbolized in Judaism by the home. In addition to ritual experience, women can also experience satisfaction, even exhilaration, as they learn to tune their minds and hearts to the rhythms of natural cycles and spiritual dimensions of existence: biological rhythms, the seasons, and the history of divine action in the world. The third part of the book intends to suggest that Jewish women can be in fruitful dialogue with modern views, so that they can use their strengths and correct their weaknesses to make a viable Jewish life for their daughters of the twenty-first century. Against hard-line feminists, Frankiel argues that contemporary psychological and religious thought recog.'1izes the relevance of gender differences in understanding male and female personalities and the processes that can enable a person to come to full self-realization. Traditional Jewish life preserves rich and significant values for both men and women. Women need to recover, preserve, and enrich the feminine features of their spirituality in the contemporary world. She asks whether the modern pulpit and synagogue really offer women a way to truly develop within themselves the intuitive relationship-based way of life that is their feminine heritage. She leaves open the possibility for women who wish to pursue legal studies, but she states her doubt as to whether women will, in the near future, have a significant impact on halacha from that route (p. 126). To feminist understandings of the Jewish tradition, the author cal1s for fairness to biblical and rabbinic sources which are an...