Women in Charge

Purim is traditionally a time for inversions. What is up is down, what is left is right, those who would be destroyed are saved. One particular inversion that bears note on Purim is the role of women. Through most of Jewish history, institutions dominated by men perpetuated a religion that kept the role of Jewish men superior in many ways to that of Jewish women. Perhaps most famously, under rabbinic understanding, women are generally exempt from any positive time-bound religious commandment (doing any mitzvah that must be done at a particular time.) In fact women are often classified under halachah (Jewish Law) in the same category as children and slaves when it comes to such obligations.

Purim is truly a great switch from what was the norm through much of Jewish history. While most of us can name several Jewish women in the Bible who played crucial roles in our people’s spiritual and historic journey, we can name many more men. That is why as hero, Esther stands out in our scripture in way that is equaled among women only by Deborah the Judge. Esther showed an incredible bravery in assuming a position of leadership for the exiled Jewish community of ancient Persia.

Esther came into the king’s palace in less than desirable circumstances. As the megillah tells us, she had to please the king in a way that the other women couldn’t in order to gain his favor. There seems to be little ambiguity about what that meant then, or even now. Yet, Esther did this in much the way an undercover agent today might do things she or he finds repugnant in order to serve her people. Once she was with the king, she was able to change the course of history by swaying the king’s decision to allow the murder of all the Jews. Without Esther’s initiative and leadership, we would have been lost.

The case today is perhaps not so different. The last thirty years have seen a welcome inversion of traditional leadership roles among American Jews. Women have taken more, and more significant positions of leadership throughout our Jewish institutions. Temple presidents, board members, agency directors, cantors, and rabbis are increasingly female, in some cases constituting a clear majority. Just as Purim encourages us to be thankful for the role that Esther played when the men around her couldn’t, today we have reason to be thankful for the many roles that women fill in our communities. This most recent period of involvement and leadership by women has been marked by an increasingly open and inclusive vision and reality of who and what we are as Jews. That’s a change we can all celebrate this Purim!