April 6, 2015
Writing about the Jewish festival of Passover, with its focus on the story of the Exodus, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt remind us of the important role that women played in that story. The actions of these women in Exodus show they did not hesitate to stand up to power, refusing to bend to unjust rules and practices.
In an essay for Global Voices, the blog of the American Jewish World Service, Justice Ginsburg and Rabbi Holtzblatt write:
“The Book of Exodus, much like the Book of Genesis, opens in pervasive darkness. Genesis describes the earth as ‘unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep.’ In Exodus, darkness attends the accession of a new Pharaoh who feared the Israelites and so enslaved them. God alone lights the way out of the darkness in Genesis. But in Exodus, God has many partners, first among them, five brave women.”
The stories of these courageous women are also part of the Christian scriptures and tradition; they offer encouragement to all feminists of faith.
Read and be inspired by the Ginsburg and Holtzblatt essay,“The Heroic and Visionary Women of Passover.”
