One of the first times I ever chanted Torah for our congregation, it was from this week’s portion, Nitzavim: "You stand this day, all of you, before the Eternal your God – you tribal heads, you elders, and you officials, all the men of Israel, you children, you women, even the stranger within your camp, from wood chopper to water drawer – to enter into the covenant of the Eternal your God, which the Eternal your God is concluding with you this day . . . not with you alone, but both with those who are standing here with us this day before our God and with those who are not with us here this day" (Deuteronomy 29:9-14).
Parashat Sh’mini, meaning “eighth,” refers to the eighth day of the priestly ordination of Moses’ brother, Aaron, and his sons. We have nice gory, detailed descriptions of the ritual offerings for Aaron, his household, and the entire community. The depictions of these animal sacrifices are very visual, rather dramatic, quite violent, and awe-inspiring for all—women included—to witness: “Fire came forth from before God and consumed the burnt offering and the fat parts on the altar. And all the people saw, and shouted, and fell on their faces” (Leviticus 9:24). This parashah also discusses Aaron’s sons', Nadab and Abihu, ill-conceived offering of incense in their fire pans to God. God reacts swiftly and kills the two promising newly ordained young priests by a flash fire.
This piece originally appeared on March 25, 2014 for the RACblog's special Double Booked series. With a demanding professional career managing the ethics and compliance training, communications and external engagement for a Fortune 500 company, some people think I am crazy for having agreed to serve as the President of Women of Reform Judaism. Sometimes I would have to agree, but mostly I prefer to think that I am incredibly lucky. It’s true that I don’t end up with much down time, but WRJ brought my life into balance when I worked in a male-dominated profession, and continues to give me a perspective on our world that I would never have otherwise achieved.
I didn’t know any engineers growing up; in fact I had no idea what they did. But I loved solving puzzles–geometric proofs, science projects, finding chemical unknowns in the lab, calculus problems. My parents encouraged me in this… although I must admit that my mother (an English teacher extraordinaire!) was not entirely sold on it as offering much of future. Even when I was studying ceramic engineering at Georgia Tech, mom suggested that I joint enroll at Georgia State University and get a teaching dual degree because, after all, who would hire a woman engineer?