Voices of WRJ: Va-eira

by Ellen Petracco This translation was taken from the JPS Tanakh ² God spoke to Moses and said to him, "I am the Lord. ³ I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as El Shaddai, but I did not make Myself known to them by My name YHVH. ⁴ I also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. ⁵ I have now heard the moaning of the Israelites because the Egyptians are holding them in bondage, and I have remembered My covenant. ⁶ Say, therefore, to the Israelite people: I am the Lord. I will free you from the labors of the Egyptians and deliver you from their bondage. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and through extraordinary chastisements. ⁷ And I will take you to be My people, and I will be your God. And you shall know that I, the Lord, am your God who freed you from the labors of the Egyptians. ⁸ I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you for a possession, I the Lord." ⁹ But when Moses told this to the Israelites, they would not listen to Moses, their spirits crushed by cruel bondage. Just as Mosses is entering a new relationship with God, Women of Reform Judaism is entering into a new century of our organization. All year WRJ has been celebrating our Centennial with our sisterhoods. Our women have been very creative in the different ways that were celebrated. I was honored to celebrate with 27 other women on WRJ’s Centennial Trip to Israel and Berlin this past spring. Getting to see firsthand the work that WRJ does was an experience I will never forget. We had the opportunity to see some of the places WRJ’s YES Fund helps. One of the most memorable experiences was when we met with some of the American rabbinic and cantorial students at the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem. The room was so full of energy. I sat next to a student who happened to be from San Jose, CA, where I lived for 3 years while in high school. We talked about the URJ Camp in the area that I also attended many, many years earlier. The connection was there and there was a spark in eyes when he talked about his studies and how grateful he is for the work that Women of Reform Judaism is doing for the students. It’s his goal when he was done with school to work with kids and to inspire them to learn about their Judaism. He told me his mom was a sisterhood president and he remembered how committed she was to her sisterhood. I thought to myself, “This is what its all about!” As our foremothers did 100 years ago, our current sisterhoods are moving forward to pave the way into our next 100 years. There was a lot of talk at WRJ’s Assembly in San Diego about our future. If the past has shown us anything, it has shown us that we are moving in the right direction. If I was able to sit next to a rabbinic student about6000 miles from home, find a connection, and get thanked for the work we do, then I think we are doing something right and we should keep doing it. May the light of the Shabbat candles brighten all our lives. Please share this email with your sisterhood. Ellen Petracco is a WRJ Board Member and member of Temple B’nai Israel in Clearwater, FL.