March 9, 2001      14 Adar 5761

In A Class Of Her Own

By delving deeply into the personal, passionate and psychological aspects of Torah study, Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg is opening new horizons for Jewish learners worldwide.

Rochelle Furstenberg / Special to the Jewish Times

Jerusalem

An aura of magic permeates Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg's weekly class on Parshat HaShavua, the weekly Torah portion, in the stark, low-ceilinged lecture hall at the Jerusalem College for Adult Education.

The 60 people, mainly women, sit glued to their seats, listening intently to the dark-eyed lecturer. A soft radiance fills the room. University students sit next to retirees, young mothers and professionals, including a psychiatrist, poet, and public health executive. Another young woman jockeys for position in a wheelchair.

Zornberg's passion and intelligence leave many of her listeners breathless. She discusses the question of the Exodus, and what is meant by the fact that the Jews left Egypt hastily, "b'hipazon." She calls upon the traditional commentaries, midrash and Rashi, as well as later rabbinic interpretations. But her signature is also mixing in heavy doses of original interpretations, pulled from the secular disciplines of psychology, philosophy and English literature.

Zornberg contrasts the closed, self-contained, non-communicative mode of the Egyptian Pharaoh, who could not admit to human needs, to the human mode of "hipazon" during the Exodus, the existential mode that allows for the doubts, passions and human limitations we all experience. The women file out smiling, nodding, "How true that is," "don't we all know people like Pharaoh, closed off, unable to express their humanity?"

As she does with amazing consistency, Zornberg once again struck a chord, touched an emotion, that spoke to her students' life experiences. This is why Jerusalemites of all ages and backgrounds stream to the Torah classes she gives almost every day in different institutions of higher education throughout the city. In addition to Jerusalem College for Adults, she teaches at Matan, the Sadie Rennert Women's Institute for Torah Study, and at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, a modern Orthodox, egalitarian-style yeshiva that attracts Jewish adults from around the world.

Hundreds of English-speaking Israelis attend her classes weekly. But her Torah insights now reach an even wider audience with the publication of her books on the Torah. Her volume on the first book of the Torah, "Genesis: The Beginnings of Desire" (Jewish Publication Society), was published in 1995, and her book on the second, "The Particulars of Rapture: Reflections on Exodus" (Doubleday Publishers, 2001), hit bookstores in February.

On March 17 and 18, Atlantans will have the opportunity to learn with Zornberg, one of the Jewish world's foremost Bible teachers and Torah scholars and a pioneer of the women's revolution that is changing the face of Torah study, synagogue prayer and Jewish life. At the Marcus Jewish Community Center's fifth annual "Discovering Women's Voices program" -- which is open to the entire community, including men -- Zornberg will be the featured scholar-in-residence, giving three lectures.

On Saturday night, she will present "Exodus: A Theraputic Narrative?" The talk will focus on interpreting the Exodus not only as our people's story of national liberation, but one that can be used as a tool for inner liberation. On Sunday, she will headline a day of learning by teaching two classes concentrating on the roles of women in Judaism, sandwiched around a learning lunch (please see box page 13 for the full schedule).

"Avivah is unique in that she teaches to hundreds of people on a daily basis -- she has groupies -- and is known on an international level," says Debbie Goldstein, director of the MJCCA's Lisa Brill Institute of Jewish Learning, who studied with Zornberg during her stay in Israel in 1993. "We're thrilled to have someone of her caliber coming to Atlanta."

When asked to compare Zornberg to someone of equal stature, Goldstein paused. "Good question," she says. "She's really so unique in who she reaches and how she does it." So Goldstein called a few colleagues and asked for help. Equally stumped, they bandied about names like best-selling author Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, and Torah teaching legend Nechama Leibowitz, who passed away a few years ago. But in the end, Goldstein and her colleagues couldn't "think of a single person to compare her to," Goldstein says. "But that's really is the point, isn't it? She's in a class of her own."

That's quite a statement, considering that Discovering Women's Voices has featured modern luminaries in past years. Speakers have included Rabbi Lyn Gottlieb from the Renewal movement in Albuquerque, N.M.; Lori Lefkovitz, director of Kolot, The Center for Jewish Women and Gender Studies; Ellen Frankel, editor of the Jewish Publication Society; and Rabbi Elyse Goldstein, director of the Toronto Kollel.

Discovering Women's Voices was originally developed "to fill a void in women's learning," says Goldstein. While the JCC's chief Jewish educator readily acknowledges the many wonderful adult education classes available for women around this city, she argues that they were usually offered "from a particular denominational perspective. We wanted to create a learning forum by and about women so they could explore their role in Judaism free from certain theological constraints," Goldstein says.

Bringing passion and meaning

David Bernstein, dean of the Pardes Institute, sees in Zornberg's teachings a willingness to view things in a new light, as she probes our ancient works for "deeper understandings of what it means to be human."

Many American Jewish educators who participate in the Educators Program at Pardes, in conjunction with receiving a master's degree in Jewish education from The Hebrew University, attend Zornberg's weekly class. Her approach inspires how they will teach when they return to the United States.

"She brings all her passions to her understanding of the Torah," says Matityahu Walker, an American educator in the program. "Judaism is made more vital because it is brought into contact with all aspects of emotional life."

Marc Baker, another participant in the Pardes program, feels that by integrating thought from outside the tradition, "she makes the tradition speak loudly to students who have been immersed in broader intellectual disciplines as well."

While these educators are conduits for bringing this richer approach to Torah back to American communities, Zornberg also is becoming known more directly, through the Torah lessons she delivers at synagogues, universities and Jewish community centers throughout the United States. A woman who guards her time and carefully chooses the locations of her diaspora lectures, Zornberg has taught Torah at Yale, Harvard, Princeton and Columbia, as well as the 92nd Street Y. She is also a regular visiting lecturer at the London School of Jewish Studies.

"One of the most exciting audiences I addressed," says Zornberg, "was at the William Alanson Psychoanalytic Institute founded by Harry Stack Sullivan and Erich Fromm. It is one of the two major institutes in New York, and does a lot of interpersonal analysis."

The 56-year-old Orthodox Bible scholar, with her long, dramatic sheitl, a wig worn by some Orthodox women as a sign of modesty, epitomizes the unique contribution that women are making to Jewish study. "The experiential and relational focus is stronger in women's interpretations of the Torah," Zornberg writes in the introduction to her book on Genesis. "What I did over the years was to share my own personal struggles for meaning, the way in which life and text inform each other."

Zornberg is enthusiastic about the new flourishing of women's study. "These young women are creating a seedbed out of which creative Jewish women's thinking and scholarship will grow," she argues. "Women are opening things up."

The classic men's way of learning, says Zornberg, favored certain systems of thought. "But they have their limitations," she says. "And many men realize this, including seriously religious men, not just those who are jumping on the bandwagon and are exhibiting a new openness to what women have to say. When I travel in the U.S., I find men who are serious and respectful about alternative ways of looking at things."

Genesis of a woman scholar

Raised in Glasgow, Scotland, Zornberg did not grow up in a place or era where high-level Jewish study was expected of -- or even made accessible to -- women. But like many traditional learned women, she had a scholarly father, Rabbi Wolf Gottlieb, head of the city's rabbinical court, who studied with her. His influence remains as strong as ever. "There was a sense of excitement about the text when he taught," she says. "His combination of Chasidism and erudition, coupled with an appreciation of culture and beauty, are what I seek."

Zornberg attended Gateshead's Women's Seminary in the north of England, where she imbibed the "religious seriousness" that informs her life. She then went to Cambridge University, where she earned a doctorate in English literature, and began acquiring the tools of literary analysis that serve her well in her interpretations of Torah texts. There aren't many Torah teachers in the world who engage their audiences by teaching our holy texts using standard literary concepts, such as foreshadowing, irony and climax.

In 1969, Zornberg made aliyah to Israel, and taught English literature at The Hebrew University. She met and married American-born Eric Zornberg -- they have three children -- and her family responsibilities prevented her from pursuing an academic career, with its "publish or perish" demands. "It was a great loss to The Hebrew University," says professor Baruch Hochman of the university's English department.

But Zornberg feels that this was serendipity, providential. "I began teaching Torah to a few women, and it mushroomed," she says -- as did her reputation as an exciting bible teacher.

Women began coming to Jerusalem from hundreds of kilometers away -- from the small town of Rehovot to the kibbutzim of the Galilee -- to hear this bright new light ask questions seldom heard before in Bible class. "I have greater freedom to follow the lines of thought that interest me," she explains. "In the university there is an unspoken consensus as to what questions to ask."

Zornberg's independence of mind is also reflected in the fact that she doesn't hesitate to bring texts from Nietzsche to Freud to Foucault to bear on her interpretations of the Torah. This is not intellectual name-dropping. Her integration of their theories is essential to shaping her vision of the text. "I believe in a holistic approach to learning," she has said, "to fertilize all parts of existence and be fertilized by them."

Recently, Zornberg has been delving more deeply into psychoanalysis and is using what she is discovering to analyze Torah. "I believe that the Midrash can be compared to the unconscious side of the Torah," explains Zornberg. "The slips that come through the pshat, the basic understanding of the words of the text, indicates that there's more beneath the surface than meets the eye." Learners can use the psychological tools developed for interpreting the unconscious to press harder and harder in search of the hidden meanings. This way, an "unexpected poem might emerge" that is different than the pshat and uncover insights concerning "basic human drives of desire, fear, love and hate."

In line with her attempts to "crack the unconscious codes" in the Torah, Zornberg has been particularly attracted to chasidic commentaries on the Torah, like the "Sfat Emet," the commentary of Judah Aryeh Leib Alter, the Gerer Rebbe, as well as the "Mei HaShiloah," the Ishbitzer Rebbe's commentary. "They take the unconscious for granted," she explains. "They'll start from the midrash, and ask how one can interpret it as a dream work. It's quite creative," she beams with pleasure. "It's often so different from the schoolbook versions of the Torah."

A role model

Zornberg lectures and teaches in English, and it would seem that there is little opportunity for her to influence Israel's Hebrew-speaking population. But she has taught and influenced Israeli-born students through programs like Matan's Scholar Program.

"In general, she is a model for young women, exemplifying the depths women can achieve in Torah learning," says Malka Bina, founder and director of Matan. "There are Hebrew-speaking students who especially sought exposure to the new type of dialogue which Avivah represents."

Miri Kahana is one of these women. She studied with Zornberg at Matan almost a decade ago. Today, she herself teaches young women at Matan as well as at another women's center, Beit Midrash.

"Dr. Zornberg taught me that a person can be creative and original in the study of Torah," Kahana says. Like most religious Israeli girls, she was educated in religious high school that "frowned at originality and suppressed personal interpretation."

A student learned what Rashi and the classical commentaries say, but were told that a student has to be on a high level in order to come to her own interpretation of the text.

"Avivah's way of teaching gave legitimacy to original interpretation," says Kahana. "Of course, she built on Rashi and the classical commentaries, but she came out with something new and deep. And she didn't excuse herself for doing it."

Kahana also credits Zornberg with sharpening her own insight into what some now call "women's Torah" -- a way of understanding Torah as being intricately connected to life. "I realize today that my family, my husband and two children, bring greater depth to my Torah understanding," she says. "Avivah contributed to my understanding of Torah as a 'living Torah.' "

Discovering Women's Voices

Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg will headline the fifth annual Discovering Women's Voices program at the Marcus Jewish Community Center at Zaban Park. Open to the entire community -- including men -- the March 17 and 18 event is expected to attract about 250 people. Here's your guide to this year's program:
Schedule:

March 17
8:30 p.m. Zornberg Lecture: "Exodus: A Therapeutic Narrative," looking at the story as an enactment of personal liberation and a way of giving birth to knowledge

March 18
9:30 a.m. Coffee and Registration

10-11:30 a.m. Zornberg Morning Keynote: "Through the Looking Glass: Women in the Exodus Narrative," exploring midrashic teachings about women as agents of redemption, symbols of transformation and heroines of the Exodus from Egypt

11:45 a.m. -1:15 p.m. Learning Lunch: Facilitators will join each table to discuss texts on "Esther and the Hidden Face of God" (no previous text experience required)

1:30-3:30 p.m. Zornberg Afternoon Keynote: "Esther and the Hidden Face of God," contemplating Esther's fateful decisions and emergence as a heroine of a new religious age

3-3:30 p.m. Book Signing with Avivah Zornberg

Cost ranges from $10 to $45, depending on the number of lectures attended and JCC membership status. For information or registration call the Marcus Jewish Community Center at (770) 395-2592.

Rochelle Furstenberg is a Jerusalem-based writer.