14 Days of the Omer. That is 2 Weeks of the Omer.
Rabbi Regina Jonas in a photograph presumed to have been taken after 1939. Her stamp on the back of the photograph bears the compulsory name of "Sara," which all Jewish women had to bear after 1939 and reads "Rabbi Regina Sara Jonas." Courtesy of Stiftung "Neue Synagoge Berlin - Centrum Judaicum," Berlin
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/jonas-regina
Malchut of Gevurah
Nobility within Strength
Monday evening and Tuesday
Evening May 6 and Day of May 7
There is zero hesitation in her step.
Her shoulders are strong and her stride long.
She knows where she is going, and she knows why.
She isn’t walking alone, and I would never interrupt, but I pick up my pace to keep up with theirs.
Rabbi Regina Jonas is in a deep discussion of Jewish law with Beruriah, Yalta, Queen Salome Alexandra, and Jocheved, Miriam, and Rachel - Rashi’s three daughters.
“Who is she?” you ask.
“I’ll tell you,” I say quietly.
“It’s as if God’s existence and God’s actions resonate along her veins.”
I pause.
“Okay. So, ‘Who is she’ is a hard one.
I’m not in awe of many people, and I’m in awe of her.
I’ll tell you more, but we have to keep up with them.
After I tell you, we will listen.”
Rabbi Regina Jonas longed to become a rabbi for most of her life, but of course there were restrictions against women in higher education and rabbinical studies. Orthodox rabbis Isidor Bleichrode, Felix Singermann, and Max Weyl supported her, though. Rabbi Weyl officiated in the Rykestrasse Synagogue and Sara Jonas and her children, Abraham and Regina, attended. He studied rabbinic literature with Regina weekly until his deportation to Theresienstadt. Her 1930 thesis argued there was no law forbidding women from becoming rabbis and many historical examples of women teaching and arbitrating Jewish law - halacha. It is the first known attempt to find a basis for the ordination of women in Jewish law. Her thesis opens, “I personally love this profession and, if ever possible, I also want to practice it.” On the last page she concludes: “Almost nothing halachically but prejudice and lack of familiarity stand against women holding rabbinic office.” Combining a legal argument with a modern one, Regina Jonas did not entirely follow the Reform movement, which was willing to modernize by abandoning Jewish law, nor did she entirely follow Orthodoxy which held equality as incompatible with Jewish law.
“Can we read it?” you want to know.
“Well, there is a copy of it preserved in the Centrum Judaicum in Berlin.”
Right. So, in the midst of intense antisemitism, in 1933 Jewish students were forced to leave public schools and Jewish teachers became responsible for all of their education and also teaching them to be proud of their Jewish identity. While she was teaching, Regina Jonas continued to also pursue the rabbinate, and in 1935 she was ordained and worked at the Jewish Hospital in Berlin.
You ask, “Did she ever say why she wanted to become a rabbi?”
“Yeah, she did.”
“If I confess what motivated me, a woman, to become a rabbi, two things come to mind. My belief in God’s calling and my love of humans. God planted in our heart skills and a vocation without asking about gender. Therefore, it is the duty of men and women alike to work and create according to the skills given by God.” Regina Jonas, C.-V.-Zeitung, June 23, 1938.
I have been watching the seven women, each an outstanding scholar.
Their voices rise and fall and are caught by the wind and carried over the road we are traveling.
“Look over there,” I say and point.
A few groups of children have noticed the women.
I’m sure they don’t know who they are yet, I think.
Although I shouldn’t be sure. Maybe they do.
Of course, these women would catch anyone’s attention.
“You know, I say, in 1 Chronicles (29:11) where we get the original verse that contains the ten sefirot it reads, ‘To You, God, is greatness, strength, modesty, victory, awe, for all that is in heavens and earth; to You, God, is the kingdom.’ That kingdom is where we get the sefirah of malchut. Rabbi Shimon Leiberman teaches that the gap between the first nine and the last one is because the first nine are a continuous stream of God’s actions that encounter humanity and affect us. Then when we absorb these God-influences and find them in ourselves we reveal malchut.”
I think that’s what the children notice.
What I notice.
About these women.
I continue . . .
In the winter of 1940-41 Rabbi Regina Jonas was sent to several cities from which rabbis had been deported. She gave sermons in Braunschweig, Göttingen, Frankfurt am Oder, Wolfenbüttel, and Bremen.
“I’m sure I’m not pronouncing the names of those cities right,” I say.
“I’m sorry about that.”
You shrug.
I keep going.
By 1941 those who hadn’t yet been deported had to do forced labor and were unable to worship on Shabbat. Rabbi Jonas was forced to work in a factory. The community instituted special services and she led them. Survivors say her sermons and pastoral work helped them keep going.
I take a deep breath and look over at you.
You motion for me to continue.
I say gently,
On November 6, 1942, Rabbi Regina Jonas and her mother were deported to Theresienstadt.
“I knew it was coming,” you say.
I nod.
She continued her rabbinical work there, preaching and counseling. She was officially part of Viktor Frankl’s Referat für psychische Hygiene. In the archives of the camp there are a few handwritten documents including a summary of her religious worldview. Under the title “Lectures by the only female rabbi Regina Jonas” there is a list of twenty-four topics, followed by sermon notes.
On October 12, 1944, Rabbi Jonas and her mother were deported to Auschwitz and were probably murdered on the same day.
“What gets me, though,” I say, “is that no one really knew about her until after 1989, and the people who did never told anyone else. As far as we know, none of her male colleagues, not Rabbi Leo Baeck (1873-1956) and not Viktor Frankl (1905 - 1997) ever mentioned her after the Shoah.”
“What happened in 1989?” you ask.
“The Berlin Wall came down,” I remind you. “The archives in East Germany became accessible.”
We can hear Rabbi Regina Jonas’s voice lift over everyone else’s again.
“Our Jewish people was planted by God into history as a blessed nation. ‘Blessed by God’ means to offer blessings, lovingkindness and loyalty, regardless of place and situation. Humility before God, selfless love for His creatures, sustain the world. It is Israel’s task to build these pillars of the world— man and woman, woman and man alike have taken this upon themselves in Jewish loyalty.”
And then she says,
“May all our work be a blessing for Israel’s future (and the future of humanity) … Upright ‘Jewish men’ and ‘brave, noble women’ were always the sustainers of our people. May we be found worthy by God to be numbered in the circle of these women and men … The reward of a mitzvah is the recognition of the great deed by God.”
Some teach that malchut is the most important sefirah. They say that in malchut God doesn’t act by God’s self, but through us and that malchut is the goal God had in mind when creating the world.
That isn’t my personal theology, but I respect it and it helps me to stretch and think this way. What if it were? What if malchut is God’s existence and God’s actions resonating along our veins?
What if Rabbi Regina Jonas is Jewish royalty?
See you at Sinai.
How to say the blessing:
Choose the language that resonates with you the most.
Non-gendered Hebrew based on grammar system built by Lior Gross and Eyal Rivlin,
available at www.nonbinaryhebrew.com
Gender Expansive:
הִנְנִי מוּכָנֶה וּמְזֻמֶּנֶה …
Hineni muchaneh um’zumeneh …
Here I am, ready and prepared …
Feminine:
הִנְנִי מוּכָנָה וּמְזֻמֶּנֶת …
Hineni muchanah um’zumenet …
Here I am, ready and prepared …
Masculine:
הִנְנִי מוּכָן וּמְזֻמַן …
Hineni muchan um’zuman …
Here I am, ready and prepared …
All Continue:
… לְקַיֵּם מִצְוַת עֲשֵׂה שֶׁל סְפִירַת הָעֹמֶר כְּמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב בַּתּוֹרָה וּסְפַרְתֶּם לָכֶם מִמָּחֳרַת הַשַּׁבָּת
מִיּוֹם הַבִיאֳכֶם אֶת עֹמֶר הַתְּנוּפָה שֶׁבַע שַׁבָּתוֹת תְּמִימוֹת תִּהְיֶנָה. עַד מִמָּחֳרַת הַשַּׁבָּת
הַשְּׁבִיעִית תִּסְפְּרוּ חֲמִשִּׁים יוֹם וְהִקְרַבְתֶם מִנְחָה חֲדָשָה לַיי
… lekayyem mitzvat aseh shel sefirat ha-omer, kemo shekatuv batorah: us’fartem lakhem mimacharat hashabbat, miyom havi’akhem et omer hat’nufah, sheva shabbatot temimot tih’yena, ad mimacharat hashabbat hash’vi’it tis’peru khamishim yom, vehikravtem minkha khadasha l’adonai.
… to fulfill the mitzvah of counting the Omer, as it is written in the Torah: And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Shabbat, from the day on which you bring the sheaf of the wave-offering, you shall count seven full weeks. Until the day after the seventh Shabbat, you shall count fifty days, until you bring a new gift to the Eternal.
Gender-Expansive Language for God
בְּרוּכֶה אַתֶּה יי אֱ-לֹהֵינוּ חֵי הָעוֹלָמִים אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשֶׁנוּ בְּמִצַוְּתֶהּ וְצִוֶּנוּ עַל סְפִירַת הָעֹמֶר
Brucheh ateh Adonai, Eloheinu khei ha’olamim, asher kidshenu bemitzvoteh v’tzivenu al sefirat ha’omer.
Blessed are You, Eternal, Life of all worlds who has made us holy with Their commandments, and commanded us to count the Omer.
Feminine Language for God
בְּרוּכָה אַתְּ יָ-הּ אֱ-לֹהֵינוּ רוּחַ הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְוְּתָהּ וְצִוָּנוּ עַל סְפִירַת הָעֹמֶר
Bruchah at Yah, ru’akh ha’olam asher kidshanu bemitzvotah v’tzivanu al sefirat ha’omer
Blessed are You, Yah, our God, Spirit of the universe who has made us holy with Her commandments, and commanded us to count the Omer.
Masculine Language for God
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יי אֱ-לֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָּנוּ עַל סְפִירַת הָעֹמֶר
Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melekh ha’olam asher kidshanu bemitzvotav v’tzivanu al sefirat ha’omer.
Blessed are You, LORD, our God, ruler of the universe who has made us holy with His commandments, and commanded us to count the Omer.
Count the day and week
Today is the _________ day, which is _________ weeks and _________ days of the Omer.
Today:
הַיּוֹם אַרְבָּעָה עָשָׂר יוֹם
שֶׁהֵם שְׁנֵי שָׁבוּעוֹת לָעוֹמֶר.
Hayom arba’ah asar yom
shehem sh’nei shavuot la’omer
Today is fourteen days of the Omer.
That is two weeks of the Omer.
Sefirat HaOmer Blessing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8hCiPI1tMQ