When a Woman Cannot Mourn
Courtesy of Joan Roth.
The Women of the Wall have been fighting for a woman’s right to pray at the Western Wall since 1988.
Today’s featured poet, Jennifer Rudick Zunikoff, responds to the latest challenge facing these women- the right to say Kaddish and mourn at the Western Wall.
When a woman cannot mourn....
The stones of the earth will shake.
The rains will flood
The seas will swell
The earth will open
The Shekhina will wail!
She will moan...
Until every woman can cry
Until every woman can sing
Until every woman can laugh
So deeply that every man will feel
Called from the depths of his soul
To cry with her
To sing with her
To laugh with her
And to dance with her
Before the sun
Before the moon
Standing in the River of Life,
Holiness beating in their hearts.
Their bodies dust,
Their breath divine.
Jennifer Rudick Zunikoff and the Women of the Wall are not the first Jewish women to address the role of women in the mourning ritual. Take a look at how Hadassah founder Henrietta Szold, one of JWA's "Women of Valor," felt about saying Kaddish.
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