The following essay about feminist symbols was written by Lucy Zener, a middle schooler, enrolled in City Congregation’s Bar/Bat Mitzvah program. Students spend a year and a half researching their heritage, values and beliefs, and write on a Jewish subject of their choice, their major project; an example of this last component can be seen below. The process improves both the student’s writing and critical thinking skills, as well as his/her self confidence and overall maturity.
One of the values I didn’t put in my values paper is the love of food/cooking. Both my dad and I love cooking, and we try to eat together as a family most nights. Everyone in my family also values good food. From that, I already knew I wanted to do something about food for my major project. Another of my values is feminism. So, I chose feminist food symbols in the Passover Seder. That hits two of my values: feminism and food!
The Passover Seder is full of symbols. Take the maror, or bitter herbs, which symbolize the bitterness of slavery. We use these symbols to honor the people in the Exodus story. Something else we can use symbols to honor is feminists and feminist ideas in the Passover story. By making new symbols and telling new stories about the old, we can make the Seder more inclusive of women and feminist ideals.
My first symbol is probably the most common and famous: the orange. The story is this: Susannah Heschel, a Jewish scholar, was giving a talk when an elderly (male) rabbi said, “A woman belongs on the bimah like an orange belongs on the Seder plate!” And so the tradition of putting an orange on the Seder plate started, to show support for female rabbis. But Heschel said at a talk that this story is not true. She said that she was visiting a college and she learned that students were putting bread crusts on the Seder plate to protest against the exclusion of women and the LGBTQ+ community from Judaism. She felt that putting hametz (leavened bread) on the Seder plate would be like saying that the LGBTQ+ community violates Judaism as bread violates the rules of Passover. She chose the orange because there isn’t a rule against it, and also it represents that the inclusion of the LGBTQ+ community would be fruitful for everyone, not just the LGBTQ+ people involved.
I like both stories. As someone who is aromantic/asexual and therefore part of the LGBTQ+ community, I love the idea that the orange represents the inclusion of the LGBTQ+ community in the Jewish community. But I also like the more widely-spread story, that a man said to Heschel that “a woman belongs on the bimah like an orange belongs on the Seder plate,” and that Heschel started putting an orange on the Seder plate to show support for female rabbis. I like this version because it supports female rabbis. Heschel wrote this: “Now the story circulates that a man said to me that a woman belongs on the bimah as an orange on the Seder plate. A woman’s words are attributed to a man, and the affirmation of the LGBTQ+ community is erased. Isn’t that precisely what’s happened over the centuries to women’s ideas?” I agree with this, but I also think it’s important to have something supporting female rabbis.
My next symbol is also well known: Miriam’s Cup. This idea was created by Stephanie Loo Ritari, and was written about by Ritari, Matia Angelou, and Janet Berkenfield. One of the additions to the Exodus story in the Midrash is that Miriam found water in the desert. Some families honor her by putting a second cup on the table, in addition to Elijah’s Cup. The second cup, called Miriam’s Cup, is filled with water. Now, celebrating the person who made sure people didn’t die of thirst is good, but there are some questionable decisions, to say the least. After the Red Sea went back to normal, killing all the Egyptians chasing after the Jews, Miriam led the other women in a dance of celebration. Celebrating that people died, even if they were the people chasing you, is not good. Build bridges, not walls!
Another thing we can put on the Seder plate in memory of Miriam is cooked fish. In the 10th century, a rabbi from Babylon suggested putting fish on the Seder plate. This rabbi, named Sherira Gaon, said this, “And there are those who put additional cooked food on the plate in memory of Miriam, as it says, ‘And I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam” (Micah 6:4). And those three cooked foods are fish, meat and an egg, corresponding to the foods that Israel will eat in the Time to Come [a Jewish utopia], fish corresponding to Leviathan, egg to Ziz of the field, meat corresponding to Shor ha-Bar (wild bull).” Rabbi Sherira said that each animal represents a different area or realm. The Ziz, a giant mythical bird, represents the air. The wild bull represents the land. The Leviathan, a giant mythical sea monster or dragon, represents water. Miriam also represents water, because she supposedly found water in the desert. Fish also represent water, because they live there, and are probably the most iconic sea creature. I think the directive that it should be cooked is because raw meat is not very healthy, and because they did not have any safe methods of storing meat.
I like this idea of putting fish on the Seder plate. Miriam is one of the most important characters in the story. One could even say she’s the most important character because she saved Moses from being drowned as a baby. Moses gets all the attention in the story, and Miriam doesn’t get much credit. Since the Exodus story is so meaningful to many people, it would be weird to change it, especially since many believe that it’s fact, and you can’t change fact. However, we’ve seen additions to the Seder plate become widespread, like the orange, and so another one would follow the pattern of starting new traditions. Miriam deserves credit for all that she did in the Exodus story, and putting in fish is one way we can both honor Miriam and the history behind the Seder plate.
My next symbol is one not many people have heard about. Ruth’s Cup is another addition to Elijah’s Cup. It’s a symbol for people who have converted to Judaism, and of diversity in general. The name comes from the biblical character Ruth, who converted to Judaism. The cup is filled with wine. The idea of the cup was created by Rabbi Heidi Hoover.
I like this idea, that there’s a symbol for people who have converted to Judaism. People who have converted may feel left out by more conservative Jews, who say that “they aren’t really Jews.” People who have converted might see Ruth as a hero or role model, and it’s good to have a symbol for that, especially when placed beside Miriam’s Cup and Elijah’s Cup. It’s like saying, “Hey! You matter too!” That’s why Ruth’s Cup is placed next to the cups that are well-known. I’m fully in favor of this addition.
My next symbol isn’t really in the Seder, but is important to it nonetheless. Rebecca is a character in the Bible, the wife of Isaac and the mother of Jacob and Esau. Even if she lived during what I would call the least-feminist times, she is a feminist. Rebecca is a feminist because she has courage and isn’t afraid to stand up for what she believes, even in the face of patriarchy. In the Torah, it is described that Esau, one of Rebecca’s sons, traded his birthright to his younger brother Jacob for a pot of stew. A birthright is the right to be recognized as firstborn, which has a lot of advantages. I assume that Rebecca overheard this conversation, because how else was she to know that Jacob had the birthright? She also knew that Isaac, her husband, was going to bless Esau, and she assumed that it was because Isaac thought that Esau had the birthright. So Rebecca devises a plan for Jacob to sneak in and get the blessing instead of Esau. She makes a pot of goat stew for Jacob to give to Isaac. According to the ancient rabbis, as she is doing this, she predicts the Seder. She says, “On this night, your future children are to be redeemed from slavery.” In this, she predicts the Jews’ escape from Egypt. Rebecca also associates the dew of Spring, when Passover is celebrated, with the parting of the Red Sea. As I said before, Rebecca is making a goat stew to give to Isaac. In this, she predicts the shank bone. Even if the stew is not lamb, it is still made from an animal. The rabbis also say that she talks to Jacob about what she knows of the Exodus story, which is what everyone does during a Seder – parents tell their kids about the story of the Exodus.
According to this story, Rebecca knows that the events of the Exodus were going to happen. If she did, why didn’t she try to stop this? Wouldn’t she not want people to suffer, even if it would be hundreds of years after her death? In Wings of Fire, Clearsight tried to stop bad things that were going to happen, even if they were going to happen after her death. Rebecca could have at least tried to stop them. Or maybe, she thinks that there are set moments in time that can’t be changed, like in Doctor Who, or she thinks that any moment in the future can’t be changed, especially by a woman, because a patriarchal god controls it. There’s a strong reason she could have believed that she, as a woman, could not change the future. Historically many men have tried to limit women’s power, and in the Torah, God is male.
I think that Rebecca is an important figure to add to the Seder. Not only did she predict it, she also is the reason for it happening, even if it is a more negative reason. If she told Jacob to make sure none of his descendants went to Egypt, then we might not have had the story of Exodus, which means no Passover Seder. A symbol we can add to the Seder for Rebecca is goat cheese. She made a goat stew for Isaac as she tells Jacob about the Seder, so goat is an important symbol to add for her.
My next symbol is one that people have very mixed views about. Wine is a staple of Jewish traditions. Jews bless the wine on Shabbat and holidays. During the Passover Seder, there’s even more meaning around it – there are four cups of wine, Elijah’s cup is filled with wine, you put a drop of wine on your plate for each plague. Now, you’re probably thinking that there’s no way that wine could be particularly feminist. But I found an article critical of wine, mostly kosher wine, and I have a few ideas in favor of wine.
First, I’ll start with the negative. The article I found talked about how kosher wine produced in Israel is hurting women. In Israel, women are in charge of jobs such as leading tours of vineyards and being the person at the front desk. But they aren’t allowed to make the wine and pick the grapes, because, according to the governing rabbinate of Israel, only orthodox and ultra-orthodox men are kosher enough to count as Jews.
Anyone can see that this is awful, and hurts women. But I have a case for wine – maybe not kosher wine, but wine all the same. Wine is seen as one of the most important items on the Seder table. It’s one of the most important items in the food world, and many religions have differing views on it. For example, it’s very important to Catholics, but Muslims cannot drink it.
Because wine is so important to the Passover Seder, it can also be seen as a feminist symbol. A woman with a cup of wine is a symbol of inclusion. For so many years, women have been kept out of traditions, expected to keep the food warm and watch the kids while the men celebrate Passover. In some orthodox and ultra-orthodox communities, they still are. Their role was to serve the wine, not drink it. A woman with a cup of wine symbolizes women at the Seder, participating equally in the tradition.
When I say salt and Judaism, the thing that you will probably think of is kosher salt, which is a staple in pretty much every household. The second thing you will probably think of is salt in the Seder. Something else that may come to mind about salt is the biblical story of Lot’s wife. Lot was one of the nephews of Abraham, and his wife is never actually referred to by name in the Bible, but she was given the name Idit by people studying her story. There are two stories about her, although there is an important detail that stays the same throughout the two – that Lot and Idit lived in Sodom, a town notorious for being mean and inhospitable and that was destroyed because of that. In the first story, some guests came over to their house. Lot was nice and invited them in, but Idit didn’t want them there. Lot tried to trick Idit into being hospitable by asking her to get them salt. Idit tricked him back. Knowing that the townspeople hated outsiders and guests, she told them that she needed salt for Lot’s guests, so the townspeople drove the guests out. Because Idit had been inhospitable through salt, as a punishment she was turned into a pillar of salt. The other version says that Idit had two daughters. Lot and Idit were told about and saved from the destruction of Sodom by leaving, but her daughters and their families stayed behind. Idit was sad because they probably would die, so she looked behind her. As she looked, she accidently saw the back of the divine presence, the Shekhina, destroying the city, so she turned into a pillar of salt.
I have some problems with the first version. Sure, Idit and the townspeople of Sodom were mean, but does that really mean Idit should be turned into salt and the town should be destroyed? Plus, if Idit really did not want guests, why did Lot invite them in? And if he knew that Idit didn’t believe in being hospitable, he must have known that Idit would sabotage him somehow, so is it really Idit’s fault? I would say that it’s Lot’s fault.
I have even more problems with the second story than I have about the first. For one, what was preventing Idit from telling her daughters about the destruction? Secondly, anyone should feel pity that they were leaving an entire city to be destroyed, especially if some of those people are your family! Also, why did Idit turn into a pillar of salt? Yes, she saw the back of a divine presence, but she saw it as a fleeting glance, and her mind was most certainly on other things, so wouldn’t she think something like “that’s strange” and ignore it? Or just ignore it in the first place?
In both versions, Idit had done something wrong, either intentionally or unintentionally. However, I would say that neither of the things that she was punished for are really her fault. In the first story, Lot could have gone behind her back, or the townspeople could mind their own business. In the second, her seeing the back of a divine presence was an accident.
This story, or at least the last version of it, indirectly harms women. As I said, Idit wouldn’t be able to tell if the presence she saw was special or not from a quick glance. So that means the reason why she was turned into a pillar of salt is because she felt pity towards her daughters and looked back. This means that she was turned into a pillar of salt because she cares for her daughters. This harms women because it expresses the view that something as natural as caring for your own daughters is undesirable. It also suggests that the woman herself is of little value. The story also says that Idit had two other daughters, whose fiancés stayed in the city as well. But the story says that she took pity on her daughters, but not their husbands, and not her soon-to-be-sons-in-law. So the story might have been different if it were her sons she took pity on. In many ancient texts, the sons are the focus, and the parental relationship emphasized is the mother and the son, as seen with Rebecca and Jacob. Again, this limits women’s power. It implies that caring for daughters is bad and can lead to bad events. That’s very wrong. I would say that not caring for daughters is bad and will result in problematic outcomes.
So I said earlier that one of the things that you’ll probably think of with salt and Judaism is salt in the Seder. We can also use salt to commemorate Idit, by talking about her stories, or even making little pillars out of salt and a small amount of water. And there are other variations on the meaning of salt we can think about. We dip parsley in salt water to remind us of the tears when Jews were slaves in Egypt. Now, like wine, it isn’t seen as particularly feminist. But, again, I thought of something that makes it feminist. The salt water that we dip the parsley into can remind us of the tears of women who are held back from achieving their dreams. The parsley signifies rebirth, which can symbolize the rebirth a woman may feel if she finally achieves her dreams. The waves the parsley makes when it enters the salt water are like waves a woman makes if she achieves said dreams.
I found much of the information in this paper from a book on feminist Seders, which they define as women-only Seders that celebrate the women in the Exodus story. Now, these feminist Seders sound great, and I’m sure they are. But part of the definition of feminism is everyone having equal places in society, no matter their gender. If they have separate Seders, then we’re back a few steps from that goal.
One solution – have two Seders – one with the whole family and another with just women and girls, a feminist Seder. Easy solution, right? But that doesn’t solve everything.
Next problem: wording. As I said before, we need everyone to be equal. That means that there should be no gendered language when talking about someone or something that could have any gender. Take the four, or five, children mentioned in the Haggadah. The fifth child is one who chooses not to participate. In most Seders, they are the four sons. In a women’s Seder, they are the four daughters. But if we want all genders having equal places around the Seder table, why not the four, or five, children? That way, the children could be any gender.
The ideal solution would be a Seder with everyone at the table, having equal places, regardless of gender. It would celebrate women in the Exodus story, and give everyone in the story credit where it’s due. It would include feminist symbols and talk about the stories they represent. In an ideal world, there wouldn’t be a need for feminism, as I talked about with Clearsight, because everyone would have equal places at the table. The Seder would include feminist symbols and women’s voices as well as those of men. But we don’t live in that ideal world, no matter how many people may want to. However, we can try to get there. By talking about feminists in the Seder, including feminist symbols and making new ones, we can get everyone’s voices heard. Not only can we honor everyone in the story, we can include everyone at the table.
