“To Live Outside the Law, You Must Be Honest” — Boundaries, Borderlands and the Ethics of Cultural Negotiation

BY RACHEL ADLER

live in Los Angeles, a city in love guage, ideas, and practices ooze across with cultural negotiation: on the cultural boundaries. My concern is, I west side, strictly kosher sushi rather, with how people of integrity, bars and Asian-French fusion cooking, people who value their Judaism con- and at the east end of town, pastrami sciously, conduct cultural negotiations burritos and my favorite shop, strad- in a diverse environment. What I pro- dling Korean and Salvadoreno neigh- pose to present is a theological ethics borhoods, Hacienda Oriental Foods. of boundary negotiation informed by L.A. culture, with its fusion cuisines, feminist insights into this issue. its natty metrosexuals, and its constant- When we talk about diversity, we are ly mutating and mingling argots from talking about the positioning and tex- the film industry and rap music, attests ture of boundaries — the boundaries to a phenomenon some find frighten- different religious or cultural groups ing: the porous boundaries that allow maintain with one another and the for flow among communities. boundaries religious groups maintain with the pluralistic secular cultures in Cultural Negotiations which they are embedded. A group’s boundaries are eloquent about how I am a theologian and an ethicist and easy or difficult the group finds it to not a social scientist. My focus is not maintain its distinctness and its integ- cultural diffusion in general, how lan- rity. Can anyone participate, or are Dr. Rachel Adler holds a joint appointment as Associate Professor of Modern Jewish Thought and Judaism and Gender at the School of Religion, University of Southern California and at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Reli- gion in Los Angeles.

The Reconstructionist Spring 2004 • 4 there strict membership requirements? tects the distinctions that demarcate the Is it forbidden to watch TV or to listen creation from the erosions and erasures to popular music? Are there special that could uncreate the world and re- clothes or dietary laws that maintain turn it to undifferentiated chaos. the distinctness of group members and What is more remarkable about bind them socially to one another? Fea- Leviticus is that conjoined with rules tures like these attest to the extent to whose symbolisms no longer resonate which the group feels at home or at for us are others we would characterize odds with an inevitably homogenizing as ethical.2 Leviticus constitutes a code larger environment. for how to construct boundaries that For Jews, boundaries have always will maintain not merely boundary in- been a vexing issue. The ancestors of tegrity but the integrity we call justice.3 Judaism, the ancient Israelites, inhab- To the extent that justice is a legal as ited a narrow strip of land between the well as an ethical value, it is not static desert and the sea that offered the only and absolute, but must take into ac- access between great rival empires north count the specific social and historical and south of it. Empires competed to settings in which it is situated.4 annex it; armies tramped through it, Even if P and H and their hypotheti- seeking to transplant their gods, their cal colleagues did not realize that their words, their visions. Israelites were exiled understanding of justice as a form of or immigrated to surrounding lands, holiness would introduce contextuality where other tongues and other ways pre- and contingency into their social vi- vailed. Small wonder that fears of in- sion, that is just what they did; for jus- undations and pervasive anxieties about tice occurs in the realm of time, the the boundary integrity of this permeable world of human societies in which social world have marked Judaism! people and their boundaries are end- lessly mutable. And therefore, despite Anxiety at the Boundary the lasting Jewish concern for bound- ary maintenance, and despite the last- The anthropologist Mary Douglas ing fear of having our distinctness sees this anxiety about the social body erased, of being flooded by other cul- inscribed in rules governing the indi- tures and uncreated as a people, there vidual body as well.1 Hence, Leviticus can be no pure Jewish culture unsul- legislates what is to be taken in or cast lied by outside influences. out, pure or impure, permitted or for- bidden. Categories such as tevel, that Encounter and Influence which creates chaos in the natural world, and toevah, that which imitates A nostalgia for such a time is a nos- idolatrous cultic practices or under- talgia for what never was. There never mines definitive IsraeIite practices, map was a time when ancient Israelite reli- the boundaries of the natural and so- gion or the Judaism that succeeded it cial worlds. This boundary map pro- were not being influenced by the cul-

The Reconstructionist Spring 2004 • 5 tures and religions they encountered. become an Israelite, and an Assyrian And there were many, many encoun- city doomed to destruction can turn ters.5 If the boundaries of Judaism in- in repentance and be saved. evitably change with changing histori- cal-cultural settings, if our Judaisms are, Trespassing and Transgressing as David Myers claims, “radically hy- bridized,” what does boundary integ- The slipperiness of boundary main- rity mean?6 Is there a difference be- tenance is matched by a similarly pro- tween porous boundaries and outright tean problem about boundary crossing. inundation? And how will we deter- Sometimes, I am supposed to be a mine what kinds of boundaries pro- boundary-crosser, an ivri(a), to go forth mote justice? Boundary maintenance, as Abraham and Sarah did to a land then, turns out to be a much more slip- they did not know. But this same root, pery affair than it would have been had a-v-r, can mean to trespass, to trans- there been a single, pure and static set gress. This is the dilemma that con- of boundaries to maintain. fronts me in cultural negotiations. To complicate matters still further, When, where, and how am I called this motif of boundary maintenance is upon to trans/pose, trans/act, or trans/ counterbalanced by a narrative motif mute, and under what circumstances of boundary crossing. Some biblical would my act be a trans/gression, an narratives represent the Israelites as the averah, an unmaking of some bound- people other peoples called the He- ary that maintains a distinct and irre- brews, the ivrim, literally, the crossers- placeable meaning? over, those whose progenitors Abraham When should I guard the boundary? and Sarah came from the other side of When should I cross the boundary? the river Euphrates.7 Indeed, Scripture When should I resituate the boundary uses ivrim only when Israelites inter- or perhaps uproot it altogether? These act with non-Israelites. Ivri-narratives are questions of in the root affirm a deity who transcends bound- meaning of that term: going, making a aries and localities altogether, a God path. How do I make my path so that who through covenant bridges even the I am mindful of the One toward whom boundary between divinity and hu- I walk, and of those who walked be- manity. fore me, those who walk with me, and To be an ivri is to know that there those whose path is adjacent to mine are other places, other perspectives. To and who may have something to teach remember having been an ivri is to me? know what it means to be an Other. These questions are complex, be- What I term ivri -narratives are narra- cause religions and cultures are not tives that transfigure the moral possi- fixed or static, nor are they completely bilities of boundaries by demonstrat- separate from one another. Religions, ing the possibility of crossing over. A after all, imply, reflect and create cul- slave can become free, a Moabite can tural worlds and are embedded in cul-

The Reconstructionist Spring 2004 • 6 tures. Cultures have environments — complexities of our humanity and natural, social, historical — to which glimpses of the intricate universe of they are constantly responding. This which we are a part. These discoveries being so, the contents and boundaries can move us to reevaluate our obliga- of both religions and cultures are con- tions to one another and to the rest of tinually being renegotiated. creation and to rekindle our sense of Being conscious of this reality car- awe. Opportunities like these are worth ries a sobering obligation: If the bound- a risk. aries and content of our Judaism are I do not mean to suggest that boun- fluid, and if they are altered by cultural dary negotiation should be an easy or negotiation, then we have a responsi- painless process. That would be true bility to be aware when we are negoti- only if what we were negotiating did ating and a responsibility to figure out not matter to us very much. I am only how to negotiate with integrity. And suggesting that if we were able to see that requires answering the slippery ivri religious cultures and the cultures in questions I have posed. which they are embedded as contigu- ous rather than as antipodal, and if we Opportunities for Growth were able to see ourselves as conscious and competent negotiators rather than The nehemta. (consolation) is that as defenders of the Alamo, we would along with dilemmas posed by cultural be more responsible participants in the and religious diversity come enriched ongoing recreation of nomos, universes opportunities for spiritual and moral of meaning to be inhabited. growth. When religions and cultures are imaged as shifting territories whose “A Leaky Community” boundaries are constantly in flux, cul- ture becomes more than a medium This is not to minimize the anxieties through which revelation is mediated. of American Jews about boundary re- Cultures themselves are sources of rev- lations with other religious and ethnic elation; new truths are born out of their groups and with an imperialistic popu- struggles and dilemmas. lar culture. In her path-breaking study, For pluralistic societies where people Prayer & Community, Riv-Ellen Prell of many races and ethnicities share citi- describes American Judaism as a “leaky zenship, the relationship between jus- community,” one whose boundaries are tice and an ethics of difference is newly so porous that there is some risk of in- illuminated. Post-industrial societies, undation.8 Because there is no total where rigid distinctions between gen- Jewish experience differentiating Jew- der roles are eroding, offer unprec- ish American cultures from the cultures edented opportunities to accord full around them, American Jews make humanity to women. A culture’s cre- their chief concern the preservation of ativity in shaping and describing its Jewish identity. world can offer new insights into the Not surprisingly, many Jews tend to

The Reconstructionist Spring 2004 • 7 regard the Jewish enterprise as a fragile Reconstructionist, Conservative and one. Suspicious, they patrol Judaism’s Renewal Judaisms, and there are per- leaky boundaries, sounding the alarm. sistent rumors of Orthodox women be- Every innovation is a potential Arma- ing secretly ordained. There has been a geddon in which Judaism’s ultimate revolutionary loosening of the bound- redemption is at stake. Each intermar- aries between men’s and women’s roles riage is a nail in the communal coffin. in Judaism. Every outside influence is a hole in the dike through which the surrounding A Jewish Nun? cultures may pour in as an annihilat- ing flood. Not so long ago, The yearnings that drove this revo- was accused of being just such an in- lution came out of confrontations with fluence. In some Orthodox circles, the the gender assumptions of other cul- accusation is still current. Yet the trans- tures, religious and secular. A case in formation of gender boundaries has point is a story my mother used to tell been the most successful cultural rene- about me. I was five years old, taking a gotiation to occur in American Juda- walk with her, and she said, “So what ism. do you want to be when you grow up?” A little more than thirty years ago, Without skipping a beat, I said, “A in no form of Judaism did women have nun.” My mother was appalled. “You equal access to communal participa- can’t be a nun. You’re Jewish. Jews don’t tion, leadership, or religious education. have nuns.” “Well then,” I replied, “I In no branch of Judaism could women will be the first one.” be rabbis or cantors. There were no When I ask myself why I wanted to women Judaica scholars teaching at be a nun, the answer is clear. I lived in seminaries or universities. No women a mixed Jewish-Catholic neighbor- were high officials in Jewish commu- hood, and in that other religious cul- nal organizations, although women ture, I saw a model I did not see in my were their largest source of volunteer own community: a way to be a woman labor. Jewish law was invoked not only and also be holy. My mother saw me in Orthodoxy, but also in other branch- looking across the boundary and, hor- es of Judaism to exclude women from rified, pulled me back: This isn’t what the , and hence from leading Jews do, she was telling me. worship services. Most women had Because our boundaries are perme- never been near a Torah scroll. They able, we can be moved by desires or were usually told (contrary to halakha) troubled by problems that enter from that because women menstruate, they the outside. Cultural negotiation with would defile the sacred object. integrity demands that instead of Today, women are represented in all uncritically sucking in what is foreign the structures and institutions that sus- to our Judaisms — founding an order tain and reproduce American Judaism. of Jewish nuns, for instance — that we They are ordained as rabbis in Reform, engage thoughtfully with Jewish tradi-

The Reconstructionist Spring 2004 • 8 tions and the experiences of concerned entering the conversation previously re- Jews about the matter that needs to be served for men about the texts, values, addressed. The innovation that emerges and practices of Judaism. Jewish femi- from such a process is less likely to be nists brought to this conversation a re- mere bricolage. I did not become the newed emphasis on the historicist first Jewish nun. I became one of sev- premise that distinguishes all non-fun- eral feminist theologians, which is an- damentalist Judaisms: that societies and other kind of “first” for Judaism. And their institutions, including gender, are happily, there isn’t even a celibacy re- human constructions, contingent upon quirement! specific historical and cultural contexts. Jewish were connected to Their insistence on the contingency the larger secular American feminist and, hence, alterability of gender ar- movement, not only borrowing from rangements challenged non-funda- its theoretical formulations and benefit- mentalist Judaisms to act on their his- ing from its social impact, but also ben- toricist principles. In concert with post- efiting from . Jew- modernist Jewish historians and cul- ish feminists learned new modes of tural critics, feminists have stressed the feminist critique and new modes of fluidity of Judaism and the cultural, spiritual expression at interfaith femi- ethnic and social diversity of Jews, nist conferences. Thus, Jewish femi- breaking up the monolithic assump- nisms undermined not only rigid gen- tions of the normative conversation. der boundaries but also rigid bound- The concern with Otherness that aries with the non-Jewish world. feminism brought to Jewish thought has piqued curiosity about Jews who Defending Deviance deviate from the popularly assumed norm: non-Ashkenazic, racially mixed, I do not mean to suggest that these homosexual, working class, disabled, borrowings were promiscuous or un- unmarried, intermarried, children of critical. As early as 1979, the deviations intermarriage, converts to Judaism who of Jewish feminists from the categories, for one reason or another do not as- methods and concerns of Christian and similate fully, converts to other reli- post-Christian feminists were suffi- gions who retain some Jewish bonds. ciently marked to require an explana- Ironically, when added all together, the tion from the editors of a pioneering deviants outnumber the so-called nor- religious feminist anthology, Woman- mative, but this is not unusual. How spirit Rising.9 These deviant concerns many American families consist of a included the critique and reconstruc- homemaker mother, a wage-earner fa- tion of Jewish law, the interpretation ther, and two children? of classical texts, and the creation of new rituals for women’s life cycle. Borderlands What is perhaps most distinctive is the emphasis Jewish feminists put on Some of these Jews inhabit a social

The Reconstructionist Spring 2004 • 9 location that, borrowing a term from narratives of lesbian rabbinical students the Chicana feminist Gloria Anzaldua, at the Jewish Theological Seminary or we might call “the borderlands,” the see the film Trembling Before G-d to be vague transition points on the margins reminded that in Conservative and Or- of the Jewish world where other worlds thodox Judaisms, gays and lesbians in- merge with it or intersect it.10 Those habit a particularly brutal borderland.13 who view the boundary between Juda- A feminist critique can demonstrate ism and other worlds as clearly defined systematically that these interdictions and non-porous would deny the very enforce patriarchal hegemony and sex- existence of borderlands, while others ual hierarchies that do not promote jus- would deny at least their legitimacy. tice.14 An example of a resituated bound- Indeed, the questions of whether the ary would be the Reform movement’s denizens of the borderlands count as decision to count as Jews those who Jews and, if so, how they are to be claim Jewish descent through their fathers counted, are controversial among de- but not their mothers. mographers.11 These borderlands of the Jewish domain, illegitimate, fluid, shift- Boundary Integrity ing, fraught with tension and ambiva- lence, harbor those whose identities are But that leaves us with the paradig- marginal or transgressive. matic case of people who opt for the The existence of borderlands sharp- borderlands: the couples who transgress ens the questions we posed earlier: In the most basic of Jewish boundaries, the presence of borderlands that attest the boundary that encircles the people to the fuzziness or ambiguity of Jewish Israel and distinguishes Jew from non- boundaries, what does boundary integ- Jew. If we removed the boundary en- rity mean and how should we enforce tirely, we would be inundated; Jews and it? When should we guard the bound- Judaism would become indistinguish- ary? When should we cross the bound- able from the external environment. ary? When should we resituate the Even a biological cell has at its perim- boundary or perhaps uproot it alto- eter a membrane that keeps the inside gether? and outside from merging and governs Boundaries that Reform and Re- exchanges between the two environ- constructionist Judaisms have already ments. uprooted include those that divide the The late Lionel Trilling once re- mamzer from other Jews; those that for- marked, “Some people are so open- bid the union of a kohen with a divor- minded that their brains fall out.” The cee, a convert, or a hallal;12 those that same is true of voluntary organizations. involve the unions of gay or lesbian If everyone is already a member, there’s Jews; and those that distinguish be- no need to join, much less to meet tween Jewish women and Jewish men membership requirements. Boundary in matters of witnessing and commu- integrity would require a definition in nal prayer. We have only to read the which Jewishness has particular con-

The Reconstructionist Spring 2004 • 10 tent and substance. bers of the group, Rebecca studies, Perhaps the question for the trans- prays with a community, keeps a ko- gressors and those who help them sher home, and, with her partner, cel- should not be, “How do we avoid the ebrates Sabbath and festivals. She and transgression?” but rather, “How do we Jay wanted a child, and agreed that the commit the transgression thoughtfully child would be brought up as a Jew. and in good faith?” That would require But just as Jay honors Rebecca’s Juda- acknowledging that intermarriage is a ism, Rebecca honors Jay’s desire to transgressive Jewish union. Any ritual maintain his difference from it. Jay does celebrating such a relationship is extra- not have a conflicting faith commit- legal. There are Reform and Recon- ment, but he feels that to become a Jew structionist rabbis who will perform an would be to assume an inauthentic iden- intermarriage using the classical Jew- tity, one that does not belong to him. ish wedding liturgy, but is this not a The question, then, is not whether dishonest use of Jewish language to but how Rebecca and Jay will wed. The normalize what is in truth not normal? corollary questions are both whether and I am talking here of religious norms how Rebecca’s study community will rather than sociological ones. Intermar- engage with them in their efforts to find riage may be common, but no branch an experimental language for this wed- of Judaism embraces it as a positive ding that is in dialogue with Jewish texts good. What I would like to argue is that and values. As Bob Dylan sings, “To live people who are intermarrying can en- outside the law, you must be honest.” rich Judaism by modeling how to trans- Rebecca is not asking for a Jewish gress in a way that retains integrity. ceremony to normalize the difficult choice she has made. She knows her Case Study choice to be transgressive. What she is asking for is to be taken seriously in At this point, I would like to offer a her attempt to articulate a sanctifying case history about some people who language she can bring to the border- chose to settle in the borderlands and land where she is establishing her par- the friends who helped them. There is ticular Jewish household. Beyond for- a perfectly clear ruling in classical Jew- bidding her act, Jewish legal tradition ish law on the case we are about to con- is interested neither in the specific char- sider, and this ruling is going to be vio- acter of Rebecca’s situation nor in help- lated. All of the participants, includ- ing her to find a language with which ing the transgressor, have a deep com- to remain in communication with Ju- mitment to the study and praxis of Ju- daism. But Rebecca and her study part- daism. Rebecca, a member of a ners groped for such a language. study group to which I belong, an- nounced her upcoming marriage to Theological Reflection Jay, her delightful non-Jewish Chinese- American partner. Like the other mem- Meanwhile, I was doing some of my

The Reconstructionist Spring 2004 • 11 own boundary crossing. I talked about model needs to ask the broader ques- our dilemma to friends who are Chris- tion, “What does this mean?” while the tian educators. They suggested to me a theological reflection model must also field-education process called “theo- address the question, “Now, what ought logical reflection,” designed to help I to do?” What I find most useful about seminarians reflect critically and cre- the theological-reflection model is its atively on the connections between text potential for keeping open a conversa- and context.15 The seminarian brings tion with tradition that the legal model in a “critical incident” she has experi- closes off. As such, it offers a way of navi- enced. She is encouraged to give the gating transgressive situations. experience a theological name. This theological renaming serves as a bridge Covenants with Non-Jews back to the appropriate classical texts. In the final stage of the reflective pro- In Rebecca’s theological reflection, cess, the seminarian brings the critical she focused on the language of cov- incident into conversation with the enant and noted that there are biblical texts, determining both what the tra- covenants with non-Jews. Among the dition says to her experience and what various legal and theological sources the her experience speaks back to the tra- study partners explored, the group di- dition. rected Rebecca and Jay’s attention to What is most appealing about this narratives that challenge or destabilize process-model is the way it links sacred the legal norm regarding marriage with text and real-world experience. It bears non-Israelites: Judah and Tamar in some resemblance to the case-law pro- Genesis 38; Joseph and Asenath in cess of the Jewish responsa literature, Genesis 41:45; Moses and Zipporah in which also juxtaposes text and con- Exodus 2:21; and, most notably, the text.16 The legal process asks how an book of Ruth, in which Ruth, Naomi experience is legally categorized in or- and Boaz pass from one to another der to determine how one ought to act lovingkindnesses that leap the boundary in that context. Theological reflection between stranger and Israelite. Together, asks what an experience means to a par- they conspire to undermine the legal rules ticular person of faith when placed into of inheritance and thereby paradoxically the theological categories of tradition. bring about the possibility of redemption. Each model locates the experience Transgression, then, is not always a nega- within traditional categories. Each gives tive. It is a risk for which the transgres- the experience an opportunity to re- sors must assume responsibility, and the valuate or reshape those categories, motives are important, but it can be a although in the legal model this de- source of blessing. Jay was particularly pends more heavily on the authority drawn to this text. and the vision of the decisor. Rebecca said she was searching for a The two models might usefully language of dialogic transgression, a complement one another. The legal language that was both responsible and

The Reconstructionist Spring 2004 • 12 responsive. It had to affirm both the joy and about the borderland nature pressure she was putting on Judaism’s of their relationship. The huppah,. held boundaries and the vitality of her en- by families members and friends, was gagement with Judaism’s content. embroidered with the Chinese charac- Within this framework, she and her ter for double happiness, and the partner, with the support of her kiddush cup from which they drank studymates, reconsidered every rite and was a wedding gift inscribed with the symbol and weighed every liturgical double happiness symbol. expression related to wedding ceremo- Rebecca and Jay are not a typical in- nies in their effort to shape an honest termarrying couple, but they represent trans/action. a growing number of couples in which That trans/action was clearly ac- one partner has a strong Jewish com- knowledged as a boundary-trans/gres- mitment. The tendency of communal sing commitment in their ceremony. Jewish institutions is to ignore differ- Moreover, as Rebecca thankfully ob- ences between kinds of intermarriages served, neither the process required to and to lump all of them together as formulate the wedding ceremony nor failures and betrayals that threaten to the liturgical results lend themselves to doom the Jewish people to extinction. mass production. They can be brought But drawing the boundaries sharply to birth only through a rigorous en- without allowing for borderlands is counter with tradition within the con- simply an attempt to extrude non-con- text of a community. formers rather than to live as a whole community with the ambiguities pre- Shaping a Ceremony sented by porous and intersecting social worlds. The ceremony Rebecca and Jay de- When Jews do not live in ghettoes signed was held at a private home.17 or in the 17th century, intermarriages Rabbis were present as friends, but not will sometimes occur. Same-sex mar- as leaders. Non-rabbis facilitated the riages will occur. There will be Jews ceremony. Instead of kiddushin, Rebec- who do not look or act the way insti- ca and Jay used a variant of the B’rit tutional Judaisms expect. They will be Ahuvim legal partnership I propose in transgendered or have black or Asian Engendering Judaism, drawing up a faces or fierce nostalgic longings for b’rit document that enunciated the spe- barbecued pork and Christmas trees. cific commitments they were undertak- They will view with puzzlement the Re- ing.18 constructionist movement’s gift of a The texts on which Rebecca and Jay recipe for kugel in a holiday mailing. had reflected were incorporated into various parts of the ceremony. Repre- Guarding and Crossing sentatives from Jay’s Chinese family, Rebecca’s Jewish family, and friends of And they and all the rest of us with both spoke to the couple about their them will face the ivri questions again:

The Reconstructionist Spring 2004 • 13 When should I guard the boundary? serious, thoughtful, respectful dialogue. When should I cross the boundary? When should I resituate the boundary On the Outer Edges or perhaps uproot it altogether? New communal consensuses will form While it is not an easily replicable and the borderlands will shift. But the model, Rebecca and Jay’s marriage does borderlands will not cease to be inhab- demonstrate a cultural negotiation with ited. integrity on the outer edges of the bor- While some Jews want boundaries derlands, a wild and lawless place. Do without borderlands to exclude all non- such trans/gressions threaten religious normative Jewish identities, others cultures? They do, but they also re- want to argue that borderlands are un- vivify, suffusing religious content with necessary because there are no norma- new perspectives and new urgencies, tive Judaisms and no trans/gressions. I new visions. Jay and Rebecca’s son, with consider these equally disastrous his Asian face and his happy chatter in moves. Although Judaism is not mono- English, Hebrew and Mandarin, incar- lithic, and there are now and have been nates these hopes. many credible or defensible Judaisms, When we treat religious cultures as I would contend that it is also possible too fragile to withstand any stress, we for the Judaisms of individuals or com- behave as if they were dead, as if they munities to be intellectually and spiri- were brittle as dry bones. We can pre- tually impoverished, untenable and serve them as artifacts, shielding them inauthentic. from the battles and negotiations that And as long as I am being cantan- compose our real lives. But only if we kerous, let me add that not everything prophesy over them will these bones people do has to be stamped OK (or live.19 OU) in order for them to have self-es- teem and to feel cared about by rabbis or Jewish communities. I fear being 1. Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger, sec- part of a community in which there is ond edition (London:Henley, NY: Rout- no way to sin because everything one ledge and Kegen Paul, 1976). does is just fine. Mindless relativism is 2. Jacob Milgrom, ed., Leviticus 1-16, The a great a menace as mindless orthodoxy, Anchor Bible (New York: Doubleday, because it leaves no way for people to 1991), 42-51. 3. Mary Douglas, “The Forbidden Animals be reflective about what they believe in Leviticus,” JSOT 59 (September 1993), and do and to be responsible for what 3-23. they choose. Rebecca and Jay would 4. Robert Cover, “Nomos and Narrative” argue for the recognition of border- Narrative, Violence and the Law: The Es- lands and against patronizing or in- says of Robert Cover, edited by Martha dulging the people who choose to dwell Minow, Michael Ruan and Austin Sarat in them. What is needed, they would (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan say, is not automatic affirmation but Press:1993), 95-172.

The Reconstructionist Spring 2004 • 14 5. Gerson D. Cohen, “The Blessing of As- 14. Rachel Adler, Engendering Judaism similation in Jewish History,” commence- (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, ment address, June 1966, Hebrew Teach- 1998), 125-133. ers College, Brookline, MA. 15. I am indebted to Pia Moriarty for her 6. David N. Myers, “The Blessing of As- description of this model and to Emily similation Reconsidered: An Inquiry into Click for a workshop on its theory; I am Jewish Cultural Studies,” From Ghetto to belatedly aware that there is an extensive Emancipation: Historical and Contemporary literature about it. As an example, see Rob- Reconsiderations of the Jewish Community, ert L. Kinast , What Are They Saying About David N. Myers and William V. Rowe, eds. Theological Reflection (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist (Scranton: University of Scranton Press). Press, 2002). 7. Rachel Adler, “A Question of Bound- 16. David Ellenson, “Jewish Legal Inter- aries: Toward a Jewish Feminist pretation: Literary, Scriptural, Social and of Self and Other,” Tikkun 6 (May/June Ethical Perspectives,” Biblical Hermeneu- 1991): 43-46, 87. Reprinted in Tikkun tics in Jewish Moral Discourse, Peter J. Haas, Anthology, edited by Michael Lerner. (Oak- ed. Semeia 34 (1985). land and Jerusalem: 1992). For a histori- 17. On the implications of constructing a cal discussion of the term ivri, see Nahum rite such as this, see Vincent J. Cheng, In- Sarna, The JPS Torah Commentary Genesis authentic: The Anxiety over Culture and (Philadelphia:1989), 102-103, Excursus 4, Identity (New Brunswick: Rutgers Univer- 377-379. sity Press, 2004). 8. Riv-Ellen Prell, Prayer & Community: 18. Adler, Engendering Judaism, Chapter 5. The Havurah in American Judaism (De- 19. Thanks to the Reconstructionist Rab- troit: 1989), 60-65. binical Association for inviting me to de- 9. Carol P. Christ and Judith Plaskow, eds. liver the paper on which this article is based Womanspirit Rising (San Francisco: Harper (2003). The article also incorporates an and Row, 1979), 194. earlier presentation, “A Question of 10. Gloria Anzaldua, Borderlands/La Fron- Boundaries: Women, Judaism, and the tera (San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, Complexities of Cultural Negotiation,” for 1987), 1-13. a conference ,“The Changing Face of Jew- 11. For example, the National Jewish Popu- ish Identity,” jointly sponsored by the lation Survey of 2000 generated controversy University of Southern California and over its criteria for defining categories. Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of 12. Hallal(ah): the offspring of a forbid- Religion, Los Angeles (2000). den priestly relationship. If a male, he is Many friends helped and taught me considered unfit for the priesthood. If a while I was preparing this article. Special female, she may not marry a priest. Adin thanks to Pia Moriarty, Robert Hurd, Steinsaltz, The Talmud: A Reference Guide Maeera Shreiber, and David Schulman for (New York: Random House, 1989), 92. much assistance and to David N. Meyers, 13. Lesbian Rabbis: The First Generation, Isa Aron, Tamara Eskenazi, and Rabbis edited by Rebecca T. Alpert, Sue Levi Elwell Laura Geller, Bridget Wynne, Noa and Shirley Idelson (New Brunswick: Rutgers Kushner, Catherine Nemerov and Peter University Press, 2001). Levi for valuable input and critique.

The Reconstructionist Spring 2004 • 15