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Lech Lech, go to yourself. Find yourself in the tradition, in the texts of the tradition. But we have to read those texts with new eyes and ask different kinds of questions. And if we do it we find startling images. Different images, not only of human beings, but also of God. The amazing image of God as a nursing mother who takes out her breast to give us Torah, an image of the Shekhina, the feminine presence of God that hovers within us. If we listen for our experience in the stories of our mothers, we read things we never saw before.
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A congregant had read in Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin’s book, Tears of Sorrow, Seeds of Hope: A Spiritual Companion for Infertility and Pregnancy Loss, about a folk custom that the rebbetzin in the shtetl would give an infertile woman a red stone. Should a healthy baby be born, the new mother returned the talisman (with its heightened power) to her rebbetzin, who could pass it on to the next struggling woman in need. I was asked to supply her with such a stone.
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During the last 32 years of my rabbinic practice, I have come to understand more deeply the profound interconnectedness of all human rights struggles and the primary place of women within these struggles. We who seek liberation from the oppressive structures that deny us the same economic, educational, and spiritual opportunities as the privileged among us need each other. We need coalitions of broad diversity. We need the entire range of creativity and wisdom gained through the struggle for human rights throughout the world. We are not separate one from another.
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My brother and I were at Sinai
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And the women dancing And Miriam was a weaver of unique variety chorus
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The complex interplay of gender, social class, and religio-ethnic culture shaped the ways in which Jewish women participated in the economic, cultural, religious, and political life of the immigrant Jewish community and American society. Even as Jewish women shared a common heritage, living space, some institutions, values, and aspirations with their husbands and brothers, they also created a female culture and constructed a community different from the organized community of Jewish men.
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God full of mercy, bless the souls of all who are in our hearts on this Transgender Day of Remembrance. We call to mind today young and old, of every race, faith, and gender experience, who have died by violence. We remember those who have died because they would not hide, or did not pass, or did pass, or stood too proud. Today we name them: the reluctant activist; the fiery hurler of heels; the warrior for quiet truth; the one whom no one really knew.
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This means, according to the words of our Sages…there in Yevamot [78b-79a], that Saul did not actually kill even a single Gibeonite.
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Genesis 1:27, "God created the adam in God's image; in the image of God [God] created him— male and female [God] created them." Rabbi Wenig, "Men, women, and every possibility in between were created simultaneously. This verse is a merism, a figure of speech in which a totality is expressed by two contrasting parts (e.g. "young and old," "thick and thin," "near and far."). . . God created male and female and every combination in between." [From Jewish Mosaic, www.jewishmosaic.org] וַיִּבְרָא אֱלֹהִים אֶת הָאָדָם בְּצַלְמוֹ בְּצֶלֶם אֱלֹהִים בָּרָא אֹתוֹ זָכָר וּנְקֵבָה בָּרָא אֹתָם:
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On walls of my chambers, I have posted in two places the command from Deuteronomy -- "Zedek, Zedek," "Justice, Justice shalt thou pursue." Those words are an ever present reminder of what judges must do "that they may thrive." There is an age old connection between social justice and Jewish tradition. Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg, whose tenure on the Court, 1962-1965, was far too brief, once said: "My concern for justice, for peace, for enlightenment, . . . stems from my heritage." Justice Breyer and I are fortunate to be linked to that heritage. 
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