By Julia DeVarti

This week’s parshah is Lech Lecha, and wow, a lot of things happen in this one. The adventure begins when Abram is instructed to travel to Canaan. He goes there with his wife Sarai, they make a pit stop in Egypt, some weird things happen (don’t worry, we’ll get to that part soon), Abram separates from Lot, and he then saves Lot from captivity. Then — because this story didn’t have enough plot already — Sarai instructs Abram to marry Hagar, his name becomes Abraham, and everyone gets circumcised for the first time ever and SOF! Woah. There’s a lot there, and I know my summary was extremely brief, so feel free to check out a much longer synopsis here.

Okay, so let’s get back to the weird things I mentioned earlier. And when I said weird, I really meant troubling. There’s a very specific part of the parshah I want to talk about, so let me quote some Torah for y’all:

“As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know what a beautiful woman you are. If the Egyptians see you, and think, ‘She is his wife,’ they will kill me and let you live. Please say that you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that I may remain alive thanks to you.” When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw how very beautiful the woman was. Pharaoh’s courtiers saw her and praised her to Pharaoh, and the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s palace. And because of her, it went well with Abram; he acquired sheep, oxen, asses, male and female slaves, she-asses, and camels.” –Genesis 12:11-14.

Wait, WHAT? When you really think through what just happened, Abram used his wife, and presumably she was sexually exploited, in order to acquire sheep, slaves, and other forms of wealth. As a woman, I find this really troubling. It’s disheartening to see so many Torah stories where woman are props or are means to some dude’s ends. It’s especially bad when Judaism is referred to as one of the “Abrahamic religions.” Our whole religion is being defined by this dude who whored his wife!

I’ve been thinking a lot about what has been said recently on the listserv about reclaiming Judaism and thinking of it as a dynamic religion. Judaism is dynamic, and it should be, but where is the line? Sorry this dvar doesn’t have many answers, but I’m flipping this one back on you, movement, because I’ve really been struggling with the answer here.

So, can a religion that is built on sexist stories be reclaimed and made empowering for woman? What does it mean to reinterpret stories so that we can all feel like we have a place in Judaism? I’m especially calling on other women to speak up right now and share your experiences with this. How do you grapple with these tough stories? What Torah stories do feature strong women, and how can we call more attention to those? Please, if you have any thoughts or any answers or even any more questions, share with me!