By Miriam Terlinchamp, JTNews Correspondent
For a solid 18 months, life took a very different turn for Rabbi Tirzah Firestone, the nationally acclaimed author, Jungian therapist and leader of Renewal Judaism.
As a vibrant speaker, scholar, mother and teacher, Rabbi Firestone’s schedule brimmed with classes, services and lectures. For a year and a half, however, her focus was personal: she was doing research for her latest book, The Receiving: Reclaiming Jewish Women’s Wisdom.
The title speaks to the process that led up to the product. Receiving is a direct translation for the word kabbalah, which is a body of esoteric wisdom that is a part of Jewish legacy. When studying kabbalah, Jews open themselves to divine guidance and inspiration to ask themselves for the ability to accept the wisdom within. Rabbi Firestone takes the translation of kabbalah even further, reclaiming it as a feminine art wherein women have a heightened capacity for “receiving” both physically and emotionally.
Despite women’s relationship with the act of receiving, the sacred tradition of kabbalah as a “men-only” study has until recently kept women out of the inner circle. With the help of works such as Firestone’s, things are beginning to change.
Firestone approached her research as a holy task. With the book deal signed and 250-plus blank pages before her, she began with prayers and a ritual candlelighting, asking herself to be open to the feminine wisdom within. Throughout her work, Firestone emphasizes yichud, the kabbalistic term for unification, oneness or wholeness. Her efforts surrounding her research emphasized the need—both personally and universally—for the feminine wisdom inherent in Jewish tradition to join with the more male-centric viewpoints. The Receiving is an effort to uncover, demystify and unify the essence of Jewish mysticism.
This book stands as the first of its kind: a reclamation of feminine wisdom through the historical accounting of seven different women. The book ranges from the second century C.E. all the way to the 1970s, telling the detailed accounts of sages, scholars and mystical teachers. The women’s stories are linked with varied kabbalistic themes such as the Tree of Life, the journey toward the soul and the sephirotic map, all through the lens of women’s wisdom, spirituality and psychology.
Rabbi Firestone’s most embodied and living sage was Leah Shar’abi (1919-1978) who lived in Jerusalem and fed, clothed and restored dignity to the needy around her. At 18, Firestone arrived in Shar’abi’s Nachalot Zion home, fresh from her American, middle-class, Orthodox upbringing. She accompanied Shar’abi on her duties in the homes of the mentally ill, elderly and the impoverished. The elder woman exposed Firestone to the miraculous nature of action-oriented goodwill. Through her good deeds, Shar’abi exemplified the Jewish concept of finding and blessing the divine spark in every living thing.
Firestone explains in The Receiving how while cooking one day, Shar’abi told her, “Everything you see has a divine spark of holiness in it waiting to rise up. It wants to be free, like a person in prison who longs to be rescued. It waits and waits until someone like you or me comes along to free it.”
Rabbi Firestone recalls Shar’abi with reverence for her capacity of revelation coupled with an ability for initiative. As she wrote in her book, “Leah stands out among women because she brought her vision into the world and turned it into action. I imagine her as a great tree, drawing down her spiritual purpose through her uppermost branches.”
Through her own revelation, Firestone shares Shar’abi’s story with her readers to encourage her audience to look toward their own inner voice for guidance. She urges women to resist second guessing and plunge into the varied ways of accessing that inner guidance, whether through homemaking, academic study or through social action.
The most powerful aspect of Firestone’s works, beyond the scholarly strength and the accessible language, is her passion for her message. Without hesitation, Firestone shares the beauty of her own revelations along with a desire to reach others. The potent imagery that shines from Firestone’s characters allows the readers to experience both the human aspects and the divine voices within each of the Sages. This allows readers to envision a world where they all have the possibility for a sage-like existence.
Rabbi Firestone writes, teaches and lectures to people who have searched like she herself has searched. She calls out to the disenfranchised, those who have turned away from Judaism in search of something better but not yet having found it. Her books and lectures urge others to find their way home, explaining how many different and relevant ways there are to make Judaism real.
As she says to them, “come back and bring your truth with you.”