Author Archives

• The Holy of Holies and the Umbilical Cord: The Evolution of a Ritual Object by Jill Hammer

  By Jill Hammer on November 29, 2019 • ( 6 )

  

  In the Jewish calendar, we’re just past the holiday season—the High Holidays, the harvest festival of Sukkot, and the concluding festival of Simchat Torah when the last verses of the Torah are read and the first verses are started again…. Read More ›

• The Prophetess: Greta Thunberg, Global Warming, and the Legacy of Prophecy in Our Own Day by Jill Hammer

  By Jill Hammer on September 24, 2019 • ( 6 )

  

  My community and many others have been watching in awe as Greta Thunberg makes waves around the world—her lone climate change protest in Sweden growing in a single year into a climate strike with millions of demonstrators around the world. … Read More ›

• Sappho’s Poems as an Ethos for Women’s Ritual by Jill Hammer

  By Jill Hammer on July 23, 2019 • ( 15 )

  

  For by my side you put on many wreaths of roses and garlands of flowers around your soft neck   and with precious and royal perfume you anointed yourself.   On soft beds you satisfied your passion.   And there… Read More ›

• Spring Blossoming: The Holy Orchard as Goddess by Jill Hammer

  By Jill Hammer on May 28, 2019 • ( 12 )

  

  Every year when the cherries, pears, plums, and apple trees begin to bloom, I go out walking.  I look for every spot in my vicinity where white and pink blossoms are blooming in exquisite profusion like foam on an ocean…. Read More ›

• Tree of Life: The Festival of the Trees in an Age of Treefall by Jill Hammer

  By Jill Hammer on January 22, 2019 • ( 16 )

  

  Almost every day, I walk in Central Park.  There are certain trees there I’ve come to know: the gnarled cherry trees by the reservoir, the bending willows and tall bald cypress by the pond, the sycamores that drop their bark… Read More ›

• Jewish Hair, Witch Hair, and the Problem of Identity by Jill Hammer

  By Jill Hammer on November 27, 2018 • ( 13 )

  

  This is a time of increased vulnerability for many minority populations in the United States: people of color, immigrants, LGBT people, native peoples. The policies and rhetoric of the current administration have left all these groups exposed to hostility.  Women… Read More ›

• The Great Seal: Yom Kippur and The Ancient Practice of Making Incantation Bowls by Jill Hammer

  By Jill Hammer on September 29, 2018 • ( 17 )

  

  The liturgy of Yom Kippur states: “On Rosh haShanah it is written, on Yom Kippur it is sealed: who will live and who will die, who by fire and who by water…”  This prayer refers to a legend mentioned in… Read More ›

• The Three Mothers: Feminine Elements and the Early Kabbalah by Jill Hammer

  By Jill Hammer on May 22, 2018 • ( 14 )

  

  For over ten years, I’ve been teaching a work of early Jewish mysticism known as Sefer Yetzirah, or the Book of Creation.  There are widely differing opinions on the book’s origin and dating, but many scholars date it to the… Read More ›

• Crowding into the Spirit World: Reclaiming a Metaphysics of Multiplicity by Jill Hammer

  By Jill Hammer on March 29, 2018 • ( 14 )

  

  A number of years ago, I had the opportunity to take a class with Chava Weissler, a scholar at Lehigh University who studies Jewish history, community, and sacred practices– particularly those practices related to women.  My fellow students in the… Read More ›

• Michal the Priestess: Midrash, Multiplicity, and the Tales of King David by Jill Hammer

  By Jill Hammer on January 23, 2018 • ( 12 )

  

  When I was in my late teens, I discovered midrash: the Jewish exegetical process by which commentators weave creative and additive interpretations into the sacred text.  Midrash comes from the word “to ask,” “to seek,” or “to divine.” For example,… Read More ›

• Jewish Folklore and Women’s Clothing: When Things are the Text by Jill Hammer

  By Jill Hammer on November 28, 2017 • ( 13 )

  

  Two weekends ago, I had the pleasure of visiting the Jewish Museum on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.  The Jewish Museum has long been a favorite museum for me.  My wife and I took our daughter to this particular exhibit because… Read More ›

• The Thirteen Attributes of Shekhinah: A Prayer for the High Holidays by Jill Hammer

  By Jill Hammer on September 29, 2017 • ( 9 )

  

  On Rosh haShanah and Yom Kippur (the Jewish New Year and the Day of Atonement), and on the festivals throughout the year, traditional Jewish liturgy includes the Thirteen Attributes of the Divine. Exodus 34:6-7 is the first to mention these… Read More ›

• Earth Dreaming, Water Dreaming: How Elemental Dreams Offer Healing for the Earth and Us by Jill Hammer

  By Jill Hammer on May 23, 2017 • ( 7 )

  

  I once dreamed I was giving a lecture on a spiritual philosophy called magmatheism.  The literal meaning, I thought when I awoke, would be something like “belief in the divinity of molten rock.”  I had the sense this dream was… Read More ›

• Miriam the Prophetess as Guardian and Healer by Jill Hammer

  By Jill Hammer on March 29, 2017 • ( 14 )

  

  The biblical traditions of Miriam the prophetess have captured the imaginations of Bible-readers throughout the ages.  Miriam, Moses’ sister, watches over Moses in his cradle (Exodus 2), and leads the Hebrew women in dance at the shore of the Sea… Read More ›

• Meeting Phrike: Feminist Theology and the Experience of Horror by Jill Hammer

  By Jill Hammer on January 24, 2017 • ( 19 )

  

  Myself, I saw the numb pools amidst the shadows; myself, the wan gods and night in very truth.  My frozen blood stood still and clogged my veins.  Forth leaped a savage cohort… Then grim Erinys (Vengeance) shrieked, and blind Furor… Read More ›

• Judaism, Feminism, and The Twoness of Creation by Jill Hammer

  By Jill Hammer on November 22, 2016 • ( 6 )

  

  Rabbi Amorai said: “Where is the garden of Eden:  He answered himself: “In the earth.” Sefer haBahir, 12th century Provence For many liberal Jews, the phrase “tikkun olam” has been an important rallying cry.  The phrase is often used as… Read More ›

• The Red Thread, the Red Heifer, and Red Ritual by Jill Hammer

  By Jill Hammer on September 18, 2016 • ( 8 )

  

  There is an old Jewish custom to use a red thread, tied around a bedpost or a child’s wrist, to keep away demons.  In particular, the red thread is said to keep away Lilith, the female demon who steals children. … Read More ›

• Stealing the Yarn: Jewish Women and the Art of Feminist Dreaming (Part 2) by Jill Hammer

  By Jill Hammer on December 29, 2015 • ( 8 )

  

  In my last post, I discussed the uses of dreamwork for Jewish women who are uncovering their own spiritual language. The protagonists of recorded Jewish dreams, from Joseph to the dream interpreters of the Talmud to the kabbalists, tend to… Read More ›

• Entering The Cave: Jewish Women and the Art of Feminist Dreaming (Part 1) by Jill Hammer

  By Jill Hammer on December 20, 2015 • ( 9 )

  

  Dreams are my window on my wildest self. They are also a way to observe the conflicts within, and therefore they are a feminist practice, teaching me about my relationship to power, gentleness, love, and brokenness. Claiming my dreams is… Read More ›

• Embracing the Hebrew Priestess by Jill Hammer

  By Jill Hammer on September 17, 2015 • ( 12 )

  

  Even after I was ordained as a rabbi, I longed to be a priestess. The spiritual leadership I wanted most was less about leading traditional Torah study and prayer (though I’d done plenty of that) and more about immersing in… Read More ›

• Shekhinah by Rabbi Jill Hammer

  By Jill Hammer on June 10, 2013 • ( 12 )

  

  I invite you to encounter Her as I encountered Her— with mystery, and with surprise. The Sabbath night is the joy of the Queen with the King, and their uniting… Scholars who know this secret are intimate with their wives… Read More ›