Customer Reviews

Life on the Fringes: A Feminist Journey Towards Traditional Rabbinic Ordination

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Haviva Ner-David is living a life which is entirely informed by her understanding of her spirituality. How inspiring this is, whenever someone is able to write a fluent, beautiful book which depicts such a shining achievement. But this book is even better, because her spiritual path is on the border between traditional Judaism and modernism. This precarious journey walks straight through the most important questions a Jewish woman can ask herself.

This is a starkly honest book, which shows her struggles and her triumphs. The prose is clean and direct. The power of this book comes from the power of the author's heart: she writes with love of the life she is trying to lead, and of the conflicts she faces, within herself and with the world around her. This woman wrestles with herself, on the pages of this book. And she makes her world vivid enough that the reader can enter, can understand how she got where she is.

Once I started reading, I could not stop until I finished. Sleep on one night seemed less important than soaking up these words.

This is a book I could never before have read with an open mind.

Fifteen years ago, I'd have dismissed Ner-David as an apologist for Orthodoxy, trying to cram modern sensibilities into a hopelessly outdated mold. Ten years ago, during my own tumultuous "return," I'd have sneered at her willingness to entertain thoughts of mixed seating, uncovered hair and egalitarian prayer.

It's only now, I think, that I'm ready to hear the honest questions Ner-David and others like her are asking and to understand that the Judaism we share is resilient enough to answer to -- and thrive from -- challenge and diversity.

Ner-David's narrative, interwoven with threads dealing with her own physical frailty, tells a story not of a senseless rebellion against Orthodoxy but of a young woman's awakening to a deeper, more genuine love of her tradition.

I wish Ms Ner-David a Yasher Kocheich -- may she never stop asking.

For the beginner or the advanced scholar, this book offers a fresh and sometimes revolutionary viewpoint on the balance between tradition and modernity. While this book focuses on Jewish law and culture, also very relevant for anyone struggling with spirituality and modern life.

I could not put this book down, a rare feat for a mother of a 2-year old. Ner-David is personal, engaging insightful and intelligent. Reading the book is like meeting a friend. She is so honest about her religious struggles that one immediately becomes a fellow wrestler. A perfect blend of scholarly insight and personal journey.

this is a great book. it combines a memoir style with scholarly research and notes. ner-david grew up orthodox but rebelled during her teen years, secretly breaking shabbat laws, for example. in college she became observant again, but only after beginning a struggle (that she still continues) to reconcile her feminist and pluralist opinions with traditional judaism. she has a very strong personality and is dedicated to orthodoxy as well as feminism. the book is divided into chapters based on a topic: marriage, torah, law, etc, all consisting of scholarly discussions combined with ner-david's life and personality. it's very encouraging to find a woman like this who feels that it's possible to be feminist and religious.

Ner David's story of struggling to reconcile orthodox Judaism and feminism without compromising either is inspiring. She uses both anecdote and textual evidence to support her positions. Life on the Fringes is both informative and fascinating.

This is a serious, reflective work on a modern woman's journey to find equality within traditional [read Orthodox] Judaism. The author lives in Israel, where the secular and religious world are much more polarized than in her native USA. Each chapter focuses on one issue - Halakhah, Mikveh, Torah, God - and her efforts to integrate an egalitarian practice in her daily life. A thoughtful work for readers who are serious about women's roles in traditional Judaism.

This fabolous book is an private view into the world of an orthodox feminist that should be required reading for all women and men especially Jewish girls in Jewish day schools who have questions about feminism and how to still be observantly Jewish but don't know who to turn to. I can't wait until my daughter is old enough to read this book. Robin Davina Meyerson, author of A Son Returns; True Stories of Serendipity and Divine Intervention

A huge Yasher Koach to Haviva Ner David on her fantastic exploration of post-denominational feminist Judiaism. This is a wonderful book for anyone struggling with their own place within the traditional Jewish community. I am so glad to have read this book.

I read this book as part of a series on Jewish women pioneers in the rabbinate for my Jewish Renewal women's havurah. We liked the book, and respected Ner-David's commitment and fighting spirit in her pursuit of Orthodox ordination. She writes beautifully and perceptively about spirituality, her stormy adolescence, and her gradual evolution into a female Orthodox rabbinical student.

But as mostly non-Orthodox Jewish feminists, we were sometimes baffled by her persistence in trying to gain acceptance from an Orthodox community that seemed to mostly want her gone and was frequently very cruel to her.

I kept thinking --- "why doesn't she just get ordained as a Conservative rabbi? why throw herself against a brick wall?" Also, the parts of the book where she did technical analyses of the Orthodox laws of family purity, the mikveh, male rabbinical control of Orthodox women's lives, etc. were tedious and baffling for non-Orthodox feminists --- I kept thinking "this stuff is really offensively medieval --- why do you put up with it in the 21st century?"

But --- that's just my bias. The Orthodox feminists (see the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance at www.jofa.org) have built a strong and viable women's movement of their own, and as an Orthodox feminist, Ner-David commands my respect for her willingness to stay and fight on her own turf, and we share a passionate commitment to Jewish prayer and spirituality.