Klitsner comes from a modern Orthodox background: she grew up in Pennsylvania with her parents and two sisters. Because her father suffered from a debilitating illness, the women of the family conducted all the household rituals. This made for difficulties when she attended a more religiously strict Beis Ya’acov high school.“I heard many negative comments about the “feminists” – those women of questionable motives who took on Jewish ritual for reasons other than the sake of heaven. These attitudes were at odds with my home experiences and caused a confusing sense of cognitive dissonance within me, which remained for many years.”“But I believe that any thinking person – no matter how religious – goes through many incarnations, much questioning and developing before arriving at a philosophical resting place. As long as I live, I will attempt to evolve religiously. My book calls for regular questioning of assumptions and openness to revising conclusions. We all live with subversive sequels of many sorts.”Klitsner made aliya in 1979 and lives with her husband and family in Jerusalem. She credits both her teachers and her students with encouraging and enriching her ideas, readily acknowledging a particular debt to the late Bible scholar Professor Nehama Leibowitz.“Nehama gave me a foundation for systematic Bible study that lies at the core of all of my learning and all of my teaching,” she said. “In addition, she taught me that a passion for the material and a good sense of humor are unparalleled tools for a teacher to possess in motivating students to engage with the biblical text.”Students at Pardes tend not to have much prior knowledge of Judaism, but Klitsner finds that the Biblical texts are an unfailing and dynamic source of inspiration. “Despite people’s limited experience with classic Jewish texts and despite their lack of Hebrew skills, when placed directly in front of a text – even in translation – they will invariably intuit the outstanding issues and problems raised by the text as well as most of the responses offered by commentators throughout the centuries,” notes their proud teacher.One of the themes of Subversive Sequels in the Bible is the radical change that the image of women undergoes. From being fairly passive at first, women assume greater dominance as time goes on. Klitsner describes Hannah as the epitome of many of the women in the Bible, and that she (with Elkanah her husband) overturn many of the earlier accounts of women and couples in the Bible.This is possible because “God, too, has embarked on a series of reversals since the Garden of Eden.”In our interview, Klitsner regrets that the reality of the text has not influenced religious education.“Biblical woman is still presented in monolithic terms – a silent enabler, content to occupy the background of events, seeking motherhood as a sole form of self-expression – and that monolith is presented as a model for emulation. In addition to being an affront to modern women, this approach is an affront to the Bible and its multifaceted portrayal of woman.”“In the end result,” she adds, “biblical woman is as capable and as complex as biblical man.” “In my chapters about women, I have attempted to demonstrate God’s changing responses to women, granting them greater equality and greater access to the divine. I understand these changes to reflect nothing less than a call to humanity to do the same.”This dynamic view of the Bible extends to God. Klitsner is careful to distinguish between the biblical character of God and “the transcendent God, whose essence we cannot know.” But she notes that the Torah, which speaks in human language, “translates the character of God into human terms that the human reader can comprehend and seek to emulate.” And the Bible does depict God as changing in response to circumstance.Before the Flood, God declares that human nature is inherently evil: therefore humanity must perish. After the Flood, God has not changed His view of human nature, but He has changed His mind about humanity: it will never be entirely wiped out.“What is the point of the Bible’s depiction of God as changing?” asks Klitsner. “One could view the change as weakness, or conversely, as a model of great strength; this God is worthy of emulation. For me, God’s changing character provides one of the Bible’s most potent messages, that we are called upon to emulate God – not only in God’s mercy, but in God’s dynamic response to a changing reality.”And even her own readings are subject to constant change, to her wonder and delight.“It’s the 101st time you read [the biblical text] that you suddenly see something there that wasn’t there before. That’s the power of the Bible.”
The dynamic Bible
Judy Klitsner’s book on the Bible calls for questioning assumptions and revising conclusions.
Klitsner comes from a modern Orthodox background: she grew up in Pennsylvania with her parents and two sisters. Because her father suffered from a debilitating illness, the women of the family conducted all the household rituals. This made for difficulties when she attended a more religiously strict Beis Ya’acov high school.“I heard many negative comments about the “feminists” – those women of questionable motives who took on Jewish ritual for reasons other than the sake of heaven. These attitudes were at odds with my home experiences and caused a confusing sense of cognitive dissonance within me, which remained for many years.”“But I believe that any thinking person – no matter how religious – goes through many incarnations, much questioning and developing before arriving at a philosophical resting place. As long as I live, I will attempt to evolve religiously. My book calls for regular questioning of assumptions and openness to revising conclusions. We all live with subversive sequels of many sorts.”Klitsner made aliya in 1979 and lives with her husband and family in Jerusalem. She credits both her teachers and her students with encouraging and enriching her ideas, readily acknowledging a particular debt to the late Bible scholar Professor Nehama Leibowitz.“Nehama gave me a foundation for systematic Bible study that lies at the core of all of my learning and all of my teaching,” she said. “In addition, she taught me that a passion for the material and a good sense of humor are unparalleled tools for a teacher to possess in motivating students to engage with the biblical text.”Students at Pardes tend not to have much prior knowledge of Judaism, but Klitsner finds that the Biblical texts are an unfailing and dynamic source of inspiration. “Despite people’s limited experience with classic Jewish texts and despite their lack of Hebrew skills, when placed directly in front of a text – even in translation – they will invariably intuit the outstanding issues and problems raised by the text as well as most of the responses offered by commentators throughout the centuries,” notes their proud teacher.One of the themes of Subversive Sequels in the Bible is the radical change that the image of women undergoes. From being fairly passive at first, women assume greater dominance as time goes on. Klitsner describes Hannah as the epitome of many of the women in the Bible, and that she (with Elkanah her husband) overturn many of the earlier accounts of women and couples in the Bible.This is possible because “God, too, has embarked on a series of reversals since the Garden of Eden.”In our interview, Klitsner regrets that the reality of the text has not influenced religious education.“Biblical woman is still presented in monolithic terms – a silent enabler, content to occupy the background of events, seeking motherhood as a sole form of self-expression – and that monolith is presented as a model for emulation. In addition to being an affront to modern women, this approach is an affront to the Bible and its multifaceted portrayal of woman.”“In the end result,” she adds, “biblical woman is as capable and as complex as biblical man.” “In my chapters about women, I have attempted to demonstrate God’s changing responses to women, granting them greater equality and greater access to the divine. I understand these changes to reflect nothing less than a call to humanity to do the same.”This dynamic view of the Bible extends to God. Klitsner is careful to distinguish between the biblical character of God and “the transcendent God, whose essence we cannot know.” But she notes that the Torah, which speaks in human language, “translates the character of God into human terms that the human reader can comprehend and seek to emulate.” And the Bible does depict God as changing in response to circumstance.Before the Flood, God declares that human nature is inherently evil: therefore humanity must perish. After the Flood, God has not changed His view of human nature, but He has changed His mind about humanity: it will never be entirely wiped out.“What is the point of the Bible’s depiction of God as changing?” asks Klitsner. “One could view the change as weakness, or conversely, as a model of great strength; this God is worthy of emulation. For me, God’s changing character provides one of the Bible’s most potent messages, that we are called upon to emulate God – not only in God’s mercy, but in God’s dynamic response to a changing reality.”And even her own readings are subject to constant change, to her wonder and delight.“It’s the 101st time you read [the biblical text] that you suddenly see something there that wasn’t there before. That’s the power of the Bible.”