Rabbi Natasha Mann

  The Golem, the Virgin Bride, and the Beautiful Captive  Parashat Ki Teitzei           In the early 1970s, when she was still identifying as an Orthodox Jew, now-Rabbi Rachel Adler published a trailblazing article entitled: “The Jew Who Wasn’t There: Halacha and the Jewish Woman”. I was inspired to reread this recently, after going to see the Barbie Movie, which is a very normal reaction, thank you.           Rachel Adler’s article was about how halakhah, the Jewish legal framework, has largely been enacted upon women throughout history; that many mitzvot aimed at women were really about their relationships with men and children rather than their relationships with God. It’s a good article and well worth reading if you haven’t come across it. She was clearly thirsty for a halakhic framework that really saw her as a full member of the Jewish community and participant in the Jewish story. And she concludes the article ...

This week we saw the beginning of the newest trial against R&B superstar R Kelly. It’s an awful and fascinating case for a few reasons. One of those reasons is that it was completely apparent that R Kelly was guilty thirteen years ago. I’m not going to name his crimes explicitly from the bimah because they are too awful to put into words in a holy space, but if you don’t know what they are, the fact that I won’t name them probably tells you something. The primary reason that we know that R Kelly is guilty of at least some of the accusations against him is because he committed those crimes on tape, and that tape was leaked to the public. But he got away with it thirteen years ago, and according to numerous accusers, he continued his abuse. The story of R Kelly is really, I think, the case study in Cancel Culture.  Allow me to explain. R Kelly largely got away with his crimes because of two factors: the first being R Kelly’s fame, fortune, and - I won’t underplay this - his i...

One of the many strange experiences of this period of time, from my perspective as a rabbi, has been a hold on conversion rituals. While the Beit Din has been able to gather online to hold interviews, conversion candidates have been in a kind of no-man’s-land as we’ve waited to be able to do mikveh again. After almost six months of this, the mikveh was finally open again yesterday, and I was honoured to be able to be on the Beit Din witnessing people entering into the Israelite community.  It is probably no wonder, then, that I’ve been thinking about the Book of Ruth, the biblical book understood to depict a story of conversion into the Jewish people. It is a beautiful tale of love, and loss, and loyalty. And it is also a deeply strange text, largely due to its relationship with this week’s Torah portion. In our parashah, just a few minutes ago, we read the following verse (Deuteronomy 23:4): לֹֽא־יָבֹ֧א עַמּוֹנִ֛י וּמוֹאָבִ֖י בִּקְהַ֣ל יְהוָ֑ה גַּ֚ם דּ֣וֹר עֲשִׂירִ֔י לֹא־יָבֹ֥א לָ...