Passover 2017: Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Women in the Passover Story

Illumination from the Rylands Haggadah in the John Rylands Library in Manchester

Passover 2017 will begin at sundown, Monday, April 10, 2017.  For those of you not familiar with Pesach, here is a short description from Judaism 101

The name "Pesach" (PAY-sahch, with a "ch" as in the Scottish "loch") comes from the Hebrew root Pei-Samekh-Cheit Pei-Samekh-Cheit (in Hebrew), meaning to pass through, to pass over, to exempt or to spare. It refers to the fact that G-d "passed over" the houses of the Jews when he was slaying the firstborn of Egypt. In English, the holiday is known as Passover.

 Right now there is probably cleaning and preparation going on in my readers' homes.  Last year, I found this essay by Ruth Bader Ginsburg after Passover, so I wanted to share it now, ahead of time, so you can read it and decide if you want to add it to your Seder. Here is an introduction from Dara Lind at Vox: 

In the version of the Torah story that people generally read aloud during Passover, the two main characters — and really, the only two who even get names — are men: Moses and Pharaoh.

But Ginsburg (and her co-author, Lauren Holtzblatt, who's a rabbi at Adas Israel in Washington, DC) focus on the role of "five brave women" who played an important role in the story — Moses's mother and sister; two midwives who refused Pharaoh's orders to kill Jewish babies; and Pharaoh's daughter, who rescued and adopted Moses

The original essay, The Heroic And Visionary Women Of Passover, was published by the American Jewish World Service. You can also download it here.  Download Ginsberg Passover

Where I found it, 2016: Vox