SOCIAL AND SPIRITUAL RECONSTRUCTION OF SELF WITHIN A FEMINIST JEWISH-COMMUNITY

In recent decades, there has been an enormous burst of spiritual energ y and creativity among Jewish women. Women have been gathering in a va riety of communal forms, some spontaneously generated circles and othe r more committed long term groups, to create Jewish-feminist ritual, l iturgy and theology. The activism, vision, writings, music, poetry and dance of these woman has begun to transform contemporary Judaism. Bas ed on the author's experience in a group that has been meeting for 12 years called B'not Esh, she reflects on how the self can be sanctified , enlarged and at the same time increasingly differentiated over time, through participation in Jewish feminist ritual and community.