I’ve heard it said

That people come into our lives

For a reason

Bringing something we must learn…

—“For Good,” from Wicked.

In the weeks leading up to my ordination from Yeshivat Maharat—the first Orthodox institution in America to ordain women as rabbis—my daughter was watching the film version of Wicked on repeat. And while the first film only covers the first half of the Broadway musical, the stunning duet “For Good,” from the latter part of the Broadway show and for which the second film is named, became stuck in my head. Knowing that they must part ways, the unlikely beloved friends Glinda and Elphaba proclaim their melodious gratitude for each other and acknowledge how they each have grown and changed “for good” as a result— both permanently and for the better. As music so often does, it helped me realize that this was how I feel about the incredible, smart, accomplished women with whom I had the honour to study at Maharat, and most especially my ḥevruta, my study partner, Rabbi Elisha Gechter.

Before the public ordination, alongside their dearest friends and family, each graduate gathers with her teachers and examiners for a small kelaf-signing ceremony. This happens after her examiners sign the parchment diploma, the license that marks her as a teacher and poseket, a decisor of Jewish law. Each ḥevruta honours the woman who has been her study partner, thought companion, and fellow traveller through three years of Torah and life.

At our kelaf-signing ceremony, I likened Elisha and myself to the unlikely........

© Canadian Jewish News