I’m now reading Dani Shapiro’s memoir, Devotion. Shapiro grew up in an Orthodox family, but left religion behind long ago. It was the harshness of life that compelled her, as an adult, to explore anew the world of spirituality generally and Judaism specifically. 9/11 brought a new anxiety into her life: How can one live with global uncertainty? Giving birth to a sick child (now recovered) brought pain into her life: How can one cope with fear and anticipation of loss? Together these questions–inescapably collective and tragically personal–sent her exploring spiritual pathways for sitting with the deep instability at the core of human experience.

The stories of these two women represent to me two places that the spiritual quest can begin: in wonder and in fear. They also represent two modalities of engaging spirituality: through mystical intuition and through raw vulnerability. Impelled from within or compelled from without, these women opened themselves up to the vastness of the Jewish tradition and there they found inklings of a Godly voice waiting to meet them.

Though these stories come from beyond the Orthodox world, they remind all of us that we might ask for more out of our religious lives: not just to orient our behaviors, but to guide us toward a more reflective and more grounded existence. My hope is that women of all stripes can bring this awareness back into the center of our Jewish world.