In screening films for JOFA’s upcoming Film Festival, I watched many films that are conversation-starters. While some of the films are mostly for fun (a great one about going on a wrong blind date), many prompt deeper questions that leave you talking long after the credits have rolled. I continue to think about the following two issues:

How do we negotiate between our personal needs and halakhic mandates? More specifically, would you do something that you know will make you absolutely miserable because some interpret the halakha to say you must? Could we not find an interpretation in order to spare someone suffering? Would such an interpretation be more available with more women serving as halakhic decisors? In watching the movie Shira, in which a woman has five daughters and wants to wait before having another child, but her husband says no, I was left wondering. Would a woman trying to advise her have better understood her suffering? I was moved by her suffering, her husband does not seem to understand it.

What is the best approach to making change in our communities- from within or from without? In a powerful film about a woman seeking change in a mosque, I saw many parallels to life in Orthodox synagogues (balconies for women, attire expectations, etc.). How do we make our communities great places for women? I have been interested for a long time in synagogue change and creating welcoming communities, and this film pushes me to think about how Orthodox synagogues can help women feel that the synagogue is ours too. Especially as we watch the activity across an often-high mechitza.