After decades of passively and painfully watching men dance in circles with Torah scrolls on Simchat Torah, I had an epiphany.
Surely there must be a way for women to engage with the Torah on Simchat Torah that wouldn’t necessitate a fight for access to a Torah scroll, I thought.
And that’s how the Parsha Slam was born.
What is Parsha Slam?
I initiated the Parsha Slam in 2015 while living in Ma’aleh Adumim. Modeled on the tradition of the Poetry Slam, which is a performance-based, live poetry event, the idea behind the Parsha Slam is deceptively simple.
I asked English-speaking women in Ma’aleh Adumim to pick one or two of the 54 weekly Torah portions and prepare 60-second summaries or thoughts based on them. “We’ll get together and go through the entire Chumash (Five Books of Moses) in one event,” I wrote on the original promotional messages.
At first, there was some resistance to the name. Some people thought it was disrespectful to the Torah to refer to the event as a “slam.” Another snag was that some participants didn’t quite understand that the 60-second-per-parsha limit was a firm boundary; some of the early participants went way overtime.
Nevertheless, the first Parsha Slam, held on October 4, 2015, in the living room of Ma’ale Adumim resident Dana Schkolnik, created a sufficient buzz that the event still takes place there every year on Simchat Torah.
My husband and I relocated from Ma’aleh Adumim to Efrat a few months before the COVID pandemic hit. After all the COVID restrictions were lifted, I introduced the Parsha Slam idea to the English-speaking women of Efrat.
They loved the idea but asked that it not be held on Simchat Torah itself. That’s how the annual Women’s Parsha Slam in Efrat came to be held on Hoshana Raba, when there is a mystical custom to learn Torah all night.
“I just love being part of a great happening on Hoshana Raba night, with lots of women and friendly faces and going through the whole Torah in one sitting in such a fun way. Anyone can prepare one minute. No stress!” remarked Efrat participant Cooki Maisel.
The Parsha Slam has evolved from one-minute parsha summaries. While the majority of participants share a straightforward thought from the parsha, some women recite rhymes, use props or visual aids, or dress in costume. Since its establishment in Efrat on Hoshana Raba, on which there are no yom tov restrictions, the Efrat Parsha Slam has included at least one parsha-related song by a professional female singer.
In 2023, the Efrat Parsha Slam was held less than 36 hours before the Oct. 7 war broke out. In one of the most emotional presentations to date, last year Efrat resident Tania Cohen chose the Torah portion of “Shemot,” which means “names,” and speed-read the names of the nearly 100 hostages who were still in captivity.
Reflecting on her participation in the Parsha Slam, Caren Greenberg of Efrat noted, “Every aspect of participating in the Parsha Slam takes me way out of my comfort zone. From start to finish, I’m challenged: choosing a parsha with an idea I’d like to know more about, looking up sources, deciding on a direction, and writing something which will ultimately get edited numerous times until it’s been condensed into a 60-second delivery. And then, of course, the delivery itself.
“I’ve participated every year, and, after [Simchat Torah], I will already be on the lookout for next year’s topic.”
Lauren Adilev of Kiryat Arba commented, “The annual Parsha Slam is a meaningful yet enjoyable way to finish the intense period of Elul and the Tishrei holidays. I love to teach and learn Torah; the [Parsha Slam] gives me the opportunity to do both in a warm atmosphere with women I’ve known for 20 years. It’s great to catch up and end the holidays in high spirits and friendship.”
First-time participant Devorah Ahava Gerzoff of Efrat had this to say: “I attended the Parsha Slam last year and learned that Torah can be fun! I’m returning this year for the second time as a participant. I am a fairly recent olah and love to tell friends back in New Jersey how incredibly enlightening it is and how blessed I feel to be living in the Holy Land!”
AFTER I left Ma’aleh Adumim, my friends and former neighbors Annie Orenstein and Joan Gittel Levin took on the task of organizing the Parsha Slam and moved the Ma’aleh Adumim event to Simchat Torah afternoon.
“I love it so much! As someone who has been organizing open mics for women in the arts for many years, this is an opportunity to give women the mic and share their love and passion for Torah.
“It’s a women’s space. It’s empowering [to see that] not only teachers can teach. Everybody can teach. Everybody can learn from one another. You hear from people in the community that you don’t [usually] talk to, and you learn from them. It’s like a give-and-take. One gets up to give, and the others listen. Everyone can be seen and heard. No one is better than the next. We are all equals in giving Torah and learning Torah.
“It’s very, very uplifting. It’s very spiritual.
“Also, because we do it on Simchat Torah itself in the afternoon, it’s an extra added honor for taking ownership of the Torah as women who are also dedicated lifelong learners,” Orenstein reflected.
Longtime participant Toby Weiss of Ma’aleh Adumim noted, “We are indebted to Rivkah Adler for initiating the Parsha Slam in Ma’ale Adumim.
“I love how you can go through the entire Torah in one sitting, enjoying hearing one-minute words of wisdom from many individuals in the community, which include succinct parsha summaries or a few points of interest, or life lessons, or poems and sometimes jokes.”
This Simchat Torah marked the 11th annual Parsha Slam for English-speaking women in Ma’aleh Adumim. A few times, the Hebrew-speaking women of Ma’aleh Adumim have organized their own Parsha Slam on Shavuot.
Last year, a third community with a large English-speaking population held its first Parsha Slam.
“The Parsha Slam was something that was introduced to me by my dear friend Rivkah Lambert Adler. I drove to Efrat from Ramat Beit Shemesh the first time to attend, and I loved it! It was just so much fun to see all the women gathered together, so enthusiastic to share what they knew about Torah, in all the different, creative ways. So I went two years in a row and decided to start it myself in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
“It was very well received here, and people are looking forward to attending again. It’s just a great way to get women together. It’s very unifying, and it’s very uplifting and wonderful to learn Torah together in such a lively and uplifting space,” Yehudis Schamroth, Parsha Slam organizer in Ramat Beit Shemesh, explained.
I’m incredibly grateful that now women in three different communities participate in the Parsha Slam with so much enthusiasm and creativity.
Perhaps my favorite part of the Parsha Slam is knowing that beyond the event itself, women who never saw themselves as Torah teachers or public speakers take the mic and share. I’m especially proud that the Parsha Slam helps make that happen.
If you’d like advice about organizing a Parsha Slam in your community, feel free to contact me at rivkah@kotevet.com.
The writer is a freelance journalist and expert on the non-Jewish awakening to Torah happening in our day. She is the editor of three books on the topic: Ten from the Nations; Lighting Up the Nations; and Adrift among the Nations.