A mother’s work is never done. Neither is a rabbi’s. Here, women rabbis explain how they balance two sets of overwhelming obligations and teach their communities to shift their expectations of their rabbis.

Women rabbis consider whether women’s ordination is part of the natural evolution of their religion or a radical transformation that could revitalize Judaism.

What’s a nice girl like you doing in a pulpit like this? For some women rabbis, the spark was ignited early. For others, the path to rabbinical school meant a long, winding path through crises of faith, career shifts, and in one case, a literal road trip.

It takes courage and vision to become the first of your kind, to carve out a place for yourself when there is no model to follow. Here, rabbis share what it means to challenge the norm, offering the wisdom that comes from being on the fringes.

In taking on new roles in Jewish public life, women rabbis have the opportunity to create new models of leadership and success. From the pulpit to the floor of Parliament, women rabbis serve as examples and offer insights that are reshaping our careers, our communities, and even our nations.

Carving out a place for themselves in the Jewish community, women rabbis see the tradition from a new angle. From creating rituals for uniquely female experiences to exploring the role of technology in prayer, they have asked questions and proposed innovations that have transformed twenty-first century Jewish spirituality and practice.

Rabbis are usually the ones counseling others through moments of pain and upheaval, but what helps them through their own dark times? These women rabbis reveal not just how they survived, but what they learned that strengthened them in their personal and professional lives.

At their best, rabbis inspire their communities and lead by example, whether that means being on the front lines of battles for social justice or the subtler revolution of encouraging women to raise their voices in the synagogue.

We look to trailblazing rabbis to inspire us—but who inspires them? One rabbi considers her mother’s surprisingly rich and varied life; another was inspired by her spiritual foremother, Regina Jonas; while a third describes the moment when she realized she’d have to completely overhaul the framework her male colleagues used.