A few weeks ago we attended the Society Hill Synagogue in Philadelphia. Rabbi Avi Winokur said something that stuck with me. You remember that the daughters of Zelophechad had no brothers, so they inherited the land that would have been their father’s … and then the rest of their tribe complained they might lose some tribal land, so the girls had to marry within the tribe? Well, some people see this as a brief glimmer of equal rights snuffed out by the clamor of the male chauvinists, but Rabbi Winokur quoted a reliably feminist rabbi who said (and I paraphrase): “Sure, we all have a right to freedom, but we also have a responsibility to be, well, responsible. So freedom has to have limits.” Now, here’s the wise thing Rabbi Winokur said: if a traditional rabbi had said the same thing–one who wouldn’t accept a radical feminist rabbi as a rabbi–would we have accepted it, or do we mistakenly consider the source instead of the truth of a remark?

I should be able to learn from everybody, even someone who is stupid and mean.

Right?